Parishes across the Diocese marked Vocations Weekend in Cyprus and the Gulf on the fourth weekend of Easter —24-26 April—celebrating members of the Fellowship of Vocation, lay ministers-in-training and ordinands.

At Church of the Epiphany in Doha (main image), the Venerable Mark Derry led a Vocation Friday service with six candidates and ordinand Stanley Alfred taking part in the liturgy—robed for the first time, and witnessed by a congregation of some 400 people.

On Vocations Sunday the people of Christ Church Ayia Napa gathered for a Eucharist led by the Reverend George Vidiakin, in which Akash Niamat (below), a member of the Fellowship of Vocation, contributed to the Liturgy of the Word.

The congregation was called to pray for Akash and his family as he continues through the discernment process, to give thanks for God’s call in every life, and to pray for God’s guidance in the discernment of a vocation.

In the run-up to Vocations Weekend, Diocesan Director of Ministry the Reverend Kent Middleton shared with parishes liturgical resources and video material for members of congregations contemplating their calling.