Ο Αγιασμός της Ομάδας μας

Την προηγούμενη Τετάρτη 12 Αυγούστου τελέσθηκε ο Αγιασμός της νεοϊδρυθείσας Ποδοσφαιρικής Ομάδας της Ομογένειας του ΒΔ Λονδίνου, με την επωνυμία «St. Panteleimon FC».

Τον Αγιασμό παρακολούθησαν πολλοί από τους Παίχτες, ο Προπονητής, ο Πρόεδρος και μέλη του Δ.Σ., χορηγοί, και άλλοι παράγοντες.

Παρών ήταν επίσης και ο κ. Τόνυ Κλεάνθους, Πρόεδρος της Barnet FC, που είναι η ιδιοκτήτρια ομάδα των εγκαταστάσεων που χρησιμοποιεί η Ομάδα του Αγ. Παντελεήμονα.

Ο παρών ιστολόγος, ο οποίος τέλεσε και τον Αγιασμό, συνέταξε και την παρακάτω προσευχή, ειδικά για την περίσταση:

“Heavenly King, who through Your Holy Cross and the Glorious Resurrection smashed the devil and having abolished the death gave life to us, You granted health and strength to our body and healed our illnesses, and You have also provided those we struggle the good fight and with honesty complete their way with the crown of victory.

You, our Lord, bless this Football Team, its Managers, its Committee, its Sponsors and those who assist, and above all its Players to receive strength with the force of Your power, in order to exercise their bodies and souls and worthily achieve the prize of victory.

Make these sports facilities an arena of noble competition and legitimate exercise, and to all those who practise sports here, send Your blessing.

Thus, we beseech You, make us worthy of Your calling and grant us health and prosperity making us good imitators of our Patron Saint, Saint Panteleimon, the Great Athlete and Healer, who fought the good fight and was glorified by You.

For You are a merciful God Who loves mankind, and to You we send up Glory, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen”.

Στο τέλος ο π. Αναστάσιος απηύθυνε τον παρακάτω χαιρετισμό:

“Welcome and a big thank you to everyone for coming here tonight and being a part at this historic moment of the official beginning of our St. Panteleimon Football Team.

This is a new endeavour, which has at its centre the Youth of our Society and the Young Adults. It is a place and a space for all of you to compete, to socialise, to develop your personalities and to grow, both bodily as well as spiritually.

Our local Church and Community of St. Panteleimon by establishing a Football Team is following the tradition of many other Parishes around the country, which had established Football Teams in the past. From what I know most of the major Teams have been established by Churches. If I am not mistaken the first Football Team in England was Derby County FC and it was established by its local Church.

The name of our Team is SAINT PANTELEIMON, which is the name of our local Church. I am going to give you today a small icon of St. Panteleimon, for you to see who is the Saint that you play for, and also to pray to him when needed.

I would also like to offer our thanks and gratitude to Mr. Kleanthous for being so open and welcoming to us, in these excellent sport facilities, together with his staff here. We all wish you Mr. Kleanthous a great and victorious season at Barnet FC this season.

I cannot thank enough our First Team Manager, Gary Karsa, the best man for the job, a man of Premiership status, who is respected by all of us, especially by his Players.

I am Indebted to the Chairman, Mr. George Frangeskou, the Committee, our main Sponcors, Savvas Andreou and Panayiotis Argyrou, as well as the rest of the sponsors.

Above all I would like to welcome with an open heart, with friendship and love our Players and to thank you all for your commitment and dedication.

I really look forward to the start of our season, and I hope and pray that we shall have a successful year, with many joys and victories.

God bless us all !”