On Saturday 26 April and Sunday 27 April we will have services for Thomas Sunday, the Second Sunday of Pascha.  Matins will be served at 6.00pm on Saturday and the Hours and Divine Liturgy will be served at 9.00am on Sunday.  Following the Prayer before the Amvon at Divine Liturgy, the Prayer at the breaking of the Artos will be read and pieces of the blessed bread will be distributed to the faithful.

This year, our parish had just two traditional Holy Week services.  Matins with the reading of the Twelve Passion Gospels was served in the evening on Thursday 17 April and Vespers with the bringing out of the Shroud of Christ was served in the afternoon on Friday 18 April.  As our parish rector was serving in Gosford for Pascha this year there were no Resurrectional services in our church, and our parishioners attended festive services at either the Greek Orthodox or Serbian Orthodox parishes in Newcastle or travelled to Gosford.  God willing, we will have Paschal services in our parish again in 2026.

On Saturday 12 April and Sunday 13 April we had services for Palm Sunday, the Sixth Sunday of Great Lent and the Great Feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem.  All-night vigil with the blessing of wheat, wine, oil, and five loaves and the blessing of palms and pussy-willows was served on Saturday evening and the Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Sunday morning.  At Divine Liturgy prayers were offered for peace in the Holy Land and a collection was taken up to benefit the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem.  As this was the final Divine Liturgy in our parish for Great Lent, a great many people confessed and received Holy Communion.

On Saturday 22 March and Sunday 23 March we had services for the Third Sunday of Great Lent, the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross. Matins with the bringing out of the Cross was served on Saturday evening and the Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Sunday morning.  At Divine Liturgy prayers were offered for the unity of the Orthodox Church, peace in Ukraine, and peace in the Holy Land.  Many people received Holy Communion.  Following the dismissal at Divine Liturgy all venerated the Precious and Life-giving Cross of our Lord.

On Saturday 8 March and Sunday 9 March we had services for the First Sunday of Great Lent, the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, and in honour of the finding of the head of the Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist of the Lord, John.  Matins was served on Saturday evening and the Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Sunday morning.  At Divine Liturgy prayers were offered for the unity of the Orthodox Church, peace in Ukraine, and peace in the Holy Land.  Many people received Holy Communion.  In accordance with the practice of parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, 'The Order for a Hymn of Supplication for the Conversion of those in Error' was served at the end of Divine Liturgy on Sunday.  During this short moleben, prayers were offered for those who oppose the truth of the Gospel with heresy and for those who have fallen away from the Holy Orthodox Church through schism.

On Sunday 30 March our parish rector visited Saint Symeon of Verkhoturye Orthodox Mission on the NSW Mid North Coast and conducted services for the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent, the day of commemoration of Saint John of the Ladder (+649AD).  The services were held at the Wauchope Community Arts Hall, the Mission’s Port Macquarie-Hastings region ‘home’ since April 2023.  The Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Sunday morning with approximately thirty people present.  Prayers were offered for the unity of the Orthodox Church, peace in Ukraine and peace in the Holy Land, and many of those present confessed and received Holy Communion.  As Saturday 29 March was a day of commemoration of the departed, Divine Liturgy was followed by a litia for the departed and the blessing of kutiya.  As is customary, those present afterwards shared a common meal.

“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.  As there will not be a service in our parish on that Sunday, arrangements for a moleben to Saint Tikhon and another to Saint Jonah will be made later in the year.  Holy Hierarchs Tikhon and Jonah, pray to God for us!