On Saturday 3 May and Sunday 4 May we will have services for the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers, the Third Sunday of Pascha.   All-night vigil will be served at 6.00pm on Saturday and the Hours and Divine Liturgy will be served at 9.00am on Sunday.

This year, our parish had a significant number of traditional services for Holy Week and Pascha. Matins was served in the evening on Sunday 13 April, Monday 14 April, Tuesday 15 April, and Wednesday 16 April.  Divine Liturgy was served in the morning on Great Thursday, 17 April, with everyone present receiving Holy Communion.  On Great Friday, 18 April, Vespers with the bringing out of the Shroud of Christ was served at midday and Matins with Lamentations before the Tomb of Christ was served in the evening.  In the morning on Great Saturday, 19 April, Divine Liturgy was served. Midnight Office  was served late that evening, with Paschal Matins and Divine Liturgy following in the early hours of 20 April, the Sunday of Pascha.  At the midnight services the parish rector was assisted by Protodeacon Martin Naef. Paschal Vespers was served late in the morning on 20 April, the Sunday of Pascha.  Easter baskets with cakes, eggs and other festive foods were blessed following Matins and Vespers.

On Friday 11 April and Saturday 12 April we had services for the Sixth Saturday of Great Lent, Lazarus Saturday.  Matins was served on Friday evening and the Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Saturday morning.  At the end of Divine Liturgy on Saturday prayers of blessing were read over a small number of pussy-willows in anticipation of Palm Sunday.

On Sunday 6 April and Monday 7 April we had services for the Great Feast of the Annunciation of the Mother of God.  All-night Vigil with the blessing of wheat, wine, oil and five loaves was served on Sunday evening, and the Hours, Typika, Vespers and Divine Liturgy were served on Monday morning.  At Divine Liturgy we were joined by friends from the Wallsend parish and prayers were offered for Orthodox unity, peace in Ukraine, and peace in the Holy Land.

On Saturday 5 April and Sunday 6 April we had services for the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent.   All-night vigil was served on Saturday evening and the Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Sunday morning.  The regular Sunday services were preceded by the Lesser Blessing of Water and followed by a moleben to Saint Tikhon the Confessor, Patriarch of Moscow and Enlightener of North America (+7 April 1925).  At Divine Liturgy on Sunday the parish rector was assisted by Protodeacon Martin Naef and prayers were offered for peace in Ukraine.  In his sermon, the rector spoke about Saint Mary of Egypt and about Saint Tikhon.  Following Divine Liturgy the church vestments were changed to blue and the church was decorated in preparation for the services for the Great Feast of the Annunciation.

On the evening of 27 March, Thursday of the Fourth Week of Great Lent, our parish rector presided at a General Service of Anointing with Oil (Holy Unction).  Approximately 30 people, both our own parishioners and friends from the neighbouring Wallsend parish, gathered to pray and receive anointing with oil for the healing of soul and body.  The readings and prayers were alternately in Slavonic and English.

On Saturday 15 March and Sunday 16 March we had services for the Second Sunday of Great Lent and in honour of Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica (+1359 AD).  Matins was served on Saturday evening and the Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Sunday morning.  Our church was beautifully decorated with flowers donated by the family of the late Nina Lichman (+17 February 2025).  As Saturday 15 March was a day of commemoration of the departed, Matins was preceded by a general panikhida.   As an act of kindness in memory of their departed ones, those attending the panikhida brought non-perishable foods to be passed to a local charitable organisation for relief of the homeless.  At Divine Liturgy on Sunday the parish rector was assisted by Protodeacon Martin Naef and prayers were offered for peace in Ukraine.  We were joined by friends from Sydney and Newcastle.  At the end of Divine Liturgy prayers of blessing were read over a new black set of priest’s vestments that will be used for the first time during Holy Week this year.

On the first four evenings of the First Week of Great Lent (3-6 March), Great Compline with the reading of the Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete was served.  The odes of the Great Canon were read by the parish rector alternatively in Church Slavonic and English.  During Great Compline many of those present participated in the reading and singing in both languages.

On Saturday 1 March and Sunday 2 March we had services for the Sunday of Forgiveness.  All-night vigil was served on Saturday evening and the Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Sunday morning.  At Divine Liturgy on Sunday the parish rector was assisted by Protodeacon Martin Naef and prayers were offered for peace in Ukraine.  Immediately after Divine Liturgy, Vespers with the rite of asking forgiveness was served.  Following the services on Sunday our Ladies’ Auxiliary served pancakes.

“Let us appreciate and sincerely give thanks unto God for His great loving-kindness and mercy shown towards fallen mankind by redeeming us from sin through His suffering on the cross and glorious Resurrection, making us heirs of His heavenly kingdom. … Let us not be tempted by the so-called pleasures and riches of this temporal world, but let us always strive for spiritual riches which do not fade away. Our way of life now will have eternal consequences. Archbishop George’s Epistle is available in full in English here and in Russian here.

“May the present celebration, for which we have been preparing with prayer and fasting, renew the right spirit, that is, a healthy spirit, in our hearts, in order to understand the mystery of Christ's Resurrection, to enjoy the "riches of goodness" of which Chrysostom writes, and to anticipate "eternal joy"! ...  May our feast be united with the general yearning of the faithful to God for peace and for the persecuted Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onouphry of Kiev and All Ukraine. For "if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it," says the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 12:26).”  Metropolitan Nicholas’s Epistle is available in full in English here and in Russian here.

The April 2025 issue of “Word of the Church” (“Церковное Слово”), the official journal of the Australian-New Zealand Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, is now available in our parishes. This is the first issue for 2025.  Content includes the 2025 Paschal Epistle of Archbishop George in Russian and English; articles in Russian and English concerning the March 2025 Pastoral Conference of our Diocese convened at the Holy Protection Cathedral in Brunswick (Melbourne), Victoria, during Great Lent; the text in Russian and English of a paper presented at that conference by Archpriest Nicholas Karipoff, ‘The Image of the Pastor: The Bible, Vitae of the Saints and Pastoral Theology’;  announcements concerning various awards bestowed on Diocesan clergy by the Synod of Bishops and by Archbishop George; articles in Russian marking the centenary of the repose of Patriarch Tikhon; articles in Russian and English about the December 2024 Diocesan Youth Conference (“Syezd”); a colour supplement of photographs from Chersonesus (near Sevastopol, Crimea); and more.  Copies are $5.00.

This year, 2025, is the centenary of the repose of two great hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church:  Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (31 January 1865 - 7 April 1925, canonised 1981) and Saint Jonah, Bishop of Hankow (17 April 1888- 20 October 1925, canonised 1996).  In recognition of this significant anniversary, the Synod of Bishops of our Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia has called upon the bishops and clergy to make a particular effort to remember these two holy bishops.  To this end, they are to be commemorated at the dismissal of each Divine Liturgy up until the Great Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple (4 December, the day of the Patriarchal enthronement of Saint Tikhon in 1918) and to remember Saint Tikhon in a sermon and with a moleben on Sunday 6 April, the Fifth Sunday in Great Lent and the eve of the anniversary of his repose.  We will also serve a moleben to Saint Jonah on Sunday 19 October, the Ninenteenth Sunday after Pentecost and the eve of the anniversary of his repose.  Holy Hierarchs Tikhon and Jonah, pray to God for us!