On Saturday 4 January and Sunday 5 January we had services for the Forefeast of the Nativity of the Lord. Our church was again full, with many taking the opportunity to confess and receive Holy Communion at our last parish service before the Nativity of Christ. As it was also the last service for 2013 according to the Julian calendar, a year during which the four-hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the Romanoff Dynasty was celebrated, a brief moleben to the Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia was served after the Prayer before the Amvon. Later, a memorial litia was served and ‘Eternal Memory’ was sung for all the pious Tsars and Tsarinas and all the departed members of the All-Russian Imperial House. Our 2014 commemorative calendars were distributed to parishioners and friends, and at our customary "cup of tea" the Ladies’ Auxiliary drew their Christmas raffle.