Sunday 20 September 2015

St Ann's Youth Art Exhibition . . .

Today saw St Ann's first parish Youth Art Exhibition.


Children of the parish were invited to present a piece of their own art work with a religious theme.

Entries were divided by age group; and certificates, and even prizes, were awarded to those judged to have produced the best art work in their category.

Although entries were open to all children with a connection to the parish, a large proportion of the entries came from pupils at our parish school of St Anne's.

We are very grateful to Mr Donovan  and the staff at St Anne's for encouraging the children in this venture and even to devoting some time in the busy school day for the children to produce their 'masterpieces'.

This is not to say that there weren't also some excellent entries from children in other schools and from children who have moved on to secondary school.

Here is just a selection of the very many entries.  If you'd like to see even more, please have a look at our parish Flickr stream.



























Saturday 5 September 2015

A Visitor from Belarus . . .

We were delighted today to welcome Sister Natalia to St Ann's.  Sister Natalia is a Sister of Mercy attached to the Russian Orthodox Monastery of St Elisabeth in Minsk. The convent currently counts just under 100 nuns and around 300 Sisters of Mercy.

Since its establishment the convent has been caring for 200 orphanage children with psychophysical deficiencies for almost 15 years.

The beautiful craft-work and religious artefacts the Sisters brought with them today are made by recovering addicts in the monastery workshop.  This not only enables the Sisters to raise much-needed funds to support their work with the poor and needy but also provides very beneficial therapy for those whom they seek to help.

Sister Natalia with some of her 'wares'.

 Hand-crafted toys and other items in the local style.
 Some of the many beautiful icons available.


 Gosh, which do I choose . . . ?


Yet more beautiful icons.

You can learn more about this congregation of Nuns and the valuable work they do by visiting their website here.