Orthodox Church in America Parishes in Australia
Encyclopedia
Orthodox Church in America
The Orthodox Church in America is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in North America. Its primate is Metropolitan Jonah , who was elected on November 12, 2008, and was formally installed on December 28, 2008...
(OCA) located within two states
States and territories of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a union of six states and various territories. The Australian mainland is made up of five states and three territories, with the sixth state of Tasmania being made up of islands. In addition there are six island territories, known as external territories, and a...
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
– New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
and Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
. The parishes are under the direct authority of Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen)
Jonah (Paffhausen)
Jonah , Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, is the primate of the Orthodox Church in America . He was elected on November 12, 2008, and installed to his see on December 28, 2008, in Washington, D.C...
.
In 1971, in a split from the ROCOR
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia , also called the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, ROCA, or ROCOR) is a semi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church....
, a group of Orthodox faithful applied to the Orthodox Church in America for acceptance. A parish was formed in Bankstown, NSW, in 1971, under the rectorship of Archimandrite Veniamin (Garshin) and under the patronage of St. Nicholas. A second parish in Brisbane, Holy Annunciation Church, was also formed under the rectorship of Fr. Gregory Malisheff.
In 1977, a third grouping, later named the Australian Orthodox Fraternity of St Michael, was formed in Sydney for the purpose of purchasing and organizing another parish, under the rectorship of Fr. Michael Mersher. Fr. Michael was the rector from 1978-80, Fr Theodore Michaluk from 1980–86, Fr. Leopold in 1986, and Fr. Igor Chlabicz, beginning in 1987.
Following Archim. Veniamin's death in 1994, the Orthodox Church in America was unable to supply a replacement priest for the Bankstown parish. The parish council of St. Nicholas approached the Antiochian Orthodox Bishop Gibran (Ramlawey) of Australia and New Zealand and asked if he was able to supply a priest who could celebrate in Slavonic. Hieromonk Andrija (Zoran) Vujisić and later Fr. Nicholas Gan assisted on a temporary basis until Fr. Mitko Machevski was appointed and commenced services at St Nicholas on 10 August 1996. The parish later formally changed jurisdictions to the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and New Zealand. Fr. Mitko was appointed rector of the parish, which continues to use Church Slavonic and follows the Julian calendar
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar began in 45 BC as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year .The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months...
.
Holy Annunciation Church in Brisbane had a succession of rectors and interim priests, including Igumen Dimitry Obukhoff until 1982, Fr John Jillions (1984-88) and Ian Bojko (1989-2005. After health problems forced Fr Ian out of active ministry in c.2005, the parish was without a rector for some years, until 2009 when the parish formally requested acceptance into ROCOR, which was accepted with the mutual consent of both OCA and ROCOR.
To date, the lone parish remaining in the Orthodox Church in America - Parishes in Australia is the Australian Orthodox Fraternity of St Michael, who is currently served by Fr John Vesic, a priest of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Australia and New Zealand.