Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | Australia |
Headquarters | Cathedral of The Annunciation of Our Lady, Redfern, Sydney |
Statistics | |
Population - Total | 400,000 approx (2021 Census) [1] |
Parishes | 121 |
Information | |
Denomination | Eastern Orthodox Church |
Cathedral | Cathedral of The Annunciation of Our Lady (1970-present) Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sophia (1927-1970) |
Patron saint | Saint Paisios of Mount Athos |
Language | Greek, English, Ukrainian |
Parent church | Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople |
Metropolitan Archbishop | Makarios Griniezakis |
Auxiliary Bishops |
|
Judicial Vicar | Very Reverend Father Christophoros Krikelis |
Website | |
greekorthodox.org.au |
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia is the Australian archdiocese of the Greek Orthodox Church, part of the wider communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The archdiocese is a jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. As of 2023, there were over 130 parishes and eight monasteries in the seven diocesan districts of the archdiocese in Australia. [2] [3]
Since May 9, 2019, Bishop Makarios is Archbishop of Australia. [4] [5] He was elected by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and was enthroned in front of thousands of faithful on 29 June 2019 at the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Theotokos.
Since February 2024, the Archdiocese of Australia is governed by the Holy Eparchical Synod, at which the incumbent Archbishop of the day presides, and whose members are his active assistant Bishops in their capacity as Regional Bishops. [6]
The first churches founded by Greek Orthodox in Australia were Holy Trinity in Surry Hills, Sydney (1898), and Annunciation of the Theotokos in East Melbourne (1900). The first priest to serve the religious needs of the Greek Orthodox population in Sydney and Melbourne was Archimandrite Dorotheos Bakaliaros. In March 1924, the "Metropolis of Australia and New Zealand" was established under the Ecumenical Patriarchate to cover the expanding Greek population, which by 1927 numbered over 10,000 and had established churches in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Port Pirie in South Australia. The first metropolitan of the new province of the Ecumenical Patriarchate was Christoforos Knitis of Serres. In 1929, Metropolitan Christoforos returned to his homeland, Samos. He died on 7 August 1959.
In 1931, Timotheos Evangelinidis was elected as the second Metropolitan of Australia and New Zealand. He arrived in Australia on 28 January 1932 and presided over the church in Australia and New Zealand until 1947 when he was elected Metropolitan of Rhodes. On 22 April of that year, Theophylactos Papathanasopoulos was elected as the third metropolitan. On 2 August 1958, Metropolitan Theophylactos was killed in a car accident. In February 1959 the assistant bishop of the Archdiocese of America, Bishop Ezekiel Tsoukalas of Nazianzos, was elected Metropolitan of Australia. He arrived in Sydney on 27 April 1959.
On 1 September 1959, the Metropolis of Australia and New Zealand was elevated to an archdiocese and Metropolitan Ezekiel to an archbishop. Archbishop Ezekiel's episcopacy coincided with a period of great expansion in the numbers of Greek Orthodox in Australia through immigration, and many of the parishes that the church has today were formed under his guidance. In August 1974, the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate elevated Archbishop Ezekiel to the titular see of Metropolitan of Pisidia. [7] He died in Athens in July 1987. On 3 February 1975, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate unanimously elected the Metropolitan of Miletoupolis, Stylianos Harkianakis, a lecturer at the University of Thessaloniki, as the new Archbishop of Australia. Archbishop Stylianos arrived in Sydney on 15 April 1975 and was officially enthroned on Lazarus Saturday, 26 April 1975. [8]
The following clergy are members of the archdiocese's current hierarchy. [10] [11]
Hierarch | Position(s) | Years | Notes |
Archbishop Makarios of Australia | Archbishop of Australia | 2019–present | |
Metropolitan Ezekiel of Dervis | Retired in 2021, based in Melbourne | 1977–present | Titled Bishop of Dervis until his retirement in 2021, formerly Vicar of Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth |
Metropolitan Seraphim of Sebasteia | Retired in 2019, based in Sydney | 1991–present | Titled Bishop of Apollonias until his retirement in 2019, formerly Vicar of Sydney and Chancellor of the Archdiocese |
Bishop Pavlos of Christianopolis | Retired, based in Adelaide | 1984–1994 2019–present | Joined schismatic Autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church of America and Australia in 1994 and was defrocked by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1994. Pavlos sought repentance and was re-recognised by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on June 19, 2019 |
Bishop Iakovos of Miletoupolis | Head of Pastoral and Spiritual needs of St Basils Aged Care Homes, based in Sydney | 2011–present | First Australian born Greek Orthodox Bishop, Formerly Vicar of Brisbane and Assistant Vicar of Melbourne |
Bishop Emilianos of Meloa | Vicar of Brisbane | 2019–present | Formerly Vicar of Sydney and Chancellor of the Archdiocese |
Bishop Elpidios of Cyneae | Vicar of Perth | 2020–present | |
Bishop Silouanos of Sinope | Vicar of Adelaide | 2020–present | |
Bishop Kyriakos of Sozopolis | Vicar of Melbourne | 2021–present | |
Bishop Christodoulos of Magnesia | Head of Synaxis of Australian Bishops and Proistamenos Parish of The Resurrection of our Lord, our Lady of Myrtles, St. Elessa, Kogarah, New South Wales | 2021–present | |
Bishop Evmenios of Kerasounta | Vicar of Northcote region, Victoria | 2021–present | |
Bishop Bartholomew of Charioupolis | Vicar of Canberra and Tasmania | 2021–present |
See also Greek Orthodox Churches in NSW
Since November 2021, the Archbishop of Australia has assumed responsibilities of the Archdiocesan district of Sydney
See also Greek Orthodox Churches in South Australia and the Northern Territory
From June 2002 until January 2020, Perth and Western Australia was under the jurisdiction of the Adelaide Archdiocesan district
Until its formation in 2019, this region was a part of the Melbourne Archdiocesan district
Until its formation in 2020, the Canberra region was under the jurisdiction of the Sydney district and the Tasmanian region was a part of the Melbourne district
St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College is an Eastern Orthodox Christian seminary located in Redfern, Sydney, New South Wales. The college was established in 1986 by Archbishop Stylianos, who had proposed the establishment of a theological college during the fourth clergy and laity congress in 1981. There was a need for a theological college that would be primarily dedicated to theological study in co-operation with other theological colleges. It would be hoped that a centre of theological reflection and ecumenical dialogue would be created, offering the Orthodox worldview and perspective with scriptural commentaries, the writings of the Greek Fathers, the Orthodox liturgy, iconography and spirituality.
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The Archbishop of Australia is the Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, a jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Church under the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Eastern Orthodox Christian religion. The position was most recently held by Archbishop Stylianos.
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Archbishop Ezekiel Tsoukalas was a Greek bishop and the first Archbishop of Australia in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and New Zealand was an archdiocese of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia and New Zealand, part of the Eastern Orthodox religion. It was a jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The archdiocese was split in 1970 to form the 'Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia' and the 'Metropolis of New Zealand'
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List of all Greek Orthodox parishes and monasteries in the Australian state of South Australia (SA) and the Northern Territory (NT).
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