Sad News

I only seem to be updating this blog at the moment when I'm either not busy or unwell. I hope this isn't going to be the case all the time, & I'll try and keep up to posting a bit more regularly....

Unfortunately my first entry in ages relates to sad news. A friend of mine died last Monday. She had been suffering from cancer for some time, and, whilst it wasn't totally unexpected, it's still rather unsettling as Ruth was only 45. I'd known her since the early 80's when we were both students. She was the girlfriend - and later wife - of another friend who I was at school with. The funeral is on Wednesday in York. Please remember Ruth in your prayers, and also Stephen her husband and their daughter Sarah.

I've also just found out about the death of I priest last November who I knew back in the early 1990's. Hegumen Gregory [Woolfenden], an Orthodox monk who was parish priest of St Mary’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church, New Britain, Connecticut (USA). I first met him when he was still Fr Graham, a catholic priest of the Diocese of Liverpool, who had bi-ritual faculties, and was therefore able to serve Byzantine Catholic Liturgies as well as Latin Rite Mass. We met several times in Liverpool, usually at the Metropolitan Cathedral, which was host to a number of Byzantine Liturgies at that time. After he left the area and moved to Oxford, we gradually lost touch until only fairly recently when we were able to communicate with each other again, thanks to Facebook.

May his memory be Eternal!