Australian and New Zealand Diocese (ROCOR)

Fr Seraphim Slade fell asleep in the Lord on 25 December 2018 on the feast of St Herman of Alaska and St Spiridon after complications from  surgery for long-standing illness.

Fr Seraphim was, the first Aboriginal man to become an Orthodox clergyman. He worked for many years as a radio broadcaster in regional communities. He also worked in Aboridignal prison ministry since 2004. He was, for many years, a sub deacon in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Protection of the Mother of God in Melbourne. He began missionary work to his own Aboriginal people in March 2008, and later that same year, in Canberra, he was ordained to the diaconate on the parish Feast day of the Nativity of St John the Forerunner (7 July 2008). His diaconate did not last long, as he was ordained a priest soon after. In 2009, he established a chapel dedicated to the memory of St John of Shanghai and San Francisco in his home in Gunning and continued to serve there and in Canberra. (more…)

The 2018 Teen Retreat saw almost 60 high school students, from parishes around Australia, travel to Stanwell Tops, south of Sydney, from 16-21 December – the eighth in a series of successful Teen Retreats hosted by different cities of our Diocese.

The highlight of the first day saw the Teen Retreat receiving the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God as it travelled around the country. A moleben was served in its presence to open the retreat, followed by venerating the icon and a talk from Bishop George of Canberra on the history of the icon. This proved to be a wonderful beginning to the Retreat, followed by Icebreaker games run by Helen Alalikin. As always, it didn’t take long to feel as if the Retreaters had long known each other. (more…)

On Friday, 14 December 2018, His Grace Bishop George of Canberra brought the holy Kursk-root Icon of the Mother of God from New York to the Australian and New Zealand Diocese. At 10am the faithful of Sydney parishes greeted the holy icon at the Diocesan Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Strathfield where a moleben was served.

On Saturday, 15 December 2018 and Sunday, 16 December 2018, the holy icon was present at Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral Strathfield for the services which were led by His Grace Bishop George. Co-serving with His Grace were the cathedral clergy protopriest George Lapardin, priest Michael Storozhev and protodeacon Alexander Kotlaroff. (more…)

Заявление принято на заседании Священного Синода Русской Православной Церкви 15 октября 2018 года в Минске.

С глубочайшей болью Священный Синод Русской Православной Церкви воспринял опубликованное 11 октября 2018 года сообщение Константинопольской Патриархии о принятых решениях Священного Синода Константинопольского Патриархата: о подтверждении намерения «предоставить автокефалию Украинской Церкви»; об открытии в Киеве «ставропигии» Константинопольского Патриарха; о «восстановлении в архиерейском или иерейском чине» лидеров украинского раскола и их последователей и «возвращении их верующих в церковное общение»; об «отмене действия» соборной грамоты Константинопольского Патриархата 1686 года, касающейся передачи Киевской митрополии в состав Московского Патриархата. (more…)

With profound pain the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has taken the report of the Patriarchate of Constantinople published on October 11, 2018, about the following decisions of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople:  confirming the intention “to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church; opening a “stauropegion” of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Kiev; “restoring in the rank of bishop or priest” the leaders of the Ukrainian schism and their followers and “returning their faithful to church communion”; “recalling the 1686 patent of the Patriarchate of Constantinople on the transfer of the Metropolis of Kiev to the Moscow Patriarchate as its part. (more…)

11 сентября (в день памяти Усекновения главы Пророка, Иоанна Предтечи, когда по православной традиции поминаются все воины «положившие свой живот за Веру, Царя и Отечество») в парке при военном мемориальном комплексе Мельбурна “SHRINE OF REMEMBRANCE” у поминальной плиты под раскидистым ясенем служилась заупокойная лития в память о Русской Императорской армии и 1000 русских граждан, служивших в Австралийских частях в годы Первой Мировой войны (1914 – 1918 гг). (more…)

Дружно и с теплым гостеприимством данденонгский приход отметил свой престольный праздник в день Успения Божией матери.

Это – горячо любимый всеми верующими праздник, окрашенный одновременно печалью об окончании жизненного пути Заступницы нашей Небесной, и радостью о соединении Пречистой Матери Господней с Сыном Своим. (more…)

Standing before God in prayerful solidarity with our long-suffering brethren of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine, who, being revered and respected throughout the whole of the Orthodox world, is primate of the only recognised canonical Orthodox Church of Christ in Ukraine, we, the members of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian (more…)