31 October 2023
Dear fellow parishioners of St. Demetrios & St. Nikitas Greek Orthodox Church in Plymouth,
We – the Epitropi of the Church – hope this email reaches you. This is the first email we’ll be sending over the next few months as the Church enters a new phase of planning for our future. We hope you will be happy to receive these occasional emails, but if not, please let us know and we will take you off the mailing list. We also recognise that our mailing list is incomplete, and so hope you’ll pass this onto anyone with an interest in our Church... please ask them to email us and we will add them to the mailing list.
Unfortunately, due to Father Gregory’s deteriorating eyesight, we are soon going to have to employ a new priest. The Epitropi would like to express our great appreciation to Father Gregory and Presbytera Elizabeth for everything they have done to support our Southwest Orthodox communities over these past 30 years. Their dedicated faith, service, guidance, and warm welcome has allowed our parishes in Plymouth, Torquay, and Falmouth to thrive and to grow with Church attendees joining us from around the world, including: Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Croatia, Russia, Romania, Australia, USA, and more recently, Ukraine.
Father Gregory has shepherded our parishes for the past 30 years with great dedication and care of duty. He has not taken any salary for the past 15 years, since he reached pension age of 65. Before then, he took the nominal salary of £8000/year. Due to Fr. Gregory’s generosity, the Church has managed to save the money they would normally have to pay a priest. This has enabled us to care for our church buildings and to manage some savings, which will go towards paying a future priest.
However, as we begin to look for an appropriate successor to Fr. Gregory, we have to face the reality that a new priest will require a proper salary (even if we are lucky enough to find someone willing to accept a reduced part-time position, shared between the Southwest’s Orthodox churches). We also need to attend to some significant church building works in Plymouth.
For this reason, we are initiating a fundraising campaign with the intent to raise £25,000/year which will help sustain our Church into the future.
We kindly ask all parishioners over the age of 18 to support the stewardship of our Church by offering regular monetary contributions via STANDING ORDER with GIFT AID.
STANDING ORDER STEWARDSHIP CONTRIBUTIONS WITH GIFT AID are suggested as follows:
50P/day, or £15/month, total of £180/year.
For those who can afford more: £1/day, or £30/month, total of £360/year.
For those of limited means: £5 or £10/month would make a significant contribution and the Church will be grateful.
Stewardship Contributions can be paid by standing order every month, or annually. Please make payments to: Name: St Demetrious Church (note the variant spelling of Demetrious) Sort Code: 20-68-10 Account: 30788015 Bank: Barclays Bank, 140-146 Armada Way, Plymouth PL1 1LA Reference: Please enter your ‘SURNAME-Stewardship’. If you can’t afford to give, please know NOBODY will ever be turned down or denied the benefits of our church. Attached to this email is a GIFT AID FORM. If you kindly sign up to ‘Gift Aid’, our Church can claim an extra 25% (that’s £2.50 for every £10 you give). All you need to do is print the form below, check the box on the form, and sign it... it will not cost you anything more. You can drop this off at the Church in person or post it to the Church: St. Demetrios and St. Nikitas Greek Orthodox Church, Central Road, Plymouth PL1 3BX. * We are grateful for any contribution you can make so that our Church can continue to serve our communities well into the future. All moneys donated will go towards supporting our future priest and maintenance of St. Demetrious & St. Nikitas Greek Orthodox Church in Plymouth (please know that the Epitropi is an entirely voluntary committee). Yours faithfully, The Epitropi of St. Demetrios & St. Nikitas Greek Orthodox Church, Plymouth
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