Archbishop Makarios of Australia had the opportunity to communicate closely with the devout faithful of the Parish of Saint Catherine, in the suburb of Mascot, Sydney, and to exchange festive wishes with them for the Great Feast of Christmas and for the imminent arrival of the new year 2025. Visiting the Greek Orthodox church on the Sunday after the Nativity of Christ, 29 December 2024, Archbishop Makarios officiated at the Matins Service and presided over the Divine Liturgy, joined by the Parish Priest, Fr. Peter Mavrommatis, and by his predecessor, Fr. Stavros Ivanos, who currently serves at the Parish of Saint Spyridon, Kingsford.
During his sermon, after referring to the deeper meaning of the incarnation of the Son and Word of God, an event that constitutes a call to the modern person for holiness, Archbishop Makarios then focused his attention on the rapid development of science and technology – in particular, Artificial Intelligence, through which attempts are being made to replace the human person with machines. Referring to the inspired word of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, from the Patriarchal Message for this year’s Christmas Feast, the Archbishop emphasised right from the beginning that any progress in science and technology is not possible to reach the depths of the human soul.
He then clarified that the Orthodox Church is not technophobic, as it accepts and applauds achievements that contribute to progress, the common good and the salvation of humankind. Archbishop Makarios distinguished, on the contrary, that a part of the scientific world is inspired by a disdain for Theology, rejecting anything that goes beyond secular knowledge, and spoke of a phenomenon of scientific fundamentalism. However, he emphasised that “the Church comes today to tell us that an event like the incarnation of the Son and Word of God cannot be repeated by humankind.”
He added that the scientific community’s effort to replace humans with machines is doomed to fail. Because “it can approach, it can get closer to humans, but what it will create will never cease to have mechanistic elements. No matter how much we give it human qualities, it will still be a machine. And this marks the largest difference between humans, who are the image of God, and machines, which are the image of humans who do not believe in God.”
Concluding his address, Archbishop Makarios congratulated the Parish Priest, Father Panagiotis, and all his collaborators at the Parish of Saint Catherine, for their dedicated ministry and commendable work, while at the end of the Divine Liturgy, in an atmosphere of great emotion, he sang with the entire congregation the traditional carols of Saint Basil and the New Year.
