The Sisters

We went to the picnic day at the Orthodox Christian Mission Sisterhood of St John The Eleimon.  Yes, the name's a handful, but this is a group of women of the Greek Orthodox tradition who run an extremely active charitable program supporting needy people both around Melbourne and overseas (mainly within the Orthodox tradition).  They run an Op shop, and here's an article about them.

Their base is out past Gisborne, where they have a few acres.  There's a small chapel and facilities (including three big ovens!) to provide food and (if necessary) shelter for the literally hundreds of people who were there on the day.  The picnic day when we attended was in honour of their Saint, St John the Eleimon (the Merciful), even though his normal feast day is in a few weeks time.  Sister Joanna who is apparently in charge is a ball of energy:  she is busy all day, welcoming everyone, overseeing all that's going on and running the charity auction.

A group of us attended and the weather was great.    Lots of the activity is in Greek, but enough was in English for our group to work out that one of us had won a prize in the raffle!