Dear Father Andrew,

Yesterday, on the 24th of June 2016 it was the feast of the Nativity Saint John the Baptist (New Calendar) and I went to the church of Saint George in Dionysos Attica Greece early in the morning to attend the Divine Liturgy. The parish of Saint John was the “garden” that Archimandrite Markos Manolis (of blessed memory) “cultivated” from 1983 until 2010 as parish priest, a spiritual father of hundreds from all over Attica, Greece and beyond, as chairman of the “Orthodoxos Typos” newspaper and as a tireless and vigilant heart and mind that prayed for the salvation of all through daily Divine Liturgies, often making visits to prisoners and the poor and leading many other spiritual struggles.

In that church, while I was chanting as a member of the small parish choir, and just as we had finished matins and begun the Divine Liturgy (I think it was about half past nine local time), I heard one of the older members of our choir and also one of our best family friends saying to us all that the results of the British referendum were published and that the British people had voted to exit the E.U.!

We were all very glad to hear this. Even our friend, Mr Yannis, was very happy to bring us the good news, since he rushed into the church to do this after he had gone out for some reason a few minutes earlier.

Father Andrew, I have “followed” you since 2003 when twitter and other social networks didn’t even exist. Through all these years I have seen so many blessings of our Lord come true in your local Church (Colchester, restoration of Eucharistic Unity with Moscow Patriarchate and many more) and now this!

May God enlighten your steps from now on towards the endless journey to our common salvation!

I ask for your blessing,

Prokopi Evia Greece, where the holy whole-body and wonderworking relic of Saint John the Russian “lives”!

In Christ,

D.