This year was one dominated by the major projects of transporting our new iconostasis from Russia to Australia and of installing it and a new floor and enlarging our altar area.  As a result, parish life was significantly disrupted – we had long periods in July and September-October without services – just as we were emerging from the pandemic-era changes to church life.  Three of our parishioners were laid to rest this year: Eugene Pickel (+3 May 2023), Vladimir Marinkevich (+18 May 2023), and Alevtina Pinczuk (+10 June 2023).  We continued to pray for an end to the fratricidal war in Ukraine and from October we offered prayers for peace in the much-suffering Holy Land.  In May our clergy participated in celebrations marking the centenary of the founding of the first Russian Orthodox parish in Australia, that of what is now the Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Brisbane.  Together with the Wallsend parish we provided an English-Russian 2023 wall calendar commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Australian-New Zealand Diocese.  For the blessing of our newly-installed iconostasis we welcomed Bishop George on his first visit to our parish since 2019.  In December our clergy and five of our parishioners received Diocesan medals in honour of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Diocese.  At our Annual General Meeting Vladimir (“Rick”) Golovin was elected parish Warden, a role that had remained vacant since 2004.  All the news from 2023 can be read here.  Glory be to God for all things!