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Celebration of the Chinese New Year at St. Mary's

Read the article about the Chinese New Year Breakfast
Sunday February 5, 2006

Special Thanks to Nelson Mitrophan Chin for these beautiful Photos

Chinese New Year Breakfast a solid success

by Nelson Mitrophan Chin

On Zacchaeus Sunday (Feb 5, 2006), over 100 parishioners and friends attended the Chinese New Year Breakfast after the Divine Liturgy at St Mary's, Cambridge, MA. This was about 30% more than the 70 RSVPs anticipated. We welcomed everyone in a spirit of hospitality. Even a Chinese family who was a friend of a parishioner came to visit the parish for the first time and joined in the festivity.

When we arrived at the parish during orthros to set up for the Breakfast, Selma was already at the door to greet us and lend us a hand. At the church hall, there were acolytes available to help set up the long tables. Good thing the chairs and round tables were already set up when we arrived. I also brought an icon of the Chinese Martyrs to the sanctuary to ask the visiting priest for blessing to allow me to place in the narthex for parishioners to venerate. Upon entering the altar area, Subdeacon Steven introduced me to Fr Raphael Daly from Holy Cross Seminary who was celebrating liturgy in place of Fr Antony's absence, and he immediately recognized me as a fellow student from this past summer's House of Studies, a one week residency program held at the Antiochian Village in Pennsylvania for St Stephen's students and full-time seminarians. What a small world! During orthros when he was making his procession to cense the church, he also censed the icon of the Chinese Martyrs situated next to the icon of our Lord.

Khouriya Carol also came in to make her famous oriental salad. The Estocin family also arrived with the drinks. While the Divine Liturgy was being celebrated, I went to Chinatown to pick up four platters of food including sweet and sour spareribs, beef chow foon, chicken lo mein, and house fried rice. Most of Chinatown was blocked due to the lion dance festivities for Chinese New Year. Fortunately, the restaurant owner and kitchen staff brought out the food to my car parked a block away. Through connections with my mother they were able to give 20% discount on the catering for church functions. Arriving back at church, after Holy Communion, helpers came down to the church hall to prepared the food.

After the Liturgy, the children already in the church hall, where church school concluded, lined up and received the first plates of delicious Chinese food, served by our helpers Kh Carol, Andrew, Tiffany, Cynthia and Joshua. As parishioners came downstairs from the Liturgy, the line was queued up. We also had an offering box for freewill donations to benefit the Chinese Translation Project. We would like to thank all our attendees who contributed to this worthy project. The Chinese Martyrs booklets that we had depleted out quickly. For those who made or would like to make a donation and would like to read up more on the Chinese Martyrs, can request a free booklet from mitrophan@orthodox.cn.

In all we collected $791.25 for the breakfast. The net profit percentage after expenses as compared to last year averaged out to be about the same, which made this a good solid success. Much gratitude to everyone who participated in this festive occasion. God willing, we will see the completion of the translation of the Prologue from Ohrid for the edification of our Chinese-speaking brothers and sisters both here and abroad.

Read the news release about the Chinese New Year Breakfast

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