On Thursday, June 29, the memory of Saints Peter and Paul and the fourth anniversary of the enthronement of Archbishop Makarios of Australia were celebrated in Sydney.
The double celebration took place at the Church of St. Stylianos, in the Gymea area. The church which was full of people.
The Archbishop of Australia presided over the Divine Liturgy, accompanied by Bishops Iakovos of Militopolis, Elpidios of Kyanea and Bartholomew of Charioupolis, Protosyncellus of the Holy Archdiocese, Archimandrite Christophoros Krikelis of the Ecumenical Throne, the Head of the celebrating Church, Fr. Konstantinos Varypatis, and other priests of the city of Sydney.
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, Bishop Elpidios sent heartfelt greetings to the Archbishop on behalf of all the Bishops of Australia and the Holy Clergy. “May God give you many and blessed years to continue to sanctify us and guide us all, clergy and people, towards salvation,” Bishop of Kyanea said, addressing Archbishop Makarios with much love and respect.
The Archbishop thanked the present hierarchs, clergy and faithful, and hoped that God would give them strength so that “all together, beloved and united, under the blessing of our Ecumenical Patriarch and our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the builder of our Church, we will move forward towards His glory and not towards the glory of people.”
In addition, the Archbishop referred to the honored Saints, Apostles Peter and Paul, noting the reasons why our Church has instituted the common celebration of their memory. The first reason, as he explained, is that they fell asleep in the Lord on the same day, a year apart from one another, and the second and most essential reason is what we chant during the Vespers of the feast: “…those divided in bodies, and united in the Spirit…”. Indeed, as the Archbishop pointed out, the two Apostles had a common course of life as well as a common spirit while teaching and spreading the Gospel to all nations.
He focused on the description of the vision of the Apostle Paul, referring to the “most powerful existential text written by human hand”.
He recalled that the Apostle of the Nations was originally a persecutor of Christians, but he had kindness in his heart and he accepted Christ in his heart. Moreover, he stressed that the Apostle prayed and, therefore, he was worthy of the divine revelation.
“This experience is the objective for all of us and it does not happen every day in the life of human,” the Archbishop said, urging the faithful not to stop praying, not to get tired and not to be disappointed when they believe that God does not answer to their prayers.
“I wish and ask all of you to follow the example of Paul and to continue praying, if you really want to experience what the Apostle Paul experienced, which in the language of Theology is called the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’,” he concluded.
