St Nicholas Parish has been amplified by a number of baptisms since the consecration of the its new church in October 2010, but, happily,  it took some six months for it to experience its first loss. On Wednesday 30th March 2011, the funeral service of Barbara Mastrud was conducted by Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, as the Parish bade farewell to one its oldest and most loyal members.

Barbara, who died on Monday 21st March after suffering complications following heart surgery was 85. A member of of the Orthodox Church since 1976, she was musically gifted and  had been involved in liturgical singing for most of her life - first as a young girl in the church choir of  the Lutheran Church in her native Chicago, then as a choir-mistress in the Anglican convent in Oxford and finally as a singer and then  director of the 'Slavonic' choir in the Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity and the Annunciation in Oxford, the position which she mantianed for many years.   Latterly, after the founding of St Nicholas' Parish, Barabra continued conducting and singing in its choir despite her failing health. Indeed she sang in the choir at the Divine Liturgy a week before her death.

Barbara's funeral was conducted by her spiritual father, Metropolitan Kallistos and assitsted by Frs Stephen and Ian, respectively  rectors of the two Orthodox Churches in Oxford so dear to Barbara's heart, and an old friend, Fr Maxim Nicholsky, the priest-in-charge of the small Russian Orthodox community  in Swindon where for many years Barbara sang at the monthly services. A number of sisters from Barbara's old Angilcan Convent of the Incarnation in Fairacres also attended the funeral, as had many people from all walks of life and many different countries, including her nephew and his family from USA. She was laid to rest in the grave within the Orthodox section of the Wolvercote Cemetery alongside her many friends from the Church already departed from this life.

Barbara's rich and multi-faceted life is reflected in the interview which she gave to the Russian-language Orthodox magazine 'Foma'. The edited version is printed here with the kind permission of the interviewer.

Her love of singing, joie de vivre and general good humour  are immortalised in the short video clip of  her appearance in the St Nicholas Parish concert in 2009. This can be viewed here:

May your memory be eternal, ever-memorable sister in Christ.
May you find rest with the saints in the Kingdom of Heaven!