Sydney Anglican Chinese churches will hold big celebration dinners as they welcome in the Chinese year of the pig this weekend.
Chinese New Year is culturally important to both Christian and non-Christian Chinese, says St Paul's, Chatswood senior assistant minister, the Rev Wilfred Chee and so is a great occasion for getting people together for food and fellowship.
"It is a good event for people with links in the Chinese community to invite their friends to," Mr Chee says.
"We invite our Anglo-Saxon friends along and many of them come and join us too."
Mr Chee says this is the seventh year Chatswood Anglican has run the annual New Year celebration dinner and over 100 people are expected to attend this year.
"We have delicious Chinese food of course. But we also have a Christian talk, sing hymns as well as Chinese New Year songs and some fun games," he says.
The dinner is one of a number of activities along with ESL, table tennis and line dancing that the church uses to reach out to the Chinese community.
"We have seen people coming to our church and become Christians through these activities that go on week by week in the church," Mr Chee says.
This year's dinner will be held on Saturday, February 24 at 6pm at the Kam Fook restaurant in Westfield, Chatswood.
Celebrations in the south
St George's, Hurstville has two Chinese congregations - a Cantonese service with 150 people and a Mandarin service with 100 people - and is also holding a Chinese New Year celebration dinner.
Senior assistant minister, the Rev Albert Leung says the Mandarin congregation are running this year’s celebration dinner in the church tomorrow night.
"This event is planned as a fellowship as well as an outreach to members’ family and friends," he says.
"This is a good opportunity to invite non-Christian friends to a church function."
The evening will include a video about the gospel, a talk by Mr Leung, singing and games.
Mr Leung expects around 80 people to attend the dinner.
