One of the problems of the Greek Orthodox Church of Australia are the renegade churches that split from the Archdiocese to form their own community group. There is renewed hope for unity however following a meeting between a delegation of the St Spyridon Church of Clayton in Melbourne with new Australian Archbishop Makarios on 16 July at the central offices of the Archdiocese in Sydney.
The Archbishop accepted the Community delegation, consisting of the President, Athanasios Mandalos, the Treasurer, Ioannis Binos, and two former clergymen, Christodoulos Vassilaris and Georgios Athanasiadis.
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The Archbishop accepted the call for dialogue to restore the community to ecclesiastical canonicality and promised on his part that he would make every effort to achieve this goal.
At the same time Archbishop Makarios referred to Patriarch Bartholomew’s unifying and loving mood to restore every ecclesiastical non-canonicality.
The meeting was held in a cordial climate and in the spirit of dialogue and exchange.
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The split in the community between the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, officially recognised by the Patriarch and the smaller breakaway group has been plaguing the Diaspora for decades. It is hoped that the new leadership of the Greek Archdiocese will provide an opportunity to reconcile the two groups.