God’s blessing and God’s joy. Double the joys. In Fiji, Pacific Islands, the chapel of St. Friday in the courtyard of our Mission Center in Sabeto, Nadi is nearing completion. Despite the still existing shortcomings our small flock there deserved to attend the Holy Masses of Holy Week and Resurrection celebrated by our Archimandrite Father Christodoulos Papadeas and our first Fijian priest Father Bartholomew Senibulu. The Crucifix and the Epitaph were lifted in their little hands by the little Fijian children full of wonder and awe. Elder Lydia prepared the flowers and crosses for Palm Sunday and together with Sisters Gabriella and Eugenia painted the Easter eggs. The Blue and White and the bicephalos along with the Fijian flag, which also has a Cross, waved joyfully and curiously the passers-by stood to read the posted sign: “Ecumenical Patriarchate Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Zealand (Fiji, Tonga and Samoa)”. The Cross, the beauty of the Church and the support of the faithful, stands outside the fence inspiring respect for people and fear of demons. The clouds in the blue sky are in an arrangement of praise. In the chapel of St. Paraskevi below, the hymns “Christ Risen from the dead” and “Illuminate the New Jerusalem” are heard, and the heavens above “tell the glory of God’s glory and his hand’s poetry the firmament proclaims”.
