Pascha 2008

There is an Orthodox church in Hong Kong but we almost never go there. It is a three-hour trip each way. To make the trip in a day is so hard on everyone. To spend the night in Hong Kong is over a hundred dollars. So we mainly go to the Russian Orthodox church in Shenzhen. It only meets once a month at most and it is all in Slavonic, but we can partake in the sacraments there. The priest is wonderful. Unfortunately at Pascha, Father Dionisy (the usual priest) is usually serving in Beijing. Like last year, he arranged for a Hieromonk (basically a monk who is ordained) from Russia to come down and conduct services for the parishioners in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Father Melety is also wonderful -- pretty much like every Orthodox priest I've ever met. This year the service was on Sunday night rather than the typical Saturday night so there weren't many people there. Father Melety had to perform the service in Hong Kong on Saturday night and then again in Shenzhen on Sunday night.

We had one Holy Week Service: The Reading of the 12 Gospels:

David holding LJ at the service.

The 11th reading

After the Service of the 12 Gospels, Father Melety read the prayers for my "churching" aka returning to church after 40 days following the birth of a baby.
See the churching prayers at:
http://www.goarch.org/en/chapel/liturgical_texts/churching.asp

Churching of Katie and Jonathan

Pascha 2008 Shenzhen

Confession is done right before partaking in the Eucharist. This must be a Russian tradition because I've never seen it before. A strange break in the otherwise very formal service.

http://www.orthodox.cn/news/20080430paschachina_en.htm
http://www.orthodox.cn/contemporary/guangdong/shenzhen_en.htm