The 46 years old Hierarch thanked Ecumenical Patriarch for entrusting him such a crucial mission, stressing that he wishes to approach visionless and hopeless people and surround them with fraternal love.
“I do not go to Australia as a savior or a subverter. I wish to eliminate myself, so as to put forward my Church and my people”, says in his interview to “Sunday Ethnos” newspaper the new Archbishop of Australia, Makarios.
The Archbishop has an impressing curriculum vitae that many would envy. He has studied Theology, Christian Ethics, History of Science, Philosophy and Medicine, with specialty in Bioethics.
He admits that it never occurred to him that Church would assign him such a powerful Archdiocese. The Archbishop thanks from the depth of his heart Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for this blessing, and claims that he focuses on man himself.
On the supposed division of the Archdiocese of Australia into metropolises, Archbishop Makarios emphasized that such a decision presupposes particular attention, because hasty movements may cause an irreparable damage to the local Church and Ecumenical Patriarchate.
He also admitted that he is not aware of the particularities of the Archdiocese of Australia and the difficulties he may face there, but he wishes to have firsthand experience and not a journalistic account of things. In general, he estimates that there will be no special or great difficulties.
The Archbishop of Australia also expressed his views on the Ukrainian issue, stressing that Moscow came to Ukraine with no ecclesiastic decree and decision, adding that, undoubtedly, the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Patriarch did the right thing for the local Church of Ukraine.
Concluding, he sends the message that “the Ecumenical Patriarchate is our life source. If we detach ourselves from it, we shall wither in our bloom, lost in solitary gloom, as waterless trees”.
