On Tuesday 6 January and Wednesday 7 January we had services for the Great Feast of the Nativity of Christ.  Prior to the services our small church had been beautifully decorated by Katia Waters and Wassim Ayoub.  On Tuesday evening All-night Vigil (Great Compline and Matins) with the blessing of five loaves, wheat, wine and oil was served with a great many people in attendance.  At Matins Alexander Momot, a Russian Orthodox man born in Harbin and blind from his birth, read the Six Psalms, having committed them to memory in his childhood.  On the following day our church was again full – visitors from Newcastle and Sydney joining us for the feast – and many of the faithful received Holy Communion.  Following the Prayer before the Amvon we had a brief Moleben of Thanksgiving to mark the anniversary of the deliverance in 1812 of the Russian Church and Empire from the invasion of the French and twelve other nations.  Metropolitan Hilarion’s 2015 Nativity Epistle was then read aloud by the rector.  After the service many remained behind to share in a festive meal in church hall.