Members of the Greek Community of Clayton voted in favour of the group’s return to the jurisdiction of the Australian Archdiocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
The meeting was attended by 106 of the group’s 126 members members of which 104 voted in favour of the group’s admission to the Greek Orthodox church body.
Athanasios Mantalos, President of the Greek Community of Clayton, said, “It was a move that should have happened a long time ago.”
He told Neos Kosmos that the decision means that the Community church will now be included on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese’s jurisdiction as far as the performance of sacraments are concerned, however the activities and assets will continue to belong to the church itself.
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“I hope that we will have Archbishop Makarios with us during the feast day of St Spyridon,” Mr Mantalos said.
Archbishop Makarios sent a message to the community encouraging them to vote in favour of unity.
“I fervently beseech you to not be influenced by voices that do not look to unity and are not based on love,” he wrote.
“Personally, I do not want to see the mistakes of the past. As Orthodox Christians we look forth and proceed forward.”
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He thanked the group for the opportunity to have met with them and said his goal was to ensure that they could work together in one faith. “What you are living at the moment is not truth,” he said.
The group responded positively and voted in favour of integration.