On Thursday, May 26, Archbishop Makarios of Australia, participated as keynote speaker in the 3rd International Scientific Conference entitled “Contemporary and Timeless Aspects of the Hellenic Diaspora”, which is co-organized during the current three-day period (26-28 May) by the Australian Charles Darwin University and the Greek Universities of the Aegean and Macedonia.
The theme developed by Archbishop Makarios immediately after the official opening of the Conference was: “The Orthodox Church and its mission to the world”.
In his introduction, the Archbishop congratulated the coordinators of the Conference and by name the Professor of Charles Darwin University, Mr. George Frazis, while he conveyed the paternal blessings of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
He then referred to the crucial role that the Greek Orthodox Church of Australia has played over time in the sacred mission of preserving the identity and cohesion of the Greek immigrants on the fifth continent. He briefly described some of the multifaceted activities of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia, which focus on the pastoral, social, educational, cultural and spiritual sectors.
In the main part of his address, Archbishop Makarios presented the theological vision of the Church, on which all its initiatives and activities are based. “By its nature the Church is in communion and apostolic”, he stressed, and then went on to analyse these two dimensions of its nature and mission.
Referring to the nature in communion, he described the unifying power of the Church, since “as the living presence of the body of the incarnate Word of God, it brings the faithful into communion with Christ and with each other”.
Moreover, focusing on its apostolic character, the Archbishop pointed out that the Church is present in the contemporary challenges that humanity faces, by promoting the teaching of the Holy Gospels, and essentially continues the work of the Apostles, in accordance with the mandate they received from Christ. To support this, he recalled the content of the relevant decisions of the Holy and Great Pan-Orthodox Synod, which took place in Crete in 2016.
At the conclusion of his speech, Archbishop Makarios briefly outlined his vision and the current planning for the future role of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia, including a description of the ambitious plan for the development of the central facilities of the Holy Archdiocese in Sydney. By quoting a phrase of St. Peter the Apostle: “a stone that is a cornerstone of honor”, the Archbishop stated that the Holy Archdiocese will become a dynamic nucleus for the Greek Orthodox faithful in order to connect more firmly with the traditions and customs of their Greek Orthodox heritage.
In addition, the vision for the future includes the potential for the Greek Orthodox Church to gain a further outreach and to set a good example to the wider Australian society by promoting the richness of our invaluable heritage – our Orthodox spirituality, culture, language and traditions. “By achieving this, we will have remained faithful to the nucleus of the unifying and apostolic character of the Church,” he concluded.