We are delighted that St Chrysostom’s Church is used by other Christians, in addition to our own regular congregation. This is all part of our ministry of Christian welcome and inclusion. It is so important to remember that our calling as Christians in our tradition is not only to encourage one another in our own congregation but to also encourage other Christians too.
Pastor John and his Korean congregation have been worshipping on a Sunday afternoon in church for a few years now. They are good friends and bring a distinctive and friendly presence to the church.
Until a few years ago Romanian Orthodox Christians didn’t have a place to worship in Manchester – now they do! A group asked to worship at St Chrysostom’s and of course we were delighted to say YES!
Now twice a month the Orthodox liturgy is served at St Chrysostoms on a Saturday and the number of people attending is growing. This year the Orthodox Easter fell the week after the Western one. That was fortunate for us at St C’s as it meant we could accommodate both ourselves and our Romanian friends in our celebrations of Easter – on different weekends.
The Romanian celebrations, like ours at St C’s, started outside church. However, although our Easter Vigil is quite long the Romanian celebration went through the night at a time when many of our church members would be asleep in bed! Daniel, from the Romanian Church has very kindly sent us some photographs which we are delighted to post here, aren’t they fantastic?