This day was a celebration of the “Sunday of Orthodoxy” which is one of the major feast days of the Orthodox calendar. Here at the monastery, we celebrated the morning Matin service, followed by the Liturgy. We were pleased to welcome back our “Babushka Svetlana” who graced the service with her quiet and composed piety. As well, Fr Matthew from Chilliwack is away in Alberta, visiting his father, so we were honoured to have both the Reader Craig and his son Arthur, serving in the altar with us. The completion of the Liturgy was the procession with a selection of icons as well as the processional cross and liturgical fans, to the gatehouse where everyone venerated the icons and then passed through the gate and returned to the church for the final reading of the prayers after Communion.
Following all of this, we then had the usual lenten luncheon with time for simply being together as a community, eating, discussing and sharing our lives with one another.
Since today was also International Woman’s Day, Vladika Lazar gave each woman in the congregation a long stem red rose when they came to kiss the Cross.