On Sunday 30 March 2025, the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent, the Hours and Divine Liturgy will be served at Wauchope Community Arts Hall, 2/10 Oxley Lane, Wauchope.  As Saturday 29 March will be a day of commemoration of the departed, Divine Liturgy will be followed by a litia for our departed relatives, parishioners and friends.  All are welcome! 

On Saturday 12 April and Sunday 13 April, Palm Sunday, our parish will take up a collection to benefit the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem.  This collection is customarily taken up on this day every year in the parishes, monasteries and missions of our Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR).  Many places of immense spiritual and historical significance in the Holy Land have been entrusted to the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, and we have many monastics there who care for these holy places, undertake good works, and pray for the whole world.  Support is particularly important at this time as ongoing conflict in the Holy Land has reduced the numbers of pilgrims visiting.  Those who wish to make a donation online direct to the Mission may do so via Paypal through the website of the ROCOR Synod of Bishops.

On Saturday 12 April and Sunday 13 April we will have 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 will be served at 6.00pm on Saturday and the Hours and Divine Liturgy will be served at 9.00am on Sunday.  At both services a collection will be taken up to benefit the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem.  This will be the final Divine Liturgy in our parish for Great Lent.

Our parish will have Matins with the reading of the Twelve Gospels on Great Thursday, 17 April, at 6.00pm.  On Great Friday, 17 April, we will have Vespers with the bringing out of the Shroud of Christ at 3.00pm.  For other traditional Holy Week services and for Pascha, our parish rector will be serving at Saint Panteleimon Russian Orthodox Church, Gosford.

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.

Our Autumn 2025 Schedule of Services - covering March, April and May 2025 - is now available in digital format.  It includes services for Great Lent, Holy Week, and our patronal feast-day of Saint Nicholas.  Our parishioners and friends are reminded that there will be no Paschal services in our parish this year.  A copy of the English-language Autumn 2025 Schedule of Services is available here, and a copy of the Russian-language Autumn 2025 Schedule of Services is available here.  Printed copies are available in church as of the weekend of 22-23 February.

On Saturday 22 February and Sunday 23 February we had services for the Sunday of the Last Judgement.  Matins was served on Saturday evening and the Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Sunday morning.  As Saturday 22 February was a day of commemoration of the departed, Matins was preceded by a general panikhida.  As an act of kindness in memory of their departed ones, those attending the panikhida brought non-perishable foods (tinned vegetables and fruit, long-life milk and milk alternatives, bottled water, packaged crackers) and new personal care products (soaps, shampoos and conditioners, wipes, toothbrushes and toothpaste, combs and brushes, female sanitary items) to be passed to a local charitable organisation for relief of the homeless.  At Divine Liturgy prayers were offered for the unity of the Orthodox Church, peace in Ukraine, and peace in the Holy Land.

On Saturday 8 February and Sunday 9 February we had services for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee and in honour of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.  Matins was served on Saturday evening and the Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Sunday morning.  At Matins and Divine Liturgy the parish rector was assisted by Deacon Michal Matys.  To the great joy of our small parish, the choir at Divine Liturgy was formed by the Russian Orthodox Male Choir of Australia (ROMCA).  At the conclusion of the Sunday service the parish rector congratulated ROMCA conductor Reader Nektary Kotlaroff and his choristers on their important and edifying work, wishing them God’s continued help and a successful trip to Russia later this year.  Following the service many of the faithful took the opportunity to speak with members of the choir and purchase recordings of their work.  A collection taken up during the service and a donation from the Parish Council raised $1500 to assist the choir.

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!