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2/22 TO BHMA Greek Australian VEMA ÌÁÕ 2002 Easter Message Patriarchal Encyclical on Holy Pascha + BARTHOLOMEW Lord Jesus Christ. We participate this year BY THE MERCY OF GOD ARCHBISHOP once again in the universal celebration of the Standing without wavering upon the rock of OF CONSTANTINOPLE Resurrection, through which and on account faith in the Lord’s resurrection and our own, NEW ROME AND ECUMENICAL of, we experience in our life the transcendence we sing joyfully along with the hymnographer PATRIARCH of death and all sorrow. and praise the sacred and all-venerable Pascha. UNTO THE ENTIRE PLENITUDE The outward and festal Pascha, but also the OF THE CHURCH We bow before and thank our Lord Jesus inner and mystical one, which is accomplished GRACE, MERCY AND PEACE FROM Christ, Who rose from the dead, because He in the depths of our hearts, instills in our spirit THE GLORIOUSLY RISEN SAVIOR renders worthy those of us who, in the ortho- the life of the Risen Christ and the unquench- CHRIST dox way, worship and honor Him to see the able joy of the eternal life in Christ. wondrous deeds of God, to become recipients Christ is Risen! of the supernatural light of His resurrection, We rejoice in every way, enjoying in body and which leads us to a new life, and to feel this new spirit the gifts of Jesus Christ who loves us. And We welcome with this joyous salutation, life pulsating robustly in our hearts and van- we wholeheartedly wish that all our fellow beloved brethren and sons and daughters in quishing the many and great sorrows of the human beings would become participants of Patriarch Bartholomew the Lord, the feast of the Resurrection of our present life. this joy and blissful life, especially those who are downtrodden by various sorrows and tribu- lations and those who do not know the joy of the Resurrection and the love of the Risen Christ towards us all. Faith in the Resurrection of Christ and participation in it deflect every pain, offer hope, conquer the fear of death, and grant optimism and joy. We are not ignorant of human pain, injustice, harrasment, illness, poverty and deprivation. We do not live outside the present sorrowful universal condition. We are crucified with Christ and suffer with all our fellow human beings that are treated unjustly. But we know that there is a healer of all these, our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered and was crucified for us, who also granted us victo- ry over death and, overcoming all sorrows, the expectation of ineffable joy and the indis- putable promise of eternal life. The feast of the Resurrection of Christ is for us a turning point of joy within the vast sea of the sorrows of life. It is a point of recovery through hope and of re-equipment through spiritual endurance and vigor, so that we can face the complexities of contemporary life with opti- mism. It is from this feast that we draw courage, according to the word of the Lord, “be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”, because the Resurrection is the great- est victory over the power of evil in the world, which is very good inasmuch as it was God’s goodness that created it for us human beings. The Resurrection of Christ reminds us that we have the possibility and the duty through His grace to resist every fall into sin, every disap- pointment and pessimism, and to look to Him and to His Church for receiving Divine Grace and help in every difficult circumstance of our life. Be of good cheer, then, beloved sons and daughters in the Lord, and make peace with one another, rejoicing in the worldwide paschal celebration, because Christ’s Resurrection is also our resurrection, and Christ’s victory over evil can also be ours through His grace and our persistence in the struggle against every evil, pain and bereave- ment. This is what we wholeheartedly wish for all of you, on whom we invoke the grace, the peace and the strength of the Risen Christ. And we call all of you to repeat at this Pascha as well, the salutation of the victory of Christ over every evil. Christ is Risen! Holy Pascha 2002 +Bartholomew of Constantinople Your fervent supplicant before God MAY 2002 The Greek Australian VEMA TO BHMA 3/23 Editorial Adopting a spirit of our own, but what kind? What was noticeable at the recent ANZAC celebrations? Perhaps it was the record is that, while there are countless dedicated, sincere and powerful believers in God number of people who cheered as they lined the street parades in our capital cities. throughout Australia, you could be excused for not noticing them in our streets, in Perhaps it was the newfound eagerness of the young relatives of the diggers to wear our conversations or in our public debates. their fathers’ and grandfathers’ medals proudly in the parades. Or was it the notice- able increase in patriotic fervour, manifested in an almost religious manner through Yet in spite of this, we are witnessing the development of a public culture that the now popular ‘pilgrimage’ to Gallipoli, or the acknowledgement of the greatest espouses old-fashioned values, but in a new way. Three examples of these values are: sacrifice that those young men made on its shores on April 25, 1915, or the reverence paid to their tombs, or the realization that moral victory has arisen from a physical 1) self-sacrifice (already seen in the ANZAC celebrations) defeat, or the sacredness of memory epitomized in the words ‘Lest We Forget’? 2) giving to the less fortunate (as with, for example, the very popular annual 40 hour famine organized by World Vision between May 17-19 The outpouring of emotion nationwide had an almost religious character; the sym- this year) bolism involved seems to unknowingly align itself more with spiritual orientation 3) volunteering of time (without any expectation of reward, than with a purely historical commemoration. made particularly prominent during the Sydney Olympic Games) Intriguing, isn’t it, that ANZAC Day, fixed on our calendar as April 25, always lies within the orbit of the moveable feast of Easter. A feast which, for the Christian and It is this growing tendency of westerners - not just Australians - to want to adopt a non-Christian alike, appears to come and go each year without making even a frac- ‘way of life’ rather than what they perceive to be a ‘system of beliefs’ that has inad- tion of the public statement that ANZAC Day now makes. vertently led to the new fashion of ‘godless religion’ in our times. People obviously want a sense of purpose, and of belonging to a community that rallies behind a cause. Easter has unfortunately turned into a non-event in Australian society. Blink and you might miss it. The Easter message does not appear to reach beyond the walls of There is a thirst for a real sense of community, and of plain community spirit. The the Church building into the public domain. TV programming this year carried on longing is always there in the human heart, and it just needs an avenue like ANZAC pretty much as if it was not Easter. Sydney’s Sunday papers - the ones that were Day to find expression. printed on Easter Sunday, that is - reflected nothing of the significance of the day! Absolutely nothing. Right there, almost by accident, there is a message that not only has national sig- nificance, but a spiritual one as well. Was this because we are a multicultural, multi faith society? If that is the reason, it is not a convincing one, as more Australians attend Church on any one Sunday than attend any other event - even the largest of the football Grand Finals. Simply Dimitri Kepreotes put, we are living in a secular society. That should not surprise or shock us. The fact [email protected] your father do?” followed by, “and how many Talking brothers and sisters do you have?” As I was totally and utterly unschooled in the ways in which marriages were arranged, it took me a Point long time to realise that the purpose behind by Ann Coward this last line of questioning was to assess my prospects as a suitable ‘catch’. Questions played a central role in the one for- mal lesson in high school which stands out in Taking time BRING YOUR CHILDREN TO LEARN OUR IMMORTAL DANCES THAT CREATED my mind as having taught me something of THE HISTORY OF OUR NATION. IN DOING SO to consider real value. The teacher of English asked us to THEY WILL FEEL PROUD OF THEIR GREEK HERITAGE. bring in newspaper cuttings of advertisements as well as editorial and photographs. Then, she EVERY MONDAY AT THE ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH HALL IN BELMORE. When I was a child it always struck me that asked us to consider what was the aim of each, EVERY WEDNESDAY AT THE SYLVANIA HEIGHTS PUBLIC IN SCHOOL LISBON ST. there were “Greek questions” and “other peo- what techniques had been used to achieve this EVERY THURSDAY & FRIDAY AT THE P.C.Y.C., BUNNERONG ROAD, DACEYVILLE ple’s questions”. Other people’s questions usu- aim, and how successful was the attempt; a (KINGSFORD) ally began with, “how old are you?” followed valuable lesson in the basic principles of by, “what school do you go to?” and then, of Design, but this was not the point. For further details, please call Sophia on (02) 9661 6903 117922 course, the question I always dreaded the most, “and what do you want to be when you grow Her intention on that day was quite specific.

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