On Saturday 9 March and Sunday 10 March we had services for the Sunday of Forgiveness and Cheesefare Sunday.  After the Prayer before the Amvon at Divine Liturgy on Sunday, the prayer of blessing was read over two beautiful new server's vestments, one red and one black.  At the end of Divine Liturgy the newly-blessed vestments - the work of the Convent of Saint Elisabeth in Minsk, Belarus - were presented to Subdeacon Luke Goura as a gift from the parish in antcipation of the fifteenth anniversary of his tonsure as a reader in May 2004.  Vespers was then served, during which the church vestments were changed from gold to black and the ordinary melodies gave way to the solemn melodies of Great Lent.  In accordance with Orthodox practice, at the end of Vespers all present asked forgiveness of one another.  At Bishop George’s request, a collection was taken up to benefit Saints Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Institute, the theological and higher education institute of the Australian-New Zealand Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.