Today, 17 May 2005, His Grace Varlaam Ploiesteanul, Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch blessed the Social Centre of “Saint Nicholas” from the church of “Saint Great Martyr Dimitrios, the Myrrh Bearer” in Colentina district of Bucharest.
Then, His Grace celebrated the Divine Liturgy assisted by a group of priests and deacons. The celebrating group consisted of rev archpriest Ioan Popescu, of deanery district 2 Bucharest, who read the names of the persons who were awarded distinctions on behalf of the Patriarch of Romania for having involved in the construction of the social centre of “Saint Nicholas”.
Thus, His Grace Varlaam Ploiesteanul awarded the Order of “Sanctus Stephanus Magnus” for clergy to parish priest Nicolae Vasile, and the Worthiness Diploma to mayor of district 2, Mr Neculai Ontanu, and the medal of the image of Saint John Chrysostom, as well as an icon of Jesus Christ, our Lord, on behalf of the parish. Diplomas were also awarded to engineer Stefan Cliseru, to architects Stefan Cliseru, architects Bogdan and Stela Marian and Cristina Simileanu, who executed the centre’s architectural projects free of charge, to the Parochial Council and Parochial Committee, as well as to painters Robert and Magda Carciumaru, who painted the chapel of the social centre.
“It is a very welcome and necessary work. This chapel will be used especially for laying in state our brothers of faith who passed to eternal life, while the rest of the building also has a multi-functional room at the ground floor where the meals occasioned by remembrance services will be offered.
At the first floor there is a consulting room, a juridical one, because unfortunately every family has a juridical trouble, as well as the parochial office where you can address the parish priest or the other priests of your church when you have problems”, His Grace Varlaam Ploiesteanul said.
To end with, His Grace Varlaam Ploiesteanul mentioned the importance of the cooperation among citizens in view of building social settlements to be looked after the Church. “The Church is made up of ordained persons and laics. This is why we cannot speak of a laic state in Romania, because we are a religious people, as the data of the latest census show. The way how the laic cooperate with the Church in Romania is a model for other Christian countries as well”, His Grace said.
The social centre was built with the blessing of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, with the foundation stone laid on 12 May 2013. Rev Nicolae Vasile, the parish priest of “Saint Dimitrios” – Colentina church declared to “Lumina” newspaper that the centre is a will of the late priest Tudor Alexandru, who was parish priest to this church till 2010. The centre was built with the financial support of the City Hall district 2 Bucharest and partially, with the parish funds. There is a multi-functional room at the ground floor, where conferences, youth meetings and catechesis will be organised. A canteen will be organised in the same room, where the poor people, parishioners or persons mentioned by the General Department of Social Assistance and Child’s Protection district 2 will have a warm meal. There are two rooms at the first floor where a consulting room and a juridical office will operate for the persons needing such services. The centre will also have a chapel.
