Once again, we find ourselves observing a memorial on Saturday. The event took place at the Heritage Garden Cemetery in Surrey. There was supposed to be the blessing of the new tombstone but due to the settling of the ground at the grave site, it has been necessary to postpone the installing and blessing of the marker for a later date. Even so, there was a memorial service at the grave site and the distribution of small memorial kulichi and koliva. There were a lot of beautiful floral bouquets at both the grave of Vladika Varlaam and the site of the grave of the mother of our Father Markel.
Following the memorial for Vladika Varlaam, there was a second memorial for the mother of Father Markel and Galina. The service was in the Romanian language and was joined by a number of our Russian parishioners as well as Romanian and Moldovan parishioners. The tones used for the chanting were a bit different soooo, it was rather difficult to help with the singing of the service, but we tried our best.
Following the services, Andy and I returned to the monastery with 9 and 5 in the back seat and sitting quietly, enjoying the outing. There was a chance to take some more photographs of various new plants and animals on the monastery grounds.
Vespers was observed and then the evening was free for dinner and tea before retiring for the evening.