Christianity is not a Western religion. It was not founded in London (however much the English liked to believe that God was an Englishman) nor in Rome, still less in Melbourne or Sydney. It was born in Jerusalem and received its intellectual superstructures in Antioch, Damascus, Constantinople and Alexandria. But the spirituality of ancient Eastern Christianity is largely unknown in the West.Even the spiritual traditions of the Orthodox Churches - established in Australia for more than a century - remain unfamiliar, understood only as foreign, exotic and incomprehensible. Recently there has been renewed interest in the Christian East, both in its externals (notably its iconography) and its traditions of prayer and spirituality.
For many years now members of our community have been relocating to the South Eastern Region of Melbourne. There are now approximately 300 Antiochian families in the region. While some families have been able to continue driving to one of the city parishes each Sunday, the extra travel time has made it too demanding for many with young families to attend regularly.
There has been great concern for some time for the faith and nurture of the families in the South East and particularly for the youth and children. Many of the youth and children are also predominantly English speaking and need to have a significant part of the service in the English language.
The objectives of this parish are:
- Primarily to bring glory to God.
- To provide worship in the Antiochian tradition for those people from both Middle Eastern and Australian backgrounds.
- To assist in the care and nurturing of His Antiochian flock in the South Eastern region.
- To expose those outside the Orthodox church to the original faith of the Apostles before the division of East and West.