St George College Thebarton opening blessing service 2021

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As is customary, the school community of St George College, Thebarton SA, had their annual “agiasmos” service to mark the start of the new school year at the end of their first week, on the morning of Friday, 28th of January. In recent years, this service has been celebrated with the whole school together in the Church of St George; however this year the format was slightly different (unsurprisingly) due to the COVID-19 restrictions. The Reception, Year 1 and Year 12 classes were physically present in the Church, while the rest of the school watched through videoconferencing software.
The service was officiated by His Grace Bishop Silouan of Sinope, with the two parish priests and school chaplains Fr Diogenis Patsouris and Fr Konstantinos Skoumbourdis assisting. Also present were Fr Michael Psaromatis (an old scholar) and Fr Jeremy Krieg (a parent), with the St George head chanter Mr John Saredakis (also one of the teachers and old scholar) providing the choral accompaniment. The principal Mr Peter Karamoshos and acting assistant principal/head of junior school Mrs Lynley Davies were also present supporting the students and their teachers. After the service, Fr Kon visited those classes who were not able to be physically present so that they too could receive a blessing.
The students were all extremely well behaved and one could sense that they appreciated the significance of the occasion. In particular, the senior students, accompanied the Reception/Year 1s as they went up to get their blessing, which undoubtedly lifted the spirits of the school’s newest students and gave them encouragement to help them settle into their new environment.
His Grace Bishop Silouan, upon conveying the Paternal love and blessings of His Eminence Archbishop Makarios, addressed the students and exhorted them to make the most of the special gift of learning – a gift too often denied to many less privileged children in the world. In particular, His Grace encouraged those in Year 12 to set their sights on furthering their education at university. One can easily get overwhelmed when one contemplates the year ahead of them and all that they need to accomplish, he said, but when one tries to focus on the task at hand and take each day as it comes, the year will take care of itself. His Grace concluded by saying “let us continually sanctify and allows ourselves to be sanctified by the present moment, as this moment is preciously given to us as a gift from God.”
May God’s richest blessings come down upon the staff and students of our college as they prepare to face the year ahead

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia – Archdiocesan District of Adelaide

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