Bishop Sipovich new file

38 6. London The Lithuanians have their own parish in London. Their parish church of Saint Casimir was founded before the First World War. It is situated at the Oval, Hackney, which was considered one of the poorest parts of London. Since 1934 the Lithuanian Marian fathers had been in charge of the parish and the church. That is where Father Sipovich stayed during his first year in London. The rector of the church at that time was Father John Sakievicius, whom Sipovich knew from Rome. The Belarusian community in Great Britain consisted for the most part of members of the Polish Armed Forces awaiting demobilisation. Some of them were in the 1st Polish Corps which was stationed in Britain during the war, but the bulk arrived in 1946 from Italy with the 2nd Polish Corps. There were also a few civilians, mainly students. Soon the ranks of Belarusians were increased by arrival of so-called "displaced persons", i. e. people who as result of the war found themselves in Germany and for political reasons were unable to return to their native country. The economic conditions in post-war Germany were not suitable for permanent settlement, so most of those people tried to emigrate, mainly overseas, to the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina. Some of them remained in Europe. The main countries which accepted displaced persons were France and Great Britain, the latter under the name of "European Volunteer Workers"(EVW). The new arrivals had to undertake the employment (in most cases manual labour) which was selected for them by the Ministry of Labour, and which they were not allowed to change without the express permission of that Ministry. In 1951 this restriction on employment was raised for those EVWs who had by then been three years in Great Britain. Initially they were housed in hostels, managed by the Ministry of Labour. These were usually were ex-army camps which were standing empty. In London Father Sipovich was greeted by many friends and acquaintances from Italy. One of his first acts was to join the Association of Belarusians in Great Britain. At that time it was a well established and growing organisation. It held its first general meeting on 18-19 January 1947, at which the Council was elected, with its founders Vincent Zhuk-Hryshkievich and Victor Siankievich as chairman and secretary respectively. Since November 1946 the Association had been publishing its paper Na shliakhu (On the way). It also launched an appeal to collect funds to acquire a house of its own. In the meantime it enjoyed the hospitality of the Ukrainian Association which had just acquired a property at 49 Linden Gardens in the Notting Hill district of London. The main problem for Father Sipovich, after he had paid visits to the Archbishop of Westminster and the Apostolic Delegate to present his credentials and obtain the necessary permission for pastoral work, was to find somewhere to hold regular services for the Belarusian community. The Lithuanian church was too far from where most Belarusians lived and not easily accessible by public transport. The Ukrainian priest, Father Jean, had similar problems. On Sunday 13 April, which was Easter according to the Julian ("old") calendar, the two priests celebrated the Liturgy together in the conference room of the Ukrainian House at Linden Gardens. The next day Father Sipovich celebrated the Liturgy alone and preached the sermon in Belarusian. A more or less permanent solution was not found till two months later, when the Oratorian fathers at Brompton Road in South Kensington offered him the use of their Little Oratory for regular services. It so happened that within walking distance from the Oratory there was a hostel where many demobbed Belarusians were living. Most of them were Orthodox. A few days before the first liturgy Father Sipovich spent an evening with them. He wrote in his diary: "12.6.47. 12.15 a.m. Just