Christ is risen, Alleluia! Happy Easter to you all from St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei!

The start of Holy Week, Palm Sunday weekend, was also the height of the Calla Lily season up in the Yangmingshan mountains above Taipei at Zhuzihu. Whole fields are given over to these beautiful flowers, and nearby restaurants welcome people to eat and take photos with the lilies ~ the area is packed out at weekends! It’s also the season for hydrangeas, azaleas, irises and more. The fallen cherry blossom in the river provides a nice heart shape ~ so appropriate for the start of Holy Week…

At St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei, we celebrated Palm Sunday with a Palm-waving procession around the neighbourhood…

Then on Maundy Thursday evening, we had the stripping of the altar after the service and preparation of the church for Good Friday, with almost 50 people at services on both days…

The Easter Vigil on Easter Eve, Saturday, started at 7:30 pm with the lighting of the Easter fire outside the cathedral, and the service started in candlelight.

We had about 140 people! Bishop Lennon Yuan-Rung Chang was also with us for confirmations….

This is the young adults group with their 2 members after the confirmation – so happy!

This was all followed by food ~ and went on to about 11:00 pm! Easter Day started with a major thunderstorm at 7:30 am, which flooded the main entrance to the cathedral, so the dean’s first job of the day was to balance on some bricks in the water and unblock the drain! But by the start of the service at 10:30 am, the sun was even coming out…

We had 170 people at the Easter Day service, including at least 10 international visitors. This was all followed by lunch, and then an afternoon concert where we all performed, with everything from violins to yoyo! My contribution was halfway through to get everyone up and moving with an action rhyme!

Meanwhile, our kindergarten have an Easter egg hunt tomorrow, and they have all made their own decorated eggs, and they are beautiful!

We are now busy preparing for next week’s big event, April 9-12, when the Diocese of Taiwan hosts the World Anglican Chinese Clergy Fellowship (WACCF) 4-yearly gathering in Taipei. It’s open to Anglican Chinese clergy and their spouses – it’ll all be in Mandarin Chinese – and we’re expecting over 110 from overseas, mostly S.E. Asia, also Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, USA, plus our Taiwan clergy and spouses, which brings the total to about 140. The opening service will be here at St. John’s Cathedral on April 9. Please do pray for us all!