New arrivals from Hong Kong joined with more than 100 locals from St Barnabas’ Alwoodley, Leeds to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
Welcoming the Year of the Tiger, the church was decorated with fai chun (traditional red decorations) and everybody brought Chinese food to share.
Children played games together and everyone exchanged New Year greetings at the happy occasion..
Revd Canon Andrew Norman, diocesan Director of Ministry and Mission, was also at the event to add words of welcome.
During the festivities, lai see envelopes were given out to everyone attending - normally these would have money in but this time each envelope had a blessing written in Chinese and English!
Revd Dave Young (??? Ho Ming Lun), the vicar of St Barnabas’ whose father is Hong Kong Chinese, said: "It was amazing to celebrate the Lunar New Year together with so many new arrivals from Hong Kong and it has been wonderful to see how the congregation at St Barnabas’ has reached out to welcome new arrivals with such enthusiasm.
"My hope is that lasting friendships are made and new arrivals are made to feel very welcome here in North Leeds."
He hopes to continue to develop support for new arrivals from Hong Kong across the city and the diocese and would be very happy to hear from anyone who is interested supporting this work - dave.young@leeds.anglican.org
Alwoodley and North Leeds has seen a large number of new arrivals from Hong Kong since last year’s announcement of the British National Overseas passport scheme allowing Hong Kong citizens to come and reside in the UK. St Barnabas’ Alwoodley has been involved in leading welcome to new arrivals from Hong Kong and hosted a very successful welcome event last November.
???? - Happy Lunar New Year! (Sun Lin Fai Lok!)