19 April 2012

THE GREEK AUSTRALIAN The oldest circulating Greek newspaper outside VEMA Greece APRIL 2012 Tel. (02) 9559 7022 Fax: (02) 9559 7033 E-mail: [email protected] Media’s impact on our children: MMaassssiivveellyy MMuullttiillaayyeerr OOnnlliinnee GGaammeess ((MMMMOOGG’’ss)) PAGE 7/25 State Heritage Protection for the Cathedral of the Annunciation of Our Lady Australia’s headquarter Greek Orthodox Ca- thedral has been listed on the State Heritage Register, the NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell an- nounced. PAGE 17/35 $1.9 million grant to Bribie Island youth campus The Gillard Government is providing a $1.9 million grant to the Greek Orthodox Archdio- cese of Australia to help complete the second phase of the Bribie Island Youth Campus. PAGE 17/35 Mt Mainalo The heart of the Peloponnese retains its rustic Christ is Risen! feel amid traditional settlements and fir forests. PAGE 20/38 APRIL 2012 2/20 TO BHMA The Greek Australian VEMA PATRIARCHAL ENCYCLICAL FOR HOLY PASCHA Prot. No. 237 The world that is alienated from Christ endeavors to themselves to eternal death. mass material goods because it bases its hopes for sur- +BARTHOLOMEW vival on them. It unwisely imagines that it will escape Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ came into the world in order By the Mercy of God death through wealth. Deceived in this way to amass that all people “may have life and life in abundance” (John Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome wealth, supposedly to extend their present life, human be- 10:10). We deceive ourselves if we believe that prosperi- and Ecumenical Patriarch ings disperse death among others, too. They deny others ty in the world can come from destroying one another. To the Plenitude of the Church the financial possibility of survival, often even violently de- Christ raises the dead and invalidates their killing. Christ Grace, Peace and Mercy from the Savior Christ, priving others of life, in the hope of preserving their own has the power to transcend death. Moreover, the fact that Risen in Glory life. he conquered death confirms His contempt of death. Christ leads to life; He re-bestows life, which happens to * * * How tragic! What a huge deception. For life is only ac- be interrupted, because He is “our life and our resurrec- He became the first-born among the dead. quired through faith in Christ and incorporation in His tion.” This is why we, the faithful, do not fear death. Our (Easter Apolytikion, 3rd tone) body. strength lies not in the invulnerability of our existence but in its possibility for resurrection. The experience of the Orthodox Church assures us that Beloved children in the Lord, those united with Christ live even after death, coexist with Christ is Risen! We, too, shall arise! the living, are in dialogue with them, can hear them and If Christ’s Resurrection referred to Himself, then its sig- are often even capable of miraculously fulfilling their re- Therefore, beloved brethren and children in the Lord, let nificance for us would be negligible. The Church pro- quests. us follow the Risen Christ in all His works. Let us come to claims, however, that, the Lord did not arise alone. Togeth- the assistance of those deprived of the means for survival er with Himself, He also resurrected all people. This is This means that it is no longer necessary to search for so that their life may be preserved. Let us proclaim to all how our predecessor, St. John Chrysostom, proclaims this the “fountain of immortality.” Immortality exists in Christ those who are ignorant of Christ’s Resurrection that, great truth in thunderous language: “Christ is risen, and and is offered by Him to all. through this, death was abolished and, as a result, they none are left dead in the grave; for in being raised from too may share in His Resurrection by believing in Him and the dead, he became the first-fruits of all who were There is no need for some nations to be destroyed in following His way. Our own resurrection is only possible asleep.” This means that Christ became the first-fruits of order for other nations to survive. Nor is there any need to when it is offered for the resurrection of others, of our the resurrection of all who have fallen asleep and who destroy defenseless human lives so that other human be- brothers and sisters. Then alone will the triumphant will fall asleep in the future, as well as of their transition ings may live in greater comfort. Christ offers life to all proclamation that “Christ is Risen!” refer to the salvation from death to life. The message is a joyful one for us all people, on earth as in heaven. He is risen, and all those for all of humanity. Let it be so! because, with His Resurrection Christ abolished the pow- who so desire life may follow Him on the way of Resur- er of death. Those who believe in Him await the resurrec- rection. By contrast, all those who bring about death, Holy Pascha 2012 tion of the dead and are accordingly baptized in His death, whether indirectly or directly, believing that in this way + Bartholomew of Constantinople rise with Him and live on in life eternal. they are prolonging or enhancing their own life, condemn Your fervent supplicant for all APRIL 2012 The Greek Australian VEMA TO BHMA 3/21 Editorial Freedom or death? By Nikos Konstandaras - Kathimerini, Athens In other words, some are thinking of abstaining while others will vote for something that they don't want, “I heard that many are thinking of not voting in the blinded by their anger and in protest at the lack of op- coming elections, in protest. I have spent my life with tions that they have in terms of policies and politicians. people who were ready to sacrifice their freedom, their Abstention, though, is like suicide. Suicide is punishment, life, for the right to vote,” said George Bizos, the lawyer it is revenge, it is not a way out nor an example to be who is a credit to all Greeks for his tireless devotion to followed. It is only an attempt to flee problems, not to the struggle for democracy in South Africa. “I hope the solve them. We cannot expect others to take the deci- Greeks follow their example,” he added, shaking his sions that we want taken, while we wallow in anger head slowly, visibly moved. and passivity. He must have been thinking of his friend Nelson Man- Clearly, our political system cannot bear the weight of dela, whom he defended when he was being tried for the past nor the difficult present. Those who have gov- his resistance to the apartheid regime that had stripped erned lack credibility, however hard they try to show his people of their rights, and many others, living and that they have changed; if the polls are right and PASOK dead, famous and anonymous. and New Democracy together get less than 50 percent Mandela escaped the death sentence but spent 27 found that one in five voters is thinking of abstaining in the elections, they will not have the legitimacy to car- years in prison. After his release in the early 1990s, (down from one in three a few months ago). ry out all the difficult policies demanded by our loan Mandela said, “Greece is the mother of democracy and Apart from their justified anger at today's situation, agreements. This will oblige the smaller parties to South Africa is her youngest daughter,” Bizos told a con- though, it is crucial that citizens see the issue beyond choose between contributing toward solving the coun- ference on ways to get Greece out of the crisis that that of individual politicians. The way things have devel- try's problems or denying reality and so making the was organized by Ellines.com last week. oped, we have to choose between the difficult road of country even less governable. This was the image that people had of Greece. We remaining in the eurozone or the unknown venture of It is crucial that the true feelings of the voters are ex- may have had our problems and allowed them to lead liberating ourselves from loans and debt and, conse- pressed in the coming elections, without abstentions us to catastrophe, but the rest of the world remem- quently, from Europe and the international economy. Be- and without frivolous decisions. Let's learn where we bered humanity's debt to those few troubled but brilliant sides the apparent number of abstentions and the rise stand and what we want, so that we can know how to years in ancient Athens that gave the world the idea that of extremist groups, the polls also show that a large go ahead. Our politics and our economy are bankrupt free citizens, with equal rights, could be responsible for majority of citizens want Greece to remain in the euro- and need changing, but our citizens cannot be seen as their own fate, for the way in which they are governed. zone. This would suggest that increased backing of par- failures. The question is whether the Greeks, who place Today, among all the ills that have befallen us, is the ties which agree only in their wish to forgo Greece's their freedom above all other values, and the Resurrec- anger of many citizens who are thinking of staying obligations is to a great extent the result of anger and tion above all other holidays, will stay stuck in their pur- away from the elections, or are thinking of casting a disappointment and not the conscious adoption of their suit of dead ends or shoulder the responsibility of “protest” vote.

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