On the afternoon of Sunday, December 6, Archbishop Makarios of Australia offered a Trisagion service on the tomb of the Greek-Australian Ghikas Voulgaris (1809-1874), a fighter of the 1821 Greek Revolution from Hydra, who was arrested and condemned along with six other compatriots and then transported to the then colony of New South Wales as a convict.
The Trisagion service a tribute of memory and honor to a man who, together with Antonis Manolis, is identified with the origins of Greek community in Australia and, at the same time, is one of the few tangible, in some ways, connections of Australia with the Greek War of Independence in 1821. In this sense, Trisagion service was the second event in a row of the National Committee of the Holy Archdiocese for the 200 years of the Greek Revolution.
The Archbishop stressed how important for the Greek Diaspora the tomb of Ghikas Voulgaris in Nimmitabel was, referring to his relationship with Antonis Manolis in reference to the 1821 Greek Revolution, to the great difficulties which Ghikas had to face as a foreigner and, finally, to the fact that he was the first Archbishop to visit his tomb as a mere pilgrim and shepherd.
It is noted that the Archbishop was accompanied, among others, by the new Archiepiscopal Vicar of Canberra, Archimandrite Prochoros Anastasiadis, while Diaspora Greeks from the area of the Australian Capital Territory, headed by the President of the Greek Community of Canberra, John Loukadellis, were also present.