Feast Day of the Albufeira Oblast

On the edge of the European continent, in the south of Portugal, in the newly created parish of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in honor of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, at the International Christian Spiritual and Cultural Center “Pokrov”, the Orthodox community of Albufeira celebrated its first patronal feast, the Protection of the Most Holy Our Lady Virgin.
The International Christian Spiritual and Cultural Center of Spiritual Culture “Pokrov” with the home church in the name of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God was created by the efforts of the children of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Korsun Diocese, with the blessing of Archpriest John Gerbovetsky, the dean of the churches of Portugal, the Holy Priest of the Holy Virgin of the Blessing of the Holy Priest of the Blessed Virgin of the Holy Virgin and the Blessed Blessed of the Holy Blessing of the Holy Priest of the Blessed Primate of the Holy Blessed Blessing of the Holy Virgin of the Blessed Primate of the Holy Blessed Blessing of the Holy Virgin and the Blessed Virgin of Portugal. Faro. Thanks to his participation and assistance in organizing the new parish, residents of Albufeira and its environs, who are children of the Russian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, have the opportunity to pray together and participate in worship and the Sacraments of the Church in their city.
The leader of the community, with the blessing of His Grace Nestor, Bishop of Korsun, was Archpriest Alexander Torik, a state-of-the-art cleric of the Moscow Diocese, a well-known Orthodox writer, missionary, and the founder of the Orthodox missionary publishing house Flavian Press, and now Founder of the International Christian Center for Spiritual Culture “Pokrovrov” »In Albufeira.
In addition to regular worship in the home church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Pokrov Center’s project includes a wide range of activities that the community hopes to implement, following the example created by our Provost, Father John Gerbovetsky, a spiritual and cultural center in a school near the city of Loulé, and Spiritual and Cultural Center of the Korsun Diocese in Paris.
The Center plans to create a language school with the study of Portuguese, English, Russian and Moldavian languages, for children and adults, a music class (piano, guitar, vocals), a class of visual arts and a photo studio, a children’s theater studio, a library with a video library, and a choreography class.
In addition, the community is preparing to start a number of charity projects to help an orphanage, low-income families of parishioners, for which the creation of a charity group is planned at the Center.
“I have not yet met such obvious God’s help, as here, in my twenty years of my priestly service and experience of ministry in newly built and restored churches in Russia. This God’s grace, as an advance, is given to us in the form of this spiritual center, so that we use it as an opportunity to teach our Orthodox culture and spiritual enlightenment to our multi-ethnic community, ”Father Alexander shares his impressions.
On December 3 of last year, the first Divine Liturgy took place in the building of the future church, which was then a large “hangar” with plastered concrete walls, a current ceiling and partially broken windows.
What this building turned into less than a year, the zeal of the benefactors, the prayers and the work of the parishioners, was impossible to imagine – the walls of all future hotel premises of the Center – the temple, the fraternal refectory, language school and classes for music and visual arts were built and plastered .
The premises of the temple are lined with ceramic tiles, painted, it created the pulpit, choir, sacristy and ponomarskaya, installed electrical equipment for lighting and underfloor heating.
All changes are clearly visible on photos and videos, regularly posted on the Center’s pages in social networks on the Internet.
The feast day was unusually solemn and joyful, the Divine Liturgy was performed in the fraternal co-service of the dean father John and father Alexander in the Russian and Moldavian languages, and about 150 people received communion.
In his congratulatory speech at the end of the Divine Liturgy, Father John congratulated the Albufeira international community on the feast day and wished Father Alexander and the flock of God led by him to help him live according to the Gospel commandments spiritual and cultural activities of the Center “Pokrov”.
His performance was greeted by the grateful attention of the parish and the universal singing of many years. After the service, all those present at the service took part in the fraternal meal.

Post Author: Alexandr

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.