The Parishes-Communities of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in Sydney held today (Sunday) their common celebration of the Great and Holy Feast of Epiphany (aka Theophany) at Yarra Bay Bicentennial Park.
The celebration is on January 6th, however, in Australia it is moved for the immediate next Sunday, in order for the flock to attend this significant celebration on the Orthodox calendar (in Greece and Cyprus it is a public holiday).
Thousands of people attended this year’s feast which is about commemorating the Baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan River, the appearance of the Holy Spirit in the form a dove and the voice of God the Father saying “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased”.
Thus, the Church deems that The Holy Trinity showed itself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is where the word Theophany is derived. Theo (God) Phany (to appear).
During the ceremony the Holy Cross was thrown in the sea and dozens of men swam to collect it. The lucky one was 27 year old Anastasios Mpakoulis (or Bakoulis) from the Parish of St Gerasimos in Leichhardt.
The ceremony was conducted in the leadership of Archbishop his Eminence, Archbishop Makarios and other priests from the Sydney region.
The religious event was followed by a Greek Festival with food, music and dancing.
Mr Makarios: the mercy of God will cover the fire victims and their families
His Eminence, speaking to the faithful, referred to the tragedy of the current bushfires, which have taken more than 20 lives, burning over a million hectares of land and destroying over 500 million animals.
He praised the firefighters and thanked them for their heroic effort to save lives and property. He said that the mercy of God will cover the victims and their families.
Finally, he remarked that mankind may think of itself as “all powerful”, having gone to the moon, and yet, next to the power of the forces of nature, mankind is humbled and meek.
He fervently asked everyone to pray to God, with lots of warmth, piety, humility and love to “release the heavens”, a poetic reference to rain, saying that rain will be the quickest and most effective way to bring an end to the fires.
“Water is essential for life and for cleansing”
Archbishop Makarios reminded the congregation that in the early Church, the feast of “Epiphany” or “Theophany” also included Christmas and that it was later, in the third century, that the Church decided to celebrate Christmas on a separate day.
“Water is essential for life and for cleansing” he said. “We need it both to live and to be clean.” So too the feast of Theophany reminds us of the gift of being alive and being clean. We are given spiritual life and we are cleansed through baptism both physically and spiritually. God enters us and takes comfort in our cleanliness. Baptism is our personal Theophany.
Archbishop Makarios reminded the faithful that it is proper to maintain our life source and to keep our cleanliness, not only of the body, but of the soul. In this way, a person walks the path to the Kingdom of Heaven, prepared for us by a God who loves us so much that he came to Earth in the form of a man to show us the way to His Kingdom. Archbishop Makarios connected Theophany, the baptism of Christ, to the baptism of all Christians and to the sacrament of confession for the maintenance of the life of our soul and its cleanliness.
Other guests that attended toady festivities were, NSW Labor Leader, Jodi McKay, Cyprus’ High Commissioner to Canberra, Martha Mavrommati, Greece’s Consul General in Sydney, Christos Karras, Greece’s Commercial Attache, Katia Gkikiza, other state MP’s, Councillors from Sydney Councils, the president of the Inter-Communities Council of the Archdiocese, Kosmas Demetriou and others.
