On Saturday 3 January and Sunday 4 January we had services for the Thirtieth Sunday after Pentecost and the Sunday before the Nativity of Christ. The Sunday before the Nativity is a day of commemoration of the Holy Fathers, the ancestors of Christ according to the flesh, and also of the Old Testaments prophets who bore witness to His coming. Our small church was full on Sunday, with many people receiving Holy Communion. At the Prayer before the Amvon the parish rector blessed eight beautiful new green vestments for the parish altar-servers, the work of the Convent of Saint Elisabeth in Minsk, Belarus.