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home in Blomfield Heath before he passed away, which is
a small village 4 to 5 miles from Norwich and about 15
miles form Great Yarmouth. At first they would
occasionally bring a priest who would perform the mass
in a non-Orthodox church. This continued until 1965,
when the Anglican Bishop of Spyridonas, following the suggestion
of then Archbishop Athinagoras, because the Saint
happened, as he said to be Cypriot.
Our community in Great Yarmouth according to the census
of 1980 numbered 160 families. Nowadays, there are
around 120 and of those 72% are probably from Eptakomi,
that is around 300 - 400 people.
The community has a Greek school which was established
in 1970 in order to teach the mother tongue and to pass
on the manners and customs to their next generation. The
school is open four times a week for three hours a day.
A teacher from the Cypriot Education Mission teaches
here who is sent and paid by the Cypriot Ministry of
Education. Even though a few years ago, there were 70
pupils at the school, now there are only 37 and of those
at least 20 have parents or grandparents from Eptakomi.
As Father Chrysostomos from Nicosia who now serves the
Community of Great Yarmouth, told me for the past seven
years the numbers have been dropping, Father
Chrysostomos also said that during his seven years in
Great Yarmouth, he has performed wedding ceremonies for
merely three couples!
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