Merry Christmas from Australia!
Glory to God in the highest: and on earth peace to men of good will. (St. Luke 2:14 DRB)
Thank you for your greetings and may you all have a beautiful Holy Feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ and remember to pray for us please.
Some of us from our little mission at Ningi, Queensland travelled to the newly acquired (former Methodist) Coptic Orthodox Church of St. Mark and St. George at Strathpine (north Brisbane) for the liturgy on the eve of the Holy Nativity.
At the end I commented to the Deacon that I saw a crowd of every tribe and language and tongue and nation. There weren't really that many people there but the small hall was fairly full and mix of races was, well- Coptic, Arabic, Ango-Australian, Aboriginal, Sudanese, Ethiopian (perhaps Eritrean as I didn't ask) and they're just the ones I'm aware of!
May the Church of the Lord God grow in this land and all lands and may false religion be aswaged in all the world as we rejoice in birth of the true Son of God, the Son of Mary, the saintly virgin. Amen.