The Sunday of Orthodoxy was celebrated with ecclesiastical splendor at the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Sydney.
Archbishop Makarios of Australia presided over the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning at Matins and then presided over the procession of the Holy Icons in memory of the definitive restoration of the Holy Icons after the triumph of the Orthodox Church during the iconoclasm.
In his sermon, the Archbishop of Australia stressed the valuable legacy that all of us Orthodox have and pointed out that what we have as data today was not acquired without effort and struggle. “Just as we have a free homeland because some people fought and sacrificed, in the same way, we have a free faith because some people also fought and sacrificed. Some have shed their blood for Orthodoxy. All those who were martyred for Christ were martyred because Christ was not a lie, nor an idea. They were martyred for the truth and the living faith.”
He then commented on a phenomenon of the present era, which concerns the existence of certain supposedly enlightened or traditional, honorable, and faithful in their sick thinking, stressing that we enter the Church to be saved. “The church saves us. We do not save the Church,” he underlined and continued: “Every believer must be connected to his parish, in which the priest must belong to the local Archdiocese and commemorate the canonical bishop.” “Everything else is demonic and does not lead to salvation, but to demonism,” he said.
It should be noted that the Archimandrite of the Ecumenical Throne, Christoforos Krikelis, Protosyncellus of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia, and the Elder of the Cell of Saint Anne in Karyes on Mount Athos, Father Antipas, participated in the Divine Liturgy, whom the Archbishop warmly welcomed to the fifth continent. Antipas will be in Australia for about a month to receive the confessions of the faithful in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. The Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Ioannis Mallikourtis, also attended the Divine Liturgy.
