When he was just 14, Costa Dantos began a collage of the Greek Orthodox churches in New South Wales. This simple idea took on a life of its own and eight years later, the urban planner has put 163 Greek churches in Australia, irrespective of denomination, on the (online) map.
Mr Dantos is proud of his Greek heritage and, most recently, he led a successful online petition to project the Greek flag onto the Sydney Opera House on 25 March.
The 22-year-old is an active member on the committees a number of Greek societies in New South Wales and is also a member of the Holy Apostles Greek Orthodox parish of Hamilton in Newcastle and the St Sophia Greek Orthodox Parish of Darlinghurst in Sydney.
“I am proud of being Australian, Greek, Greek-Macedonian, Greek-Thessalian and a Mikrasiati,” he told Neos Kosmos.
When did you begin the mapping project?
Around 2012 when I was 14 I began researching into the Greek Orthodox Churches in NSW. I only knew about the Archdiocese and then-Greek Orthodox Community of NSW churches at the time but slowly began discovering more as well.
I loved demographics, history, geography, Greekness and architecture so these things went hand-in-hand in me finding interest in the Greek churches and I went way beyond then I thought.
What prompted you to do this?
I do not remember how it first started but I found the uniqueness in the architecture and the locations of Greek Orthodox churches to be fascinating. I know Greek people from all over Sydney and Newcastle so have been to a lot of the churches around those areas.
READ MORE: Greek flag may be projected onto the Sydney Opera House
How did you set about doing it?
Initially it was just a collage of Greek churches in Sydney, NSW and the ACT with photos of the churches where there were even photos available, and the suburb the church was located in. I did not discover some churches till later though as some have almost no information online and there is no other one stop shop for all places of worship attended by mostly Greek Australians. Then I began adding more information into a spreadsheet such as the church histories, dedicated patron saints of the churches and other things. But from the extensive research I have done and being an urban planner, I like to just keep some of the findings for myself.
How long did it take you?
Years. Over time sometimes looking at it a lot but then often big breaks from paying it attention.
Are you satisfied with the work you have done or is there more that you still need to do?
I am satisfied with the work I have done. I had a list of the Autocephalous and Evangelical churches somewhere but a lot of different documents everywhere I thought to just collate it into one. I have done so much research into a lot of stuff with the Greek community being one of the biggest areas of interest.
What methods did you rely on?
Secondary research was the main thing and even talking to people on the street and at Greek events. I just found it ridiculous that there is no place listing all churches on any Greek or non-Greek website.
How easy was it to reach out to the 163 churches?
I never reached out to any church except two or three rectors I know and wanted to learn the history for. I just did it from my independent research and what was available. One of the biggest and most annoying challenges was finding contradictory information on the histories of some churches.
How easy was it to reach out to the various denominations, Archdiocese, Autochephalus, Old Calendar and Evangelicals?
I never reached out to any of them. But I was surprised at how many Old Calendar Greek churches and Greek Evangelical churches exist in Australia. Of note, all being located in either NSW, VIC, SA and the ACT.
Where did you find Greek churches where you least expected one to be there?
Honestly nowhere, I am very strong on the idea that “Greeks are everywhere” and the map proves that. There are some smaller Greek Orthodox communities as well that exist in Australia in places like Toowoomba and Alice Springs for example, but I needed to stop somewhere on the map and again there is barely any data and no one-stop-shop list available on any website.
What of Greek Catholic churches?
The map I made is more from the Greek sociocultural perspective, so places of worship where Greeks attend. Despite Greek and Melkite Greek Catholic churches having the word “Greek” in them, they are not really attended by Greek people and certainly not the majority of parishioners. But even if they were not strictly Christian worship places in Australia attended mostly by Greeks, for example, the Greek Jewish synagogues in Israel and New York, or the recently-built Greek Polytheist Temples in Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece, I still would have included them on the map if they were in Australia.
With Greek Catholics, nearly all Greeks in Australia who identify as Catholics are such as a result of intermarriage mainly with Italians, Australians and Lebanese Maronites where their half-Greek children adopted their other parent’s religion.
What were some of the difficulties you encountered and how did you overcome them?
Finding all churches which took eight years really, from start to finish, of irregularly looking at them was a huge difficulty. I overcame them by continuing to research. A great benefit of sharing the map online was I did ask people to let me know of any additional churches they know about or attend.
Another difficulty after posting the churches were some very pro-Archdiocese people were not happy about me putting the Archdiocese and Autocephalous (New Calendar) Greek Orthodox churches under the same subheadings. I wanted to more so highlight how many Greek churches were in each state as opposed to who owns which church and their canonical status. I did have the marker points on the map colour coded but I agree they were not very visible when you read through them.
What have you learnt from the experience?
I have left a lot of golden research packages secretly hidden for so long that gain so much traction, attention and interest, maybe some of them I should start sharing. But I have both wisely spent and for some things wasted countless hours of my childhood and youth doing them. But I am glad people loved it.
Are you planning to do more on this project?
I think I have done everything I share. I did do it for fun and these sorts of things are big conversation starters that can last for hours and can be documented in thousands of documents, believe me I know. But what I have shared will likely be all. I do want to just keep some information for myself. I am becoming extremely more and more time constrained as I am getting older as I do a lot of things outside of normal working hours too. If I get time, the only thing I may share publicly on the map is one perfect interior shot of each church looking from the entrance towards the altar. But to ensure I get a photo for each, I would need the community’s help. And that will be too many messages and emails for me to manage these days.
What other projects are you planning to work on?
I am constantly thinking of something fun and projects to do. Not at the rate I used to, but their qualities and innovation are getting better. Sometimes I share some as brief images or maps that I make.
Costa Dantos’ compiled map of ‘All Greek Churches in Australia’:
