It is Lunar New Year today, and our bishops have sent greetings and best wishes to all who are celebrating as we enter the Year of the Horse.
Their message can be read below.
“As Chinese and East Asian communities across the world and throughout the Anglican Diocese of Leeds mark the Lunar New Year, which this year falls on Tuesday, February 17, we send our greetings and best wishes to all those celebrating this month.
“This year marks the Year of the Horse, which in Chinese culture often represents freedom, speed and new opportunities. Within Christian teaching, this similar sense of change, freedom and the wind blowing in a new direction can be found in the coming of the Holy Spirit who transforms us into the likeness of Christ through his transformative action in our lives. As Jesus says in John 3:8 ‘The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’
“Here in the Diocese of Leeds, we are relishing new opportunities that have come our way in recent times. It is now five years since the first Hong Kongers began arriving in the UK under the British National Overseas passport scheme, and we are thankful for the new life and vitality that these newcomers have brought to our communities and our church communities in this diocese and up and down the country.
“We are also thankful for the fellowship that our diocese is developing with Anglicans in Hong Kong itself, and the new opportunities for friendship and mutual enrichment that this relationship brings. Following on from Bishop Arun’s visit to Hong Kong last month where he saw the impressive richness and depth of the Diocese of Hong Kong Island’s parishes, schools and social service units, we are looking forward to deepening this relationship when Bishop Matthias Der is welcomed to our diocese in a few months’ time.
“Whatever the new opportunities that God gives to you at the start of this new year, we pray that you would encounter the power of the Holy Spirit in your hearts and lives. We wish you all a very Happy Lunar New Year! 新年快樂!”
Bishop Toby Howarth
Bishop Smitha Prasadam
Bishop Arun Arora
Bishop Anna Eltringham
Bishop Malcolm Chamberlain