SAMARAS TO MEET OBAMAgreekorthodox.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/VEMA_Jul_2013_ENG.pdftological...

JULY 2013 Tel. (02) 9559 7022 Fax: (02) 9559 7033 E-mail: [email protected]

THE GREEK AUSTRALIAN

VEMAThe oldestcirculating

Greeknewspaper

outsideGreece

Journeyingto Kythera

The Kytherian Association of Australia hashelped to sponsor a guidebook to the island ofKythera. In Search of Kythera and Antikythera:Venturing to the island of Aphrodite by TzeliHadjidimitriou has been published in two edi-tions, one in Greek, the other in English.

PAGE 18/36

SantoriniPost volcanic activity on the island largely

to thank for the island’s quality produce andcuisine.

PAGE 20/38

Childhoodimmunisation

Dr Theo Penklis discusses the recently an-nounced changes to the immunisation sched-ule.

PAGES 14/32 - 15/33

WINDOWS TO ORTHODOXY:

Constantine and the British Origins of Byzantine HistoryPAGES 16/34 - 17/35

SAMARASTO MEET OBAMA

In Washington on August 8Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is scheduled to

meet with President Barack Obama in Washington nextmonth. According to a statement released by the WhiteHouse the two leaders will meet on August 8.

The meeting's agenda includes the issues of Greek-USdefense cooperation, the Transatlantic Trade and Invest-ment Partnership, regional cooperation, mutual coun-terterrorism efforts as well as prospects for a settlement

in Cyprus. The two men will also discuss developments inNorth Africa and Syria.

According to the White House the visit will ‘highlightthe strength of the US-Greek relationship today - boundtogether through enduring ties of kinship, common inter-ests, and the NATO Alliance - and underscore the UnitedStates’ ongoing support for Greece’s efforts to reform itseconomy and promote a return to prosperity’.

The Greek Australian VEMATO BHMA2/20 JULY 2013

A method being developed by theDemocritus University of Thrace limitsthe symptoms of and even stabilises pul-monary emphysema and pulmonary fi-brosis.

The first experimental application ofthe therapy utilising a patient’s ownstem cells has been concluded success-fully, peaking the interest of internation-al patients.

Pulmonary emphysema and pulmona-ry fibrosis are diseases that cause perma-nent respiratory failure, resulting in thepatient being forced to live at home andfollow oxygen therapy.

There are appro-ximately 500,000 to800,000 patients suffering from pul-monary emphysema in Greece; that ishalf of all cases being treated at pneuma-tological clinics. The disease is stronglylinked to smoking.

Pulmonary fibrosis is a much rarer con-dition with an incident-population ratioof 10-15 in 100,000. It is however muchmore serious; if it is not treated on time,the survival period is a maximum of 28months.

There is no cure yet for these condi-tions but it seems that Democritus Uni-versity has found a method that provideshope for the future. Professor Demos-thenes Bouros, Head of the Departmentof Pneumonology of the university’sMedical School, explains that the scien-tists extract 100-500 grams of adiposetissue by liposuction from the patient.Stem-cells are then isolated from the fat,prepared and consequently infused in-trabronchially or intravenously to thelower lobes of the patients’ lungs.

The procedure is repeated 3-6 timesper month while the patients are under-

taking a series of tests that monitor thecourse of the disease.

“The stem cells act paracrinially and asimmunomodulators, influencing the fun-ction of the lungs, reducing the symp-toms of the disease and stabilizing thecondition of the patient. There is no per-manent cure.

“Even in lung transplant cases, the sur-vival period is five years,” informs Profes-sor Bouros.

The first experiments with a sample of12 people proved successful. The pa-tients had mild cases of the disease andhad stem cells administered to them reg-ularly. Encouraging positive results wereevident from the first months of the curewith no side-effects.

There are already 60 people takingpart in the second phase of the tests andtheir number is expected to reach 100until the summer. Professor Bouros haspresented the results to participants ofthe university’s 1st PneumonologicalSymposium in.

The method has attracted the atten-tion of patients from the United States,Great Britain, Romania and Cyprus who

contact the university in search of moreinformation. Interestingly, the Democri-tus University has managed to procure atno additional cost the usually expensivePirfenidone for the period of a year; adrug approved by the European Medi-cine Agency but as yet unavailable inGreece.

Stem-cell treatments have been mak-ing headway in recent years, even show-ing promise in cardiac treatments.

Respiratory stem cell method developed in Thrace gains international interest

Breath of hope

The demand for respite and permanent accommodation for adults in our community with intellectual and physical disabilities is increasing. This is due to ageing parents/carers, who are often battling their own health issues hence no longer able to provide full time care.

The Estia Foundation has recently been awarded a Supreme Court ruling to obtain waterfront land in the St George/Sutherland Shire following a successful submission in 2011 by the “Kyle Williams Trust”. With this land now secured, the Estia Foundation is making initial steps to fulfill its proposal and establish day programs, res-pite facilities and group homes on the land for children and adults with disabilities.

In addition to this, the Estia Foundation is due to commence building a complex permanently housing ten adults with intel-lectual and physical disabilities in Gladesville.

Both projects have been long time goals of the Estia Foundation and although the Foundation does receive Government funding to operate it’s established services, no funding has been approved for building costs. Furthermore, the NSW Government does not cover all expenses to run the quality services which we pride our-selves upon. We rely on the financial generosity of the community to assist in meeting the shortfall.

This year the Dinner will be held on Friday, 27th September 2013 at 7.00pm, at Le Montage, Leichhardt.

Cost: $160p/p (includes a three course meal, beer, wine and soft drinks). Dress: Lounge Suit

Caring for People with Intellectual and Physical Disabilities

Biennial Fundraising Dinner 2013

The Estia Foundation invites all supporters to attend its biennial fundraising dinner, where all pro-ceeds go toward providing direct care to people with disabilities, help with building new facilities and maintenance of already established services.

The Greek Australian VEMA TO BHMA 3/21JULY 2013

Timeless illusions in Asia MinorBy Costas Iordanidis - Kathimerini, Athens

Turkey is facing a serious crisis - although this isnothing new. Political logic dictates that the end of anauthoritarian leader begins the moment he showssigns of moderation and retreat in reaction to anykind of pressure or advice. Prime Minister RecepTayyip Erdogan is obviously aware of this.

What those banking on his defeat fail to realize,however, is that he has shown flexibility, not towardthe Kemalists, but toward the Kurds, in whose areasthings remain calm. Abdullah Ocalan is the “informal”partner of the Turkish prime minister, somethingwhich cannot be erased given the insignificant num-bers of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members tak-ing part in the protests across the country.

During Ottoman rule, the Kurdish element acted asa shield against Iran’s Shiites on the eastern border.Kurds rallied around Mustafa Kemal Ataturk againstGreek forces in Asia Minor, though their “services”went unrecognized by the Kemalists once they hadprevailed.

Erdogan’s strategy against the Kurds has substan-tially altered the internal balance of power and hasproven successful to a great extent, for the time beingat least.

Keeping this portion of the country - which is highlyexperienced in warfare - inactive makes the handlingof Kemalist protesters a complicated, but not impossi-ble, process. The Turkish premier is pitting the Kemal-ist elite against the hordes of his own supporters, who

he is encouraging. His power lies in the support of theIslamic masses and the discrediting of the old estab-lishment comprising the justice system and the armedforces - something which he systematically plannedover the last three years.

What happens within Turkey, however, is not reallythe point. The question is Greece’s ongoing helpless-ness against a massive Turkey and the undiscussed il-lusion of an imminent Turkish collapse, which seemsto be taking quite a while.

The problem is timeless. When Greeks threw theirsupport behind the Young Turks movement in 1908,

their hopes were crushed. Following the collapse ofthe “Megali Idea” in Asia Minor, the myth of a Greek-Turkish friendship between Ataturk and EleftheriosVenizelos was dispelled following the persecution ofthe Greeks of Istanbul in 1955. Next came the Cyprusinvasion in 1974, planned by the Kemalist - albeit ofKurdish decent - Bulent Ecevit.

Fresh illusions were nurtured following a meetingbetween Andreas Papandreou and Turgut Ozal inDavos in 1988, while Erdogan’s victory over the Ke-malists felt like love at first sight.

Inspired by his days in Paris and influ-enced by Byzantine tradition, Constanti-nos Parthenis experimented with the useof color when he was asked to paint theAghios Alexandros Church in PalaioFaliro, southern Athens, in 1918.

A few years later, in 1923, Photis Kon-toglou's visit to Mount Athos signaledthe artist's ecclesiastical creative phase.In 1927, Paris-educated Spyros Papalou-

kas was chosen to paint Amfissa Cathe-dral.

The aforementioned activity “pavedthe way for a change of direction in thenarration of newly constructed churchesin the modern Greek state,” noted DrNikos Zias, professor emeritus of the Uni-versity of Athens, at a recent press con-ference on the summer 2013 exhibitionat the Basil and Elise Goulandris Founda-

tion's Museum of Contemporary Art onthe Cycladic island of Andros, which hecurated.

“Depicting Transcendence: From By-zantine Tradition to Contemporary Art”aims to explore the influence of Byzan-tine iconography in modern Greek paint-ing as well as the development of con-temporary ecclesiastical art. On displayat the cultural museum are some 130works stemming from state and ecclesi-astical museums, churches, foundationsand private collections, among others.The works bear the signatures of distin-guished Greek 19th- and 20th-centuryartists, including Constantinos Parthenis,Photis Kontoglou, Spyros Papaloukas,Spyros Vasileiou, Polykleitos Rengos, Ni-kos Engonopoulos, Yiannis Tsarouchis,Constantinos Artemis, Dimitrios Peleka-sis, Agenor Asteriadis, Polychronis Lem-besis, Dimitris Biskinis, Stephanos Almali-otis, Anastasios Louki-dis, Nikos Nikolaouand Rallis Kopsidis, the printmakers Dim-itrios Galanis, Lykourgos Kogevinas,Efthymios Papadimitriou, Alevizos-Anas-tasios Tassos and Giorgos Sikeliotis as

well as female artist Vasso Katraki.“There were no artists per se in Byzan-

tium, but artisans, all subject to dogmat-ic limitations,” said the museum's direc-tor, Kyriakos Koutsomallis, who addedthat centuries later a new generation ofartists managed to incorporate tradition-al and modernist elements into theirwork, thus “contributing to a resurgenceof interest in Byzantine art.”

Art collectors Basil and Elise Goulandrisestablished their foundation in 1979 as anonprofit organization for public benefitaiming at promoting the visual arts. Thesame year the couple established theMuseum of Contemporary Art in Hora onAndros, the birthplace of Basil P. Goulan-dris. The foundation’s permanent collec-tion includes more than 300 works by lo-cal and international artists, while part ofthe collection goes on display on a rota-tional basis during the year.

“Depicting Transcendence” runs toSeptember 29. The exhibition is accom-panied by a catalog featuring texts byscholars and is edited by Christos P. Mar-garitis.

Christian Dior, Gucci, Ted Baker

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From Byzantine iconography to modern Greek painting

JULY 20134/22 TO BHMA The Greek Australian VEMA

GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AUSTRALIA

GREEK WELFARE CENTRE SA

96 Wright Street, Adelaide SA 5000

MANAGER The Greek Welfare Centre SA is a non-profit, community based human service organization that provides a range of both Commonwealth and State government funded programs to the community.

A position for a full-time Community Services Manager has become available. This role would ideally suit a highly motivated and community focused individual.

Purpose of Position

The successful incumbent will be responsible for the efficient and effective management of the Centre, ensuring the services are client focused whilst also meeting all governance and financial requirements. The position provides an ideal opportunity to make a significant difference to both the ongoing growth and development of the organisation and to the community.

The successful applicant will have demonstrated abilities in:

Developing, supporting and managing a team Liaising with people from government, non - government and community agencies Securing continued sustainable funding arrangements that meet critical objectives of the

organization’s Strategic Plan. Monitoring service outputs and ensuring that agreed targets are met for all service types Knowledge of Community Care Common Standards (desirable) Ability to relate to people at all levels, particularly with older persons Understanding of issues facing older persons A high level of professionalism Interpersonal and written communication skills Computer literacy Current driver’s license Greek language literacy (desirable)

The Centre supports and encourages further education/training while at the same time ensuring a healthy work life balance for staff. Remuneration will be commensurate with demonstrated experience, expertise and skills of the successful candidate. Salary packaging arrangements are available.

Please forward your resume with a covering letter marked: Private & Confidential

c/- Board of Management, Greek Welfare Centre SA, or email to: [email protected] by COB Friday 2nd of August, 2013.

Hotel occupancy to average 90% in GreeceHotel occupancy rates are expected to rise up to 100

percent in destinations popular with foreign tourists inthe next month-and-a-half, with sector representativeshoping that the upward momentum of arrivals will con-tinue, beating the originally forecast record of 17 mil-lion tourists from abroad. However, destinations thatusually received Greek tourists have seen a decrease inreservations.

On the Ionian island of Corfu the occupancy rate inmajor hotels for the peak of the season has reached ashigh as 90 percent, though the rate at smaller hotelsand rooms-to-let is lower, says Corfu Mayor YiannisTrepeklis. He adds that in the second quarter of theyear arrivals soared by 20 percent year-on-year, whilehe expects this increase to come to 10 percent in peakseason.

In Crete, most hotels in the prefecture of Iraklio haveoccupancy rates of over 95 percent for the season’speak, while there are very positive signs for Septemberand October as well, according to the president of theIraklio Hoteliers’ Association Nikos Halkiadakis. This isalso the first year that Russia has emerged as the lead-ing market for the destination, beating the Germans inarrivals. In Hania, occupancy rates up to end-August areexpected to range between 80 and 100 percent, in-creasing from the current 70 to 80 percent, says Mano-lis Yiannoulis, the president of the local association ofhoteliers. September bookings are also doing very well,he added.

On Kos in the Dodecanese peak season is expected tobring occupancy rates to between 95 and 100 percent,and the signs are already favorable for September aswell, says the local hoteliers’ chief Minas Hatzimichael.The increase is coming mostly from Eastern Europeanmarkets, and particularly Russia, though there is also apositive trend for arrivals from the Netherlands, Ger-many and Austria.

In the northern Greek region of Halkidiki top-catego-ry hotels will peak at 80-85 percent of occupancy thissummer, while cheaper accommodation will see ratesof 70 percent in the next month-and-a-half, accordingto Halkidiki Hoteliers’ Association Grigoris Tasios. Ratesfor the first 10 days in September are also seen reach-ing the 80-percent mark.

The pattern of higher occupancy rates at top-catego-ry hotels is also being repeated on the island of Naxos,the biggest of the Cyclades, according to the generalsecretary of the local hoteliers’ union, Yiannis Margari-tis. He said that the tourism season this year is clearlybetter than last and noted an increase in arrivals fromFrance, Britain, the US, Scandinavia and Germany.Bookings from the Greek market are doing better thismonth thanks to lower prices compared to August.

Australian Ambassador visits Greek charities with representatives of the Hellenic Women of Sydney

Τhe Australian Ambassador to Greece,Η.Ε. Mrs Jenny (Polyxeni) Bloomfield, vis-ited earlier this month “The Smile of theChild” and the Hatzikyriakio Childcare In-stitution, two charities based in Athens,together with representatives of the Hel-lenic Women of Sydney, as part of thelatter’s initiative to raise funds for Greekcharities supporting vulnerable womenand children. Under the Ambassador’spatronage, the Hellenic Women of Syd-ney, which brings together seven Greek-Australian women’s associations, haverai-sed approximately AUD100,000 in thefirst half of 2013. These funds will be dis-tributed to five Greek charities in Athensand in cities across Greece.

In a statement following the visits, theAmbassador congratulated the HellenicWomen of Sydney for this important ini-tiative, adding that, “Greece has beengoing through a difficult period, as it ta-kes forward painful but important re-forms that will contribute to a moreprosperous future for its citizens. Τhesedifficulties are felt most keenly by thosein society who are most vulnerable, sothe assistance will go to those who arereally in need.

“The Greek-Australian community andall Australians, stand shoulder to shoul-der with Greece at these difficult times,as our two nations and our two peoplesshare strong and enduring bonds.”

Ambassador Bloomfield (centre left) with Mr Michail Strouboulis, Chairman, theHatzikyriakio Childcare Institution (centre right), and representatives of the Hellenic Women

of Sydney

TO BHMA 5/23JULY 2013 The Greek Australian VEMA

Our Primate’s View

ST NICODEMOS OF MOUNT ATHOSAs our readers must have surely noticed, this column

deals always with “matters of principle”, with rules of life,with basic customs and traditions of our spiritual life, aswell as with events which mark our historical march andwhich with the passing of time become anniversaries thatmust not pass by unnoticed. However, rules, traditions,customs and historical events are all created by the hu-man person, expressed individually or collectively. There-fore it is right that we should occasionally deal with par-ticular persons, who with their spirituality rendered theworld brighter and more sacred.

If one opens the Monthly Service Books of our Church,one will find absolutely no day of the year without cele-bration of the memory of one or more Saints of our Faith.This verification is the deepest consolation that theChurch gives us. Because time in itself, is a dreadful no-tion. Time is passage, corruption, a slow and silent death.The less noise made by the flow of time, the more we fearthe surprises and the damage it does. Therefore the factthat the Church has “invested” the flowing “time” withsteadfast signs of orientation, which are the persons ofthe Saints, means that time has lost its corruptible powerfor the Christian. The Church has adjured time and itstransiency by placing each day the human person, immor-talized in God’s incorruptibility and in the “eternal memo-ry” of the communion of Saints.

Thus each month is from beginning to end full of thecommemorations of Saints who illumine the darkness ofour daily life. But naturally there exists some differencefrom day to day and from Saint to Saint. Because the giftsof the Holy Spirit constitute an endless variety that findseach time its expression in each person in a completelynew, unique and unrepeatable manner. Therefore, with-out underestimating the common devotion of all Saints toGod’s one and unique will, which they all equally served,and further without forgetting that the source of holinessfor all of them was the one and the same Holy Spirit, wemust admit that, for purely historical or psychological rea-sons, among the Saints some are more and others are lessknown. The natural consequence of this difference is thatsome Saints are celebrated in the entire passage of the ec-clesiastical year. We see then that July is full of ‘popular’Saints: St Anargyroi, St Kyriaki, St Euphemia, St Marina,Prophet Elias, St Anna, St Paraskevi, St Panteleimon etc.

In this multitude of the widely known Saints of Julythere is also St Nicodemos of Mount Athos (Hagiorite),who is not sufficiently known in the wider sphere of theChurch. His memory is honoured on the 14th July andsince he is a Saint of modern times and his contributionwas particularly decisive for the whole spiritual state ofour people from the latter years of Turkish occupation on-wards, it is worthwhile to say a few words today for hisperson and his word.

St Nicodemos - in the world called Nicholas - was born inNaxos in the year 1749 of rich and pious parents, Anthonyand Anastasia Kallivourtsis. The intense religious feeling ofthe family environment of the Saint is seen from the factthat his mother also became a nun with the name of A-gathe and lived in the Convent of St John Chrysostom atNaxos. The young Nicholas received his elementary edu-cation from a certain priest of the island, since there wasno systematic school at Naxos. Later on at the age of 15,he went to Smyrna, where he studied for five years withlerotheos Dendrinos.

Afterwards he returned to Naxos, where he had the op-portunity to study theology in particular, under the Met-ropolitan of Paronaxia Anthimos, for five years. Duringthis time three monks from Mount Athos were sojourning

in Naxos, who encouraged his inclination to monastic life.Thus in the year 1775 at the age of 26, Nicholas went toMount Athos where he was tonsured a monk at theMonastery of Dionysiou and received the name Nicode-mos. But he did not stay long at this monastery as hewished to lead a life of greater physical hardship and innerstillness, living alone as a hermit. Thus he settled at thecell of Skourtaioi near Karyes, where he concentrated on adeep study of Patristic Tradition, with strict fast and vigilservices. For his livelihood he copied valuable codices andalso wrote a great number of literary works, about whichwe shall speak a little later. However, his strict physicalhardship, his work of endless writing and copying and ingeneral his spiritual vigilance and concern for the greatideals of the Church and of the Greek people affected hisbiological strength and his health was impaired from veryearly. On the 14th July 1809 at the age of just 60 he sleptin the Lord and was buried near the cell of Skourtaioi. Con-sidering his renown as a Saint throughout Mount Athosand beyond it, the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchaterecognized him officially in the Lists of Saints of theChurch in January 1955. By this recognition the Church ho-noured and projected not only the profound faith, the ex-treme humility and the Christ-like life of a hermit, but alsohis incomparable contribution to teaching and the enlight-enment of the oppressed Greek people.

We said that St Nicodemos was untiring also in writing.His literary works dealing with most important matters ofspiritual life, exceed 100 in number. We will pause in par-ticular at three of the published ones, whose significancefor the entire people of God is invaluable.

A. The Philokalia of the neptic Fathers,was published for the first time in Venice in 1782 and

since then it is being reprinted time and again and imbuesspiritually in the souls of Orthodox and non Orthodox withthe water of pure Orthodox spirituality. Because, as isknown, the Philokalia constitutes an anthology of themost select texts of the Fathers of the Desert who becameSaints by their constant vigilance, for which reason theywere called neptic.

B. The Synaxaristes of the twelve months,was published in 1819 and comprises a moving narra-

tion of the life and the godly activities of the Saints of theFaith, which bring inspiration and consolation in the hard-ships of the world. The importance of this work becomesapparent from the fact that the most representativeGreek writer and painter of our times, who more thananyone else preserves and projects Byzantine spirituality -I mean Nicholas Penzikis - was not in a position to write orpaint, unless he read daily the lives and feats of all theSaints of the day.

C. The Rudderwas published in 1800 and became since then up to now

the most useful handbook and “rudder’ in spiritual life notonly for the clergy as confessors, but also for the faithfulof laity.

Even if St Nicodemos had written only the above mostimportant works, it would suffice to consider him amongthe greatest benefactors of the Orthodox people. Rightful-ly, therefore, the building of a Church bearing his namehas been undertaken some years ago at Karyes of MountAthos; and rightly a Brotherhood was set up in Athens forthe wider dissemination of the work and the spirituality ingeneral of our Father among the Saints Nicodemos theHagiorite.

Source: “Voice of Orthodoxy”(Issue no. 19, July 1981)

By ARCHBISHOPSTYLIANOSOF AUSTRALIA

TO BHMA6/24 JULY 2013

Name one thing you’d like to changeabout the world

For almost 30 years, Paul Pholeros has shown thatarchitects can play a key role in solving indigenoushealth problems.

Working with Yami Lester (indigenous leader), DrPaul Torzillo (medical expert) and Stephan Rainow(anthropologist), Paul Pholeros (architect) formedHealthabitat in 1985. They started in the Anangu Pit-jatjantjara Lands of north west South Australia. Lesterhad recognised that a healthy living environment wasneeded to ‘stop people getting sick’.

Pholeros spoke at the TEDxSydney conference inMay. In an extraordinary quarter of an hour, he in-spired the audience to see that changing the contextcan itself solve fundamental problems in life.

Housing for Health

He said that fancy high-tech medicine does notmake the greatest difference to a child’s chances ofgood health when they’re grown. More than anythingelse it is access to a decent wash every day.

His project is called ‘Housing for Health’. It workswith poor people to fix the places where they live. Inindigenous communities, the Healthhabitat teams setabout repairing showers and toilets that did notwork. In the process he dispelled some myths aboutindigenous people.

There is a view that indigenous people damagehouses but data on over 180,000 repairs showed thatless than 10% of all work fixed was due to damage.

Most of the problem is lack of routine maintenance.About one-fifth of items were just built poorly.

Washing

Pholeros challenged the audience. In particular, heindicated that washing young children under 5 yearsdaily is one of the main contributors to health.

In the houses of 50,000 people in northern Aus-tralia only 35% of the showers were working correct-ly. Only 10% of the houses were electrically safe andjust over half had a working toilet.

There was no argument from the audience, whenhe pointed out: “Imagine living in your house with allyour relatives for 6 months: no shower-toilet and theelectrical dangers”.

In the last 12 years the Australian Housing forHealth Team has fixed over 200,000 items in houses.With a total average budget of around $7,500 ahouse his teams can: get 86% of showers working,make 77% of houses electrically safe and have toiletsworking in 90% of houses. He provided two other ex-amples.

Trachoma

In the late 1990s, the trachoma bug was damagingthe eyes of 95% of the school age kids.

He explained how this issue was addressed: “Toflush the bugs out of eyes, we made sure all the hous-es had working showers and added face washing fa-cilities at the school.”

It is no secret that this disease is also linked withdust exposure. So they involved a dust expert fromthe mining industry.

He pointed out that the dust in children’s eyes waswind driven and around a metre off the ground. Thisis just the right height to affect kids. Teams then builtearth mounds to lessen the wind driven dust gettinginto homes. They monitored the levels of dust, andguess what? The mounds worked.

A forensic entomologist found out which local flycarried the bug. Dung beetles were then used to eatthe wild camel dung that was the fly’s food source.With less dung the flies died and trachoma bug was

reduced. Within 12 months there was a major declinein trachoma and eye health improved.

The Health Department in NSW has evaluatedthese projects. There was a 40% reduction in hospitaladmissions for environment related illnesses.

Toilets in Nepal

When asked, “If you could name one thing you’dlike to change about the world, what would it be?”, P-holeros answered, “There would be a working toiletfor all.” So the same idea that architects can improvehealth was applied in Nepal.

They helped a small rural village of 600 people. Ithad no toilets. At first they merely proposed to designand build two toilets for two families. They noted,however, that the families cooked in the house usinggreen firewood. This filled the house with densesmoke that led to respiratory diseases. So the projectbecame more than toilets.

They added animal waste to human waste in thetoilets to produce biogas. This was pumped into atank that allowed 3-4 hours of free, smokeless cook-ing each day. The residue was used for fertiliser to im-prove agriculture. There are now over 100 toiletsbuilt by trained local teams and used by over 1000people.

Poverty is not the problem

Pholeros referred to Nelson Mandela’s statementthat “…poverty is not natural. It is man-made and itcan be overcome and eradicated by the actions of hu-man beings.”

I do not know Mr Pholeros, his values, ideals or theextent of his religiosity but he provided an examplefor me. He showed how the actions of ordinary peo-ple can improve health and reduce poverty.

This is a wake-up call for each Christian to use his orher expertise. It all starts with one thing you’d like tochange about the world!

Adapted from http://tedxsydney.com See alsowww.healthabitat.com

[email protected]

Letter from

Maroubra

The Greek Australian VEMA

1.5 m. tourists will visit Mykonos

by October

The island of Mykonos is rolling in the dough with an ava-lanche of tourists spending money like there’s no tomorrow.According to the Guardian, some 1.5 million tourists will stayon Mykonos by the end of October, making it a banner year.

The word “unemployment” seems also unknown in Myko-nos, as everybody has been absorbed in the tourism sector.Around 5,500 people came to work the summer period inMykonos in order to cover the ever increasing vacancies intourist professions. In April 2013 tourism rose by 360 percentcompared to the same month in 2012, while in May 2013 the

rise in tourism reached 120 percent compared to the samemonth last year. Predictions say that this year’s summer sea-son will close with an increase of 15 to 20 percent.

Those estimates are for arrival by air and sea, while it is es-timated that this year more than 600 cruise ships will dock atMykonos Port. Mykonos is also considered as one of the topholiday destinations in Greece in charter flights. The island isalso popular with visitors from India because of a well-publi-cized grand event last year.

Source: Kathimerini, Athens


Provopoulos: “Greektourism must become

more competitive”The Governor of the

Bank of Greece GiorgosProvo-poulos spoke at atourism conference andclaimed that Greek tourismmust become more com-petitive.

Mr Provopoulos referredto stabilizing the seasonalnature of Greek tourism,which in turn would allowGreece to become a modeltourism center for thegreater region.

Alexander Payne in Patmos film festivalInternational Film Festival of Patmos to borrow

some of Hollywood’s glamor for its third year run-ning

The world renowned film director and scriptwriter of “The Descendents” and “About Schmidt”Alexander Payne will be present at the third annualInternational Film Festival of Patmos.

The festival will begin on the 24th and end of the31st of July.

Payne, who has been honored twice with an Os-car for his screen writing skills, will be accompaniedby his close associate Greek-American director Fae-don Papamichail, with whom he has worked to-gether on a number of films, including his latestwork “Nebraska”.

According to the Festival’s schedule, a number ofinternational and domestic independent films willbe shown, such as Marshall Lewy’s “California So-lo”, Olivia Silver’s “Arcadia” and Bakhtyar Khudoj-nazarov’s “Waiting for the Sea” which was co-pro-duced by Thanasis Karathanos.

Interim service startsairing on state TV

A month after the closure of state broadcasterERT, the government took a step toward setting upa transitional service ahead of the creation of a neworganization. From 8 a.m. on Wednesday July 10,the logo of Greek Public Television (EDT) replacedthe test card that had occupied ERT’s frequency forweeks, after the black screens that followed the de-cision by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to closeERT.

Earlier Deputy Culture Minister Pantelis Kapsis,who has been assigned to oversee the creation of anew broadcaster, had said the transitional servicewould start airing films and documentaries, alongwith a news ticker, “over the next few hours.”Broadcasts began at 9 p.m. on Wednesday night,July 10.

Kapsis said employees would be recruited for anews program and that the new hires would in-clude a “significant number” of the 2,656 dismissedERT workers. The minister said talks with ERT em-ployees had been going well and accused a handfulof unionists of standing in the way of a deal. He saidthe hirings would only go ahead if the premises ofERT, which have been occupied by sacked employ-ees since the closure, are evacuated.

The world’s most ancient olive tree -aged 3.000 years- is in Crete!

The trees that lived with the Minoans!

Among the 20 ancient olive trees of Crete with an ageof more than a thousand years, the famous ‘olive treeof Vouves’ is probably the oldest olive tree in the worldwith an age estimated between 3000 and 5000 yearsold. The natural monument attracts 20.000 visitorseach year.

Olive trees are hardy and drought-, disease- and fire-resistant - part of the reason for their longevity andtheir widespread use in the region.

The impressive ‘olive tree of Vouves’ grows for cen-turies in the area where now lies the village Ano Vou-ves, 30 kilometres west of Chania. It has a diameter of4,67 m. and a perimeter of 12,5 m. And it still produceshighly sought after olives! It started as a wild olive treeand was later domesticated with the ‘tsounati’ olivetree variety.

It is not known how old it is exactly with estimationsranging between 3000 and 5000 years old but it isprobably the oldest olive tree in the world and maybethe most famous one. Due to its special aesthetic, eco-logical and historical characteristics the tree was de-clared a natural monument in 1997.

One of the most famous old trees of any species, theolive tree of Vouves starred in a travel documentary forCrete, broadcasted by German channel Arte/ZDF. Theage of the tree was revealed to the journalists by Pro-fessor of pomology in the Technological Institute ofCrete (TEI), Spyros Lionakis. He said that some of theancient olive trees of Crete go as far back as the Mi-noan Age. Besides the famous tree in Vouves there are10 other ancient trees in the surrounding area. Andthere hundreds of younger but still centuries-old olivetrees in Crete with impressive growth; one in the vil-lage of Kouroupes, Rethymno has a perimeter of 22 m.A 2000 year old olive tree in Venerato, Rethymno has aperimeter of 18,5 m.

This natural wealth is what the Olive Museum of Vou-ves tries to preserve and promote; the age old relation-ship of olive tree and man. Located next to the ‘Monu-

mental Olive Tree of Vouves’ the Museum was the vi-sion of Mayor Polychronis Polychronides. The next stepis the conversion of the Museum to an ‘Olive Museumand Mediterranean Centre for the Study of Monumen-tal Olive Trees’. The Municipality has already proceed-ed to the buy of a 600 sq m land plot, near to the Mu-seum in addition to other plots it owns in the area andhas began studies for the creation of the expanded Mu-seum.

For the time being the Design & Manufacturing Labo-ratory of TEI of Crete, with Dr. Manolis Maravelakis asthe head of the effort, has completed the digital repre-sentation of the trunk of the Vouves olive tree. Specifi-cally, a 3D model of the trunk was created that repre-sents with precision the geometry of both the exteriorand interior of the trunk. Modern techniques of reversemechanics and 2 laser scanners that are available atthe laboratory were used for the project.

Ancient temple discovered in MessiniaA 6-5th century BC temple has been revealed by ex-

cavations at an altitude of 1,000 meters in the Greekregion of Messinia in Peloponnesos. It was uncoveredin a mountainous area opposite the world famousTemple of Apollo Epikourios. The temple was un-known and probably dedicated to a war deity.

To reach the temple ruins, you need to cover a dis-tance of 7 kilometers on a rugged road above the vil-lage of Ano Melpia in Messinia. The temple was builton a leveled hilltop overlooking the mountainous

area. Its foundations have been preserved by time.The position of the temple opposite to the Temple

of Epicurean Apollo, the similarities of the dedicatoryobjects, the great number of weapons and spear-heads, the statuette of the naked man carrying aspear point to the temple being dedicated to Apollo,although archaeologists don’t exclude Artemis orAthena. The temple was used until the 4th-3rd centu-ry BC and its position was identified when locals de-molished the existing chapel to rebuild it.

Art meets charity in Korydallos installationsOn a daily basis, residents of Korydallos, a suburb of

Piraeus, are making their own additions to a numberof makeshift hangers that have been erected sincethe end of March in various public spaces around thearea. They hang an item of clothing, a toy or a bag ofgroceries, or put down a few books at the base of thehanger, items that they think can help someone inneed. These “offerings” are soon snapped up to bereplaced by others, a kind of perpetual game of swapsand a reminder that the concepts of solidarity andreciprocity are not yet lost on society.

This social art project is the brainchild of art histori-an and artist Eleni Polychronatou, who got 10 artiststo design 12 original works made out of wood, metal

or recyclable materials along the lines of a basic mod-el designed by herself: a 1.80-meter-tall structureshaped like the frame of a tepee with an adjustableshelf-like part.

These structures, dubbed “public hangers,” havebeen placed in public squares and other heavily fre-quented locations around Korydallos and, best of all,cost almost nothing. Their aim, according to Poly-chronatou, is to create a sense of community and ameans through which people who need one of theitems on the hangers can take it without feeling thatthey are the subjects of charity, and people who wantto donate things they no longer need can do so in avery simple way.

TO BHMA8/26 JULY 2013The Greek Australian VEMA

The tourism sector can create up to360,000 new jobs in the next eight yearsshould the upward momentum of arri-vals from abroad grow from 17 millionthis year to 24 million in 2021, accordingto the Association of Hellenic TourismEnterprises (SETE).

Such a prospect would also generaterevenues of 18-19 billion euros on an an-nual basis, from the projected 11 billioneuros for 2013. The tourism sector willbe able to create 45,000 new jobs annu-ally on average if the momentum ismaintained.

Do you love children?Do you want to share your faith?

Become a Scripture TeacherVolunteer to teach special religious education in State Schools –

just contact your local priest.

Tourism can create 360,000jobs in next eight years

Patra welcomes world-class international musicians

The 28th annual International Festi-val of Patra, which features interna-tional as well as Greek artists, is offi-cially under way and is set to run untilthe beginning of August.

The event, which is organized by thePatra Cultural Organization, began onJune 27 with “Jazz + Praxis,” three daysof jazz concerts which included a per-formance by French saxophonist Mi-chel Portal, one of the architects ofmodern European jazz.

This year marked the 10th “Jazz +Praxis,” which has become an annualstaple on the calendars of jazz enthusi-asts. During those last 10 years, the ci-ty of Patra has hosted many well-known international and local musi-cians, among them Tomasz Stanko,

Lars Danielsson, Chico Freeman, SheilaJordan, Gunter Sommer, Ed Neumeis-ter, Vassilis Tsabropoulos, George Tra-dalidis, Sakis Papadimitriou and SofiaNoiti.

This year’s most notable perform-ances included those by Groovin High,the Nikolas Anadolis Trio, Stavros Lan-tsias & Krotala, and that of Portal andVincent Peirani, which marked the fi-nale of “Jazz+Praxis.” The two musi-cians’ unusual mix of contemporaryjazz, popular French music and eventango melodies pleasantly surprisedthe audience.

The International Festival of Patrawill continue until August 8 and willfeature a plethora of distinguished mu-sicians, films and theater works.

French saxophonist Michel Portal

Three Greek firms amongst Europe’s best work environments

The Great Place To Work Institute heldan award ceremony on Thursday night inDublin, Ireland, for the top 100 Europeancompanies with the best work environ-ment for 2013. Among the Europeancompanies are three Greek firms.

Over 589,000 employees from morethan 2,100 companies in 19 Europeancountries took part in the Best Work-places study, which is the largest surveyon work environment worldwide.

In the multinational category, where

Microsoft came first, Diageo ranked 7th,Mars 16th, Novartis 20th and Elais-Unile-ver 25th.

In the ‘Large company-Companies withmore than 500 employees’ Capital Onecame first, while the YGEIA hospitalranked 5th and Diamantis Masoutis SAcame in 18th.

In the ‘Small and Medium Sized Com-pany - Companies with 50 to 500 em-ployees’ Futurice was first and Melissa-Kikizas AVEET ranked 48th.

Do you love children?Do you want to share your faith?


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For orders contact: [email protected]

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www.stansdrewsorthodoxpress.com.au

St Stylianos Annual Dance

Saturday, 31st August 2013

New VenueVenus Reception Centre20 Belgrave St, KogarahFree secure parking till 2am at Kogarah

Town Square, access via Derby Street

Time6.30pm to 12.30am

Cost(Includes three course meal, beer, wine & soft drink)

Adults - $85Children under 12 years - $40

Silent Auction - Prizes

Arrange your

table of 10 by 1st August,

for a special group booking

price of $80pp

Dance all night longwith DJ Maestro and

his eclectic mix of music!

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese - Parish of St StylianosEnquiries & Bookings:

Angie 0433 673 845 Fr Constantine 0418 511 212

Yiasou Rrreah!

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St Andrew’s Grammar School Excursion to St John of the Mountain Monastery

St Andrew’s Grammar School (Perth, West-ern Australia) took 100 students on a day ex-cursion to the Greek Orthodox Monastery ofSt John of the Mountain in Forrestfield, onTuesday July 2 .

The Monastery, which sits on 10 acres ofland, is only half an hour from the centre ofPerth and consists of dormitories, an oil press,and a magnificent church that has recentlybeen renovated.

The excursion was organised by Mrs MariaCoate, Greek Studies Co-Ordinator (k-12) andHead of Secondary School and the programmewas prepared by the Very Reverend Archiman-drite Elpidios Karalis.

Father Thalassios, who is a priest-monk atthe monastery, was there to welcome the staffand students upon their arrival. He took theentire group on a tour of the monastery. High-lights inclu-ded: the olive trees; the donkeyand the oil press. We learnt about how themonks in residence make their own olive oil.

Mrs Katerina Reklitis (Greek Studies teacher)ma-de a number of Fanouropites for the stu-dents to eat during morning tea. Following theblessing of the Fanouropites, which was con-ducted by Fr Thalassios, students were briefedon the history of the Fanouropita and were in-

formed how St Fanourios is the “finder” of lostitems.

Following morning tea, the students were di-vided into groups for workshops and discus-sion groups. Father Elpidios conducted a onehour seminar on the church building andchurch symbolism where students were en-gaged and interactive, asking ma-ny thought-ful and intelligent questions. The seminar tookplace inside the church.

The other students were outside in the sun-shine and discussed topics such as: faith; loveand character. St Paul’s passage on love out-lined in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 was the maintext that students focussed on and were re-minded of the importance and power of love.

The day ended with a silent reflection andthe Lord’s Prayer under the monastery trees. Itwas lovely to take a break; stop; pause; reflectand connect with God and nature. Our schoolvisit to the St John of the Mountain Monasterywas certainly rewarding and uplifting.

We would like to thank the Abbot of St Johnof the Mountain Monastery, the Very Rev-erend Archimandrite Evagrios Koutouzis, to-gether with the entire brotherhood, for thewarm hospitality shown to St Andrew’s Gram-mar.

NEW RELEASE!

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S T S P Y R I D O N C O L L E G E

Tuesday 20th August 2013

Sports and Performing Arts Centre Senior School Campus

1130 Anzac Parade, Maroubra NSW 2035

Arrival: 7.00pm Lecture: 7.10pm – 7.50pm Cocktails & Canapes: 8.30pm

Arts Exhibition: Tuesday 20th August 2013: 4.00pm – 7.00pm Wednesday 21st August 2013: 9.30am – 3.00pm

RSVP by 6th August 2013.Mrs Angela Kringas 9311 3340

The Appreciating Culture Lecture 2013Professor Frederick G Hilmer AO

President and Vice Chancellor UNSW

“In the Eye of the Beholder”

The Arts Exhibition 2013Patron of the Arts Mrs Dora Toumanidou-Tolios

Vice Consul of the Consulate General of Greece. Works by students and visiting artists, Karen Barbouttis,

Maritsa Micos Dragonas, Willi Michalski and Dr Thomas Savoulis.

S T

S P Y R

R I D O

N C O

O L L E

E G E


George Paxinos, Professor of Psychology and Medical Sci-ences of the University of New South Wales published 30 yearsago the ‘Atlas of the Human Brain’. Today, with the 3D ‘maps’he designs:

* Surgeons can approach any suffering region without a nor-mal surgery by making a small incision.

* Comparative studies can be made between embryos sothat diseases like Parkinson and Alzheimer are fought.

His most recent distinction: in the beginning of June and af-ter 30 years of excellence he received the international medi-cine prize Pioneer Award from the Society for Brain Mappingand Therapeutics. ‘It is good to have your work recognised -and they had to choose between many good people, so I amhappy they considered my work worthy’ said Mr Paxinos.

Mr Paxinos was the President of the Australian NeuroscienceSociety, a member of the National Health and Medical Re-search Council of Australia (NHMRC), a Fellow of the Academyof the Social Sciences of Australia (FASSA), Fellow of the Aus-tralian Academy of Science (FAA).

He is also an AO, Officer in the General Division of the Orderof Australia for Service to Neuroscience, Honorary Professor ofthe University of Athens, Honorary President of the PsychologyDepartment of the City Unity College in Athens and an editor inmany international science magazines.

‘The researchers of the brain, just like explorers, need mapsto delve into the human brain and share their knowledge’ MrPaxinos has said.

For the ‘Atlas of the Human Brain’ he has been awarded withthe Award of Excellence of the Association of American Pub-lishers. His work in neurology and neuropathy, opens roads tofight Parkinson, Alzheimer, depression and epilepsy. Most sci-entists that create models of human diseases in laboratory an-imals or study the human brain in relation to diseases use hisatlases.

‘It is very easy to study a disease if its corresponding modelexists in an animal’ insists Mr Paxinos.

The Magellan of neuroscience!The Greek cartographer of the human brain, George Paxinos, receives an award

for his contribution to neuroscience

Professor of Psychology and MedicalSciences of the University of NSW,

George Paxinos

World’s BestAthenian open-air cinema

takes top spot in CNN movietheatres list

As far as top 10 lists go, this one isa treat for film buffs. Cine Thisio(photo) in the heart of Athens madetop spot in a selection of the world’s10 best movie theaters on CNN. Theoldest open-air summer cinema waschosen above all for its magical viewof the Parthenon.

Chosen by CNN Go writer HoishanChan, Cine Thisio made her prefer-ence above iconic cinemas in Berlin,Jaipur, Seoul, Tokyo, San Franciscoand Texas.

Built in 1935, Cine Thisio is still afavourite of Athenians and touriststoday, as throughout the summermonths it shows both classic moviesas well as the latest blockbusterswith clear view of the floodlit Acrop-olis.

“Athens is home to multiple out-door movie theaters that crop upduring the summer but none provideas majestic a view as Cine Thisio,”writes Chan. The outdoor cinema islocated on Apostolou Pavlou street inthe Thisio district, just a few hundredmeters down the pedestrian pathfrom the ancient Herodus Atticustheatre, which also opens in the sum-mer for quality cultural events.

Greece eyes investment

jackpotGreece surprised the world with

two developments suggesting that itmay finally be turning a corner in thiscrisis. The first is that Greece willform the heart of the so-called Sou-thern Gas Corridor, an energy securi-ty strategy emanating from Brusselsaimed at weaning Europe off thedominance of Russian gas.

The second is that Greece's biggestport, Piraeus, near Athens, is well onits way to becoming Europe's maingateway for trade with China. Thetwo projects are worth $2.3bn in di-rect investment and 2,300 construc-tion jobs over three years, a fact Pri-me Minister Antonis Samaras hasbeen quick to emphasise.

"This is a very important vote ofconfidence in Greece," he said afterthe Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, twothirds of which will be built acrossnorthern Greece, was chosen as theconduit for Azeri gas to Europe. Thegas, is to flow in 2017.


INTRODUCTION

This article was written in 1953 and published in theProclaimer, an American publication.

It refers to the establishment of the Church in Innis-fail, Queensland.

The Priest was Father Elias Kotiadis who came fromRhodes and the President was John Kalaris from Symi.There is some obvious humour attached to the story,but it does give an insight of the difficulties of estab-lishing Orthodox parishes in those early days.

Innisfail was the sixth Greek Orthodox Church to bebuilt in Australia.

* * * * *

Never had the Indian Ocean been so calm and beau-tiful as this summer of the early 20th century. The shipwas crowded with immigrants of many nationalities butthere was only one Greek and he was a priest. His newassignment was to Australia but he did not know of anyof the circumstances surrounding his new post.

It had been a very pleasant trip through the IndianOcean, and ignorant of the hardships he was to endureFather Elias had dreamed of establishing himself in anice community and arranging for the eventual immi-gration of his family from Rhodes.

The sun was shining brightly and the spring air in-spired and uplifted one as if reborn, when Father Eliasarrived at a port in Australia and a group of Greek men,women and children eagerly awaited to extend to him awarm “Kalos Orisate.” One of the men introduced him-self as the President of the community of the northern-most tip of the Australian Continent. Father Elias wasstill not aware of what had befallen him. He had heardthat there was no church, that he was to serve twenty-two families all spread over an area of 10,000 squaremiles where the best means of transportation was abullock dray, that he had to travel 1400 miles by train,automobile and horseback before arriving at the settle-ment nestled in the Australian jungle and where themost pioneering of men failed to overcome the hard-ships caused by lack of transportation, lack of food, andabundance of tropical diseases the worst of which be-ing malaria; venomous snakes had not made life apleasure.

The President was a lumberjack who was formerly asponge diver of Symi. The men of the community hadelected him because he was a faithful Christian ever-ready to assist those in need. In the society these fewpeople had created, monetary values were secondaryto the moral values which were of greatest importancein enduring together the hardships of pioneering. Hestarted out for the 1400 mile journey with Father Elias,who by now was aware that there remained a furthertwenty days of journeying prior to arriving at their des-tination. The first five days were not so difficult al-though every minute was a new experience for FatherElias, the profuse vegetation of the Australian continentbeing quite a change from barren Greece. He prayedconstantly and his deep faith prevented him from beingfearful of the strange experiences he was about to suf-fer. At the end of the train journey, an automobile hadmet them to take them a further 200 miles which tooktwo days, quite uneventful for the now AustralianizedGreeks, and Father Elias was too tired to enjoy the sightof kangaroos at play, koalas perched on the trees andother beauties of nature; alligators capturing their preywent unnoticed as the car crept along the boggy roads.After a day’s relaxation at the end of the road, John, thePresident, had secured some strong horses, and thepack team consisting of a Greek priest in robes, a robustGreek of over 6 feet, some horses and a bloodhoundstarted out for twelve days of horseback riding throughthe dense jungle over treacherous mountains, floodingrivers and occasional clearing with small settlements.“This is nothing,” explained John when Father Elias had

practically expended all his prayers, “we still have tocross the Burdekin, the widest and most treacherous ofall North Queensland rivers only by swimming diagonal-ly could the horses swim across.” Father Elias was per-plexed and concerned but John was happy and gay forfinally they were going to have a Greek Litourgia. In thisvillage Greek couples had been married by a Methodistminister who travelled by pack team from place toplace, children were now up to 10 years of age and hadnot been christened, the thirst for religion was notquenched by the prayers they said themselves. The chil-dren spoke Greek fluently, adopting their mothers’ ac-cents and dialects, the families kept to themselves andpreserved well their customs and traditions.

Meanwhile, the twelve Greek women had startedembroidering vestments and making other religiousitems for use on that first service. The hall had beendecorated with boughs of Ti-Tree (similar to olivebranches) and wild flowers, and crates from past ship-ments were lined up for pews. The bloodhound finallybroke through the bush and below in the valley of jun-gle and sugar cane fields with some houses here andthere was a settlement where Father Elias was to pre-side over the spiritual needs of a handful of Greeks.

Tuesday was not a day for all the Greek families tocongregate in a small hall built for the recreation of allthe citizens, but in anticipation of the priests arrival,many were waiting there for days, others had just ar-rived; a very pleasant sight was awaiting Father Elias.

As he neared the settlement tired and worn out, hegained such courage and hope from the sight beforehim that he quickly changed from the leggings and flan-nels into his robes again. His mind very confused bythoughts of his family back in Rhodes, and the thoughtof what he might experience in this natural prison towhich he had submitted voluntarily. There was cryingand laughter as the pack team approached the village,such a sudden fulfilment of dreams on the part of theseGreek isolated families. After the feast of kangaroosteak souvlakia, wild turkey and such tropical delicaciesas Passion Fruit, Pawpaw, granadillas, guavas, the busi-ness of the Epitropi was happily and rapidly attendedto; Father was assigned a hut to live in and promisedmany improvements which were not in the realm ofone’s imagination.

As if by divine inspiration Father Elias suddenly real-ized his duties were many and important. Not by choicehe had become a kind of missionary and he was glad ofit. The duties covered many professions and even

trades but in the faces of his parishioners he saw sin-cerity, hope and courage.

The problems were many and only through hardlabour did it become possible to achieve the manypromises. A small church was built of hand hewn planksand corrugated galvanized iron.

The faith and religion brought by a handful of Greekmen and women to the remotest parts of the world hadgrown and become stronger and stronger, no hardshiphad been too much, no effort unavailable. Money wasnot readily available and communication with the out-side world was very difficult but the willpower and am-bition of all the men, their excellent teamwork and theirability to seek the good in one another brought successto their midst and a peace of mind unequalled before intheir lives.

These are examples of Greek Orthodox Christiansthose who are more fortunate should follow for it is notthe monetary contributions the enable this remote set-tlement to cultivate their mother language and religion,it was effort and teamwork, respect for one another,the willingness to construct rather than destruct and behuman fittings in a Cathedral of spiritual splendour suchas the little church in Northern Australia.

As for Father Elias, who returned to his family after 15years no one will ever forget about him and his inspira-tion will go on for many generations in the hearts ofyoung Greek Australians who are most advanced in theknowledge of the Greek language and the Greek Ortho-dox faith.

G.T. BACALAKIS

A Greek Church in the Heart of the Jungle

“The Dormition of our Lady” church, Innisfail, in 1935

The Greek AustralianVema

The oldest circulating Greek newspaper

outside GreeceTel: (02) 9559 7022

Fax: (02) 9559 7033

Email: [email protected]

TO BHMA14/32

Health

JULY 2013

CHILDHOOD IMMUNISATION

AN UPDATE ON THE IMMUNISATION SCHEDULE

In the first part of this article I will discuss the recent-ly announced changes to the immunisation schedule. Inthe second part of the article I will discuss immunisa-tion generally, including a brief synopsis of the natureof diseases we immunise for, and the benefits of immu-nisation.

What is changing in the National Immunisation Pro-gram ?

On 1st July 2013 the National Immunisation ProgramSchedule was changed.

The important changes to the schedule is that chil-dren will now receive a combined Measles, Mumps,Rubella and Varicella (Chicken pox) vaccine at eighteenmonths of age.

The commencement of the national Varicella (Chick-en Pox) Vaccination Programme began in 2005. In thisprogramme, children born on or after 1st May, 2004 re-ceived chicken pox vaccine free when they turn eight-een months of age.

All children will continue to be vaccinated for chickenpox at eighteen months. But the new vaccine will in ef-fect bring forward the second dose of the vaccine formeasles Mumps and Rubella which is normally due atfour years of age.

As a result of the change children will not be givenMeasles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine at four years ofage. Children will still continue to receive Diptheria,Tetanus, Pertiussis and Injectible Polio vaccine at fouryears of age.

The introduction of a second vaccination for MeaslesMumps and Rubella at eighteen months of age providesearlier two-dose protection of Measles Mumps and Ru-bella and is likely to result in an increased uptake of thesecond dose of the MMR and Varicella vaccine.

How will this change work ?Children who have by 1 July 2013 already received

their eighteen month Varicella vaccination should stillbe immunised for Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR)at four years of age.

This four year old scheduled vaccination point will re-main until all children aged between eighteen monthsand four years of age as at 1 July 2013 reach the age of4 years - that is 31 December 2015.

Children who have previously been infected withchickenpox should still receive the Varicella vaccina-tion, as applicable to their circumstances on presenta-tion.

The new vaccine to be introduced for Measles,Mumps, Rubella and Varicella vaccination is known asPriorix-Tetra (or MMRV).

MMRV must not be administered as the first dose ofMMR given at 12 months. The twelve months MMRvaccine will remain as MMR or Priorix. The eighteenmonth vaccine will be a different vaccine MMRV or Pri-orix-Tetra.

While the decisions are made at a national level,there are variations in how the vaccines are delivered ineach state. In this article I will deal with how the vac-cines are delivered in NSW.

At the same time as the change in the national pro-gram, in NSW the two other vaccines which are deliv-ered at the same time as the Measles Mumps and,Rubella at twelve months namely: Hiberix, the mono-valent Hib vaccine for protection against illness causedby Haemophilus Influenzae Type B and Meningitec thevaccine for protection against the bacteria meningo-coccus type C are being combined into one vaccineknown as Menitorix.

The vaccines in NSW are:

Infanrix-hexa - Australia’s first six-in-one vaccine willbe provided free to all children at 2, 4 and 6 months ofage. Infanrix-hexa protects against diphtheria, tetanus,whooping cough, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenza ty-pe B (Hib) and poliomyelitis.

Prevenar13 - For protection against disease causedby the bacteria pneumococcus provided free to all chil-dren at 2, 4 and 6 months of age.

Rotarix - Oral vaccine provided free to all children at2 and 4 months of age for protection against diarrhoeacaused by rotavirus.

Infanrix IPV - This is provided free to all children at 4years of age. Infanrix IPV protects against diphtheria,tetanus, whooping cough and poliomyelitis.

Priorix - This is provided free to all children at twelvemonths and protects against Measles, Mumps and Ru-bella.

And of course the two new vaccines we have dis-cussed.

Priorix-Tetra - This vaccine given at eighteen monthsprotects against Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Varicel-la.

Menitorix - This is given at twelve months and re-places both: Hiberix which protects against illnesscaused by Haemophilus Influenzae Type B and Menin-gitec which protects against illnesses caused by thebacteria meningococcus type C.

WHAT IS IMMUNISATION?

Immunisation is a simple, safe and effective way ofprotecting children against harmful disease, beforethey come into contact with them in the community.

Immunisation means to receive a vaccine and for thebody to mount an immune response to the vaccine.That is, when a person is injected with or swallows avaccine, their body responds in the same it would fol-lowing natural exposure to the disease, but withoutgetting the disease. Therefore, if the person comes incontact with the disease in the future, the body is pre-pared and able to respond to that disease quicklyenough to prevent the person getting sick.

WHAT IS A VACCINE?

The dictionary definition of a vaccine is a suspensionof dead, attenuated, or otherwise modified micro or-ganisms for inoculation to produce immunity to a dis-ease by stimulating the production of antibodies.

Vaccines vary in their make up. Some vaccines con-tain a small amount of the virus which is weakened.Some vaccines contain a small amount of killed bacteriaand some a small amount of modified toxin which isproduced by the bacteria. The vaccines have other ad-ditives. Some contain small amounts of preservatives orantibiotics to preserve the vaccine and some contain analuminium salt which helps enhance the immune re-sponse.

The terms vaccination and immunisation are oftenconfused. Vaccination is the term used for giving thevaccine and immunisation is the process for mountingthe immune response.

HOW LONG DO IMMUNISATIONS TAKETO WORK?

Immunisation does not immediately protect the per-son from the disease. The normal immune responsemay take several weeks after vaccination and so it maybe several weeks before protection occurs.

To build long-lasting protection, a child needs to begiven a course of the vaccine and the time of subse-quent doses is different for different vaccines. A childwho has not completed the course for a particular vac-cine is not fully protected and the course can vary de-pending on the age at which the child starts.

DOES IMMUNISATION ALWAYS WORK?

Even when a course has been completed, immunisa-tion may not give complete protection. Measles,Mumps, Rubella, Tetanus, Polio and Haemophilus in-fluenzae Hib vaccines protect more than 95% of chil-dren who have completed the course.

However, if the vaccine doesn’t give complete pro-tection, it will certainly reduce the severity of the dis-ease. Three doses of the Whooping Cough or PertussisVaccine will protect about 85% of children who havebeen immunised. The remaining 15% of children whoare immunised, if they do contract the disease, shouldreceive a less severe dose of the disease.

The effect of immunisation is not always life-long andso for some vaccines a booster dose is required.

DISEASES WE IMMUNISE AGAINST

The diseases we immunise against are :

DIPHTHERIA

Diphtheria is caused by bacteria which are found inthe mouth, throat and nose of an infected person.Diphtheria can cause a membrane to grow inside thethroat which can lead to difficulty swallowing andshortness of breath. A toxin can be produced by thebacteria which can cause paralysis and heart failure.About 7% of people who contract diphtheria can diefrom it. Fortunately, because of successful immunisa-tion programmes, diphtheria is now rarely seen.

TETANUS

Tetanus is an often fatal disease cause by a bacteriawhich releases a toxin which attacks the nervous sys-tem causing muscle spasm usually first felt in the neckand jaw muscles causing ‘lockjaw’. It can cause breath-ing difficulties, convulsions and cardiac arrhythmias.Tetanus is present in soil and manure and enters thebody from a wound in the skin which may be the size ofa pin prick.

Tetanus is rare in children today because of immuni-sation, but it still occurs in previously unimmunisedadults.

HEALTHNEWS


WITH DR. THEO PENKLIS *

TO BHMA 15/33JULY 2013

Cont. from previous page

WHOOPING COUGH / PERTUSSIS

Whooping Cough also known as Pertussis is a highlycontagious bacterial disease. It is spread by coughing orsneezing. Pertussis attacks the airways and causesbreathing difficulties. The child has severe coughingspasms and will gasp for breath between spasms. Thisgasping causes the characteristic ‘whooping’ sound.Complications of Whooping Cough can include convul-sions, pneumonia, inflammation of the brain and per-manent brain and lung damage.

POLIO

Polio is a severe viral infection of the nervous system.It causes paralysis of parts of the body. Since the intro-duction of polio vaccines, there as been a dramatic re-duction in polio infection.

HEPATITIS B

This is a serious disease cause by a virus that affectsthe liver. The Hepatitis B virus is transmitted in infectedbody fluids including blood, saliva and semen. Babieswhose mothers have Hepatitis B are at high risk of be-ing infected at birth. When a person gets the disease,they may only have mild symptoms or no symptoms atall, but many will go on to carry the virus for manyyears. Twenty five percent of the people who carry thisvirus will go on to develop cirrhosis of the liver or livercancer in later life.

MEASLES

Measles is a serious, highly contagious viral illnesswhich causes fever, rash, runny nose, cough and con-junctivitis. Complications of measles include pneumo-nia and encephalitis. A very serious but rare illnesscalled Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis (SSPE) canoccur in children several years after measles infection.SSPE is a disease which rapidly destroys the brain andalways results in death.

MUMPS

This is viral disease which causes inflammation of thesalivary glands. It can cause meningitis and encephali-tis. Mumps can cause permanent deafness and in ado-lescent and adult males it can cause infertility.

RUBELLA

Rubella, also known as German Measles, is a mild dis-ease of childhood. It is highly contagious. Congenital

rubella infection is a serious problem. This is where in-fection during the first twenty weeks of pregnancy canresult in serious defects in the newborn including deaf-ness, blindness, congenital heart disease and mental re-tardation.

HAEMOPHILUS INFLUENZAE TYPE B (Hib)

This is a bacterial infection which can cause life-threatening illnesses in children under five years of age.In addition to causing pneumonia and joint infection,Haemophilus Influenzae Type B can cause swelling inthe throat of the epiglottis (epiglottitis) which can ob-struct breathing and can also cause meningitis. In chil-dren, both these conditions can develop quickly and ifnot treated, will cause death.

MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE

This is a serious disease cause by the bacteria menin-gococcus. It is spread by droplet infection. There is avaccine for the C strain of the disease. Meningococcaldisease is an uncommon but potentially life threateninginfection that causes meningitis and septicaemia.

PNEUMOCOCCAL DISEASEThis is a serious disease cause by the bacteria pneu-

mococcus. It can cause diseases such as ear infections(otitis media) or more serious disease such a s pneumo-nia, septicaemia and meningitis.

VARICELLA / CHICKEN POX

This is a mild but highly contagious viral disease. Thevirus responsible for Chicken Pox is known as VaricellaZoster. Chicken Pox usually causes a mild illness in chil-dren with complete recovery. More serious complica-tions of Chicken Pox include encephalitis and pneumo-nia.

ROTAVIRUS

This is the most common cause of gastroenteritis in y-oung children and rotavirus infection can lead to signif-icant vomiting and diarrhoea which may lead to dehy-dration.

COMMON SIDE EFFECTS OF IMMUNISATION

Many children may experience minor side effects af-ter immunisation. These side effects may include lowgrade fever, being unsettled, grizzly, generally unhappy,soreness or redness or swelling at the injection site.Measles, Mumps, Rubella vaccination may cause a head

cold , runny nose, faint rash, fever or joint pains andswelling of the facial glands.

These symptoms may be concerning and cause thechild discomfort, but the minor adverse effects of theseimmunisations by far outweigh the risks of the disease.

Generally speaking, if these symptoms do occur, it isimportant to give the child extra fluids to drink, not tooverdress the child, and to give paracetamol to lowerthe fever.

Other side effects may occur and if you are con-cerned you should discuss these with your doctor at thetime of immunisation.

WHAT YOUR DOCTOR NEEDS TO KNOWBEFORE YOUR CHILD IS IMMUNISED

The doctor needs to know if your child is unwell orhas had a severe reaction to a previous vaccine, or hassevere allergies.

If your child has had a live vaccine within the previousmonth (such as Tuberculosis, MMR, oral poliomyelitisor yellow fever vaccine) or an injection of immunoglob-ulin or a transfusion with whole blood, the vaccinationmay need to be delayed.

The doctor should be advised if the child has a dis-ease which lowers immunity or is having treatmentwhich lowers immunity such as steroid medicine suchas cortisone or prednisone, radiotherapy or chemother-apy. Certain medical conditions affecting the brain orspinal cord may mean the immunisation may be given adifferent way.

THE BENEFITS OF IMMUNISATION

Immunisation does not only provide a safe and effec-tive way of giving protection against disease. It also pro-vides the advantage that if enough people in the com-munity are immunised, the infection can no longerspread from person to person and the disease dies outaltogether.

This is how Small Pox was eradicated from the worldand why Polio has disappeared from many countries in-cluding Australia. Australia at the present time is in theprocess of certifying that it is free of polio as part of aglobal campaign to eradicate Polio. It is however stillimportant to have children immunised against Polio.

Immunisation is there to protect your child.Talk to your doctor today about the benefits of im-

munisation.

* The information given in this article is of a general natureand readers should seek advice from their own medical practi-tioner before embarking on any treatment.


Mickey Mouse and Disney friends disembark in PiraeusMickey Mouse, Minnie and other well

loved Disney characters were amongthe passengers disembarking from thecruise ship “Disney Magic” that sailed into Piraeus port. The ship, operated bythe U.S. cruise company Disney CruiseLine, arrived on Friday 21 June with2,380 passengers on board, the majori-ty of them children.

The ship was be met by Piraeus PortOrganisation board chairman GeorgeAnomeritis and senior OLP staff, whopresented the captain Robert Olmerwith a commemorative plaque andbooks for the ship’s library.

At the cruise company’s request, OLPorganised a theatre performance forschool children featuring Mickey Mouseand Minnie, put on by the ship’s actors,in the OLP events hall.

The 83,338-tonne “Disney Magic” isspecially designed to cater for youngerpassengers, with play areas, water sli-des, film theatres, in addition to offer-ing entertainment and activities for old-er age groups, and is decorated with

characters and images of well-knownand loved Disney characters. The ship is264 metres long, has 11 decks and thecapacity for 2,700 passengers and 1,005crew members and actors.

OLP’s management consider that the

company’s decision to include Piraeusand the Greek islands in its list of desti-nations is of crucial importance, con-firming the steady rising course of thecruise sector in the Mediterranean andGreece, as a location offering quality,safety, natural beauty and classic cul-ture.

The ‘Disney Magic’ is the third ‘DisneyCruises’ ship to set sail from Barcelonawith stops at Greek ports and harboursthis year. The company currently offersfour difference ‘packages’ from Barcelo-na, including a 12-night trip that also in-cludes Greek destinations.

In general, port authorities reported arecord number of cruise ship arrivals inPiraeus on June 19, when eight cruiseships docked at Piraeus without prob-lems, bringing 15,000 passengers.


By Guy Freeland*

The British origins? We know that he is a Pom, but sure-ly the old chap has gone too far this time? Ah, but giveme a moment before dismissing the notion as puremoonshine.

With whom does Byzantine, and hence Orthodox, histo-ry per se have its origin? Of course, with St Constantinethe Great. Where did Constantine’s father, the EmperorConstantius I, nicknamed Constantius Chlorus, Constan-tius the Pale, die on July 25, 306? And where was hiseldest son, Constantine, immediately proclaimed Au-gustus (Emperor) by the Legio VI Victrix (the 6th Legion,the Victorious)? The answer is in Eboracum (alsospelled Eburacum), a major outpost of Imperial Rome,the city of York in northern England.

So Constantine does have roots in the soil of Britain, thefriend of whom the fourth-century Church historian, Eu-sebius of Caesarea, wrote in the closing words of his Lifeof Constantine (trans A.Cameron & S.G.Hall, ClarendenPress): “his like has never been recorded from the be-ginning of time until our day.”

In the year of the 1700th Anniversary of the so-calledEdict of Milan, which granted religious freedom acrossthe whole Roman Empire, the time is ripe for examiningthe roots of St Constantine, Equal-to-the-Apostles.

Eboracum

Let me begin with York. Today, this is a thriving tourist-choked city of quaint narrow streets almost entirelysurrounded by its medieval city walls. A city of medie-val churches dominated by its glorious cathedral, YorkMinster, the seat of one of the two (Anglican) Metro-politans of England, the Archbishop of York, who stillsigns himself “Guy [or whatever] Ebor” (for Eboracum).

York is the site of a fortress the Romans established in71 AD and around which a major self-governing city, acolonia, developed that became the capital of thenortherly of the two Roman provinces of England.

Under the Emperor Severus, the Empire was actuallyruled from Eboracum from 208-211, when Severus diedand was cremated in the city. Under Constantius Chlo-rus, the fortress was partly rebuilt in an opulent stylebefitting its Imperial status.

Constantine would have been proclaimed Emperorfrom the tribunal (= platform) of the basilica of the prin-cipia (the headquarters building) of the fortress. In1967-72 excavations were carried out in the founda-tions of the cathedral around the central tower, whichwas in danger of immanent collapse. The excavationscut across the Roman basilica and the site of the tribu-nal was unearthed.

The foundations can be visited today but sadly the ac-tual tribunal is now buried beneath a concrete collarsupporting the tower. Outside stands a remarkablemodern statue of Constantine (unfortunately, in themidst of construction work when I took the photographrecently).

Constantius Chlorus and Helena

Constantius came from the Balkans and was born nolater than 250. He served as governor of Dalmatia andwas elevated to the rank of Caesar when Diocletianformed the tetrarchy.

The tetrarchy comprised two senior Emperors or Au-gusti, Diocletian and Maximian, and two junior rulers

called Caesars. Constantius was appointed to assistMaximian as his Caesar focussed on the West, while Ga-lerius was appointed to assist Diocletian centred in theEast.

Constantine was born in Naissus (Nis in modern Serbia)to Constantius and his first wife (some sources say con-cubine) St Helena. His date of birth is uncertain but pos-sibly c.272/3. Whether or not Helena was a barmaid, orsomething of the sort, when she met Constantius, aswas claimed in some early sources, he later gave herher marching orders so that he could reinforce a politi-cal alliance by marrying the daughter of the EmperorMaximian, Theodora.

At the creation of the tetrarchy, Constantius tookcharge of Gaul and Britain. His initial task was to recov-er NE Gaul and Britain from the usurper Carausius. Gaulwas recovered in 293 but Britain fell into the hands ofanother usurper, Allectus. In 296 Allectus was defeatedand Constantius made a triumphal entry into London.

On May 1, 305 Diocletian and Maximian abdicated andConstantius and Galerius became Augusti. Constantine,however, became a virtual prisoner of the monstrousGalerius. Constantius sent requests to Galerius to sendhis son over to him in Britain. When Galerius momen-tarily agreed, Constantine fled in great haste overnight,thus foiling Galerius’ murderous intention to have himliquidated en route.

Constantine assisted his father in his victory over thePicts in Scotland but shortly after Constantius died andthe era of Constantine began.

Let us turn now to St Helena. Here we could really tieConstantine into Britain because there is a traditionthat Helena was British, the daughter of an East AnglianKing, Coel. This gentleman is the “Old King Cole” of thenursery rhyme: “Old King Cole was a merry old soul, /And a merry old soul was he; / He called for his pipe, /

And he called for his bowl, / And he called for his fid-dlers three.”

For this reason there was a substantial medieval cultusof St Helena and Helena/Helen has always been almostas popular a girls’ name amongst Brits as amongstGreeks.

This tradition was widely accepted, but those miserablehistorians won’t have a bar of it. The medieval chroni-clers, they say, confused St Helena with a later Helenwho married another emperor associated with Britain,Magnus Clemens Maximus, and they, coincidentally, al-so had a son they named Constantine.

St Helena, we are assured, was born in Drepanum, onthe Gulf of Nicomedia, refounded by Constantine as He-lenopolis. It was to Helenopolis that Constantine wentafter he fell ill on Easter Sunday 337 and where hemade the decision to be baptised. The Baptism tookplace in Nicomedia and the Emperor died on PentecostSunday.

In old age this holy and intelligent woman travelled tothe Holy Land and founded shrines at the places ofChrist’s birth and Ascension. Eusebius says nothing ofher role in the finding of the True Cross; this tradition isnot found until the late fourth century.

Constantine and Christianity

Constantine undoubtedly favoured Christianity. Hebrought religious persecution to an immediate end interritory under his control and enacted a series ofmeasures over the years in accord with Christian princi-ples and for the benefit of the Church. But the questionof when he actually became a Christian, if he ever did,has had historians tying themselves in knots. (The influ-ential eighteenth-century historian, Gibbon, even con-cluded that Constantine merely cynically used Christi-anity in order to further his political ambitions.)

Constantine and the British Origins of Byzantine History

Windows to Orthodoxy

York Minster, showing the central tower, from a stretch of the medieval walls that follow the line of the Roman fortress.


Windows to OrthodoxyCont. from previous page

The popular story is that Constantine was convertedwhen he saw a cross in the sky with the accompanyingwords In hoc vinces (“By this [sign] conquer”) some timebefore the vital battle of the Milvian Bridge on October28, 312, the penultimate step to his assuming absolutepower as sole Emperor in 324. A meeting with his co-Emperor, Licinius, in 313 resulted in the Edict of Milan,which paved the way for the Church to become thefaith of the Empire.

It seems to me that the whole sea of confusion overConstantine’s faith has resulted from a failure to viewthe issue through fourth-century eyes.

A common view amongst traditional Christians is that aperson only becomes a Christian when they are bap-tised. For those who hold this view, the fact that Con-stantine delayed Christian initiation until he was dyingpresents a problem as to what his faith was before hislast days. Was he in fact a pagan; probably, like the Em-peror Aurelian, a worshipper of Sol Invictus, the Uncon-quered Sun?

But there is a quite different way of looking at the issue.Those of an Evangelical or Charismatic orientation placeall the emphasis on conversion. It is conversion thatmakes a person a Christian. Obviously, if it is conversionthat makes a person a Christian then it is important todetermine the date of Constantine’s conversion.

According to his Life of Constantine, the Emperor onlytold Eusebius of the sign of the cross in the sky long af-ter the event. There is no mention of it in Eusebius’ ear-lier Ecclesiastical History and it is not recorded by Lac-tantius, who only refers to a dream in which the Emper-or was commanded to place the Chi-Rho symbol ofChrist on the shields of his troops (a dream is also men-tioned by Eusebius).

Even more unsettling, a Latin panegyric of 310 refers toa vision by the Emperor at a temple of the god Apollo.Subsequently, Constantine’s coins bore the words SolInvictus (Unconquered Sun). So, was Constantine adevotee of Apollo and the pagan Sol Invictus in 310? Didthe cross in the sky event actually occur, and if sowhen?

The strongest supporting evidence for the sky cross isthat this is a real physical phenomenon. A cross withthe sun in the centre can indeed be formed in the skycaused by light shining through ice crystals. When theevent occurred, or its relation to the panegyrist’s vision,is, however, unclear.

The vision described by the panegyrist does not sub-stantiate the claim that Constantine was a pagan at thetime. Apollo was a pagan type (foreshadowing) ofChrist, and Constantine’s Apollo could well have beenChristus Apollo. Similarly, Constantine’s Sol Invictuscould well have been Christus Sol/Christos Helios/Christthe Sun.

Moreover, that Constantine was ever a devotee of thegod Apollo is most unlikely as in a letter he dismissesthe cult of Apollo with total distaste and contempt. ButApollo as a symbol or type is another matter. So, on theColumn of Constantine in Constantinople the Emperorcould be depicted as Apollo Helios.

There is, I personally think, sufficient evidence to con-clude that Constantine was deliberately bringing Chris-tianity in under the skirts of the monotheistic cult of theUnconquered Sun, Sol Invictus.

The whole notion of a sudden conversion experiencedoes not fit the evidence. In the fourth century the pas-sage from paganism (or the transitional monotheisticcult of Sol Invictus) to full initiated membership of theChurch was a gradual one often lasting many years.Along the way, one or more “conversion” events couldoccur.

One became a Christian in the general sense by com-mitting oneself to the pilgrimage towards initiation(Baptism, Chrismation and Communion), which in thefourth century might (as with Constantine) be post-poned until close to death.

If this is accepted, one is confronted with the questionof whether Constantine might not have been a Christianfrom the very quickening of his faculty of reason. I thinkthat it is likely that he was.

Here we need to go back a generation. We know that atsome point St Helena became a deeply committedChristian. To Constantine, Eusebius notes, “she seemed… to have been a disciple of the common Saviour fromthe first”.

But what of Constantius? Could he have been a Chris-tian? It is perfectly possible that, again in the generalsense, he was, though unlikely that he was a baptisedChristian. Constantine not only saw his mother as a dis-ciple of the Saviour but he declared that his father “withwonderful reverence [called] upon the Saviour God inall his actions” (Life of Constantine).

Evidence of a partiality towards Christianity is providedby Constantius’ ignoring of Diocletian’s edict to extir-pate Christianity in Britain, beyond a token knockingdown of a church or two.

Although little material evidence survived the barbarianinvasions of the fifth century on, Christianity was cer-tainly well established by the early fourth century asthree British bishops attended the Constantinian Coun-cil of Arles of 314, including the Bishop of Eboracum.

So how did Constantine conceive of his mission? Clearlyhis policy was to promote the Church wherever oppor-tunity presented itself and to edge the people as awhole towards acceptance of Christianity.

He destroyed pagan idols and prohibited pagan sacri-fices and secret covens but respected the personal be-liefs of continuing pagans. Like the greatest of Englishmonarchs, Elizabeth I, he resolved not to make win-dows into individuals’ souls.

Constantine saw himself as the protector and mentor ofall Roman citizens. Entertaining bishops to dinner, heremarked that he was perhaps a bishop too. While hisguests were bishops for those in the Church, he hadbeen appointed by God as a bishop for those outsidethe Church.

In his public discourse Constantine typically uses thelanguage of monotheism, but avoids explicitly Christianreferences. His policy is clearly discernible in his order

to the army that Christian troops were to be given timeto attend Church on the Lord’s Day but the rest were toparade and recite a prayer he himself wrote addressedsimply to “God”.

Constantine believed that he had been commissionedby God to bring to an end the tyranny of his predeces-sors and to set the Empire on a new course under theone supreme God; a commitment echoed in the civil re-ligious motto of the United States: “One Nation UnderGod”. (Supply your own definition.)

His predecessors, Constantine declared, “were mentallysick and embraced savagery”. The only exception washis own father. So, finally

Back to Britain

Of course, I am not seriously claiming St Constantine asa Pom! He was born in Serbia, his father came from theBalkans, his mother (I tearfully admit) from Anatolia. Infact, Constantine was first and last a citizen of Rome, acategory free of ethnic connotations.

Thousands of slaves obtained their freedom as Romancitizens irrespective of their genetic ethnicity. To be-come a Roman, however, was to commit to the rule ofthe Emperor, the Senate and Roman law, and fully em-brace Roman culture; while ethnic religions were ab-sorbed into Roman (a process, however, which both Ju-daism and Christianity resisted). Rome knew nothing ofmulticulturalism.

But Britain did play a role in the life and mission of Con-stantine through his experiences in the country wherehe was proclaimed Augustus; a country which had beensaved the martyrdoms of the last and most terrible ofearly Christian persecutions, that under Diocletian.

Constantine did indeed see his God-ordained mission asstarting from Britain. A point made in a passage of a let-ter to the provincials of Palestine, which should justabout wrap-up the argument of my little panegyric toConstantine: “The Supreme [a word frequently used byConstantine for God] … examined my service and ap-proved it … ; and I, beginning from that sea beside theBritons … , have repelled and scattered the horrors thatheld everything in subjection, so that … the mostblessed faith [= Christianity] might grow under the guid-ance of the Supreme” (Life of Constantine).

* Guy Freeland is a member of the Faculty of St Andrew’s GreekOrthodox Theological College, Sydney. A collection of his Vemaarticles, Windows to Orthodoxy, has now been published by StAndrew’s Orthodox Press and is available for purchase (see ad-vertisement on page 9/27).

Bronze statue by Phillip Jackson of Constantine the Great (1998)outside York Minster.


Arts, Food & Wine

Journeying to KytheraEditor: Imogen Coward

By Dr Ann Coward

Writing about underwater archaeological discoveriesrelating to the wreck, the Mentor (carrying a cargo ofartefacts for Lord Elgin) off the coast of Kythera (Cythe-ra), archaeologist John Fardoulis notes that, “Kythera isa beautiful and relatively underdeveloped island tou-rist-wise”. Understandably, especially in today’s eco-nomic climate, Kytherians - like all Greeks - are eager tosupplement local income through tourism. To this end,the Kytherian Association of Australia (formerly theKytherian Brotherhood), which in 2012 celebrated its90th anniversary, has helped to sponsor a guidebook tothe island. In Search of Kythera and Antikythera:Venturing to the island of Aphrodite by Tzeli Hadjidim-itriou has been published in two editions, one in Greek,the other in English. Tzeli, an established photographer,is responsible not only for the text but also for the gen-erous number of colour photos (many double spreadsand whole page images) throughout the book.

This book, a travel guide covering routes accessible byroad transport as well as by foot, is not an isolatedattempt to attract visitors to the island. Over the pastfew years, locals and Kytherians worldwide have active-ly participated in creating hiking trails over the island,with sign posts in both Greek and English, as well as pro-ducing downloadable maps. Much of the inspiration forthese initiatives have been driven by James Prineas, theman behind the award-winning website www.kythera-family.net. Interest over the past few decades has alsobeen generated amongst academics and lay peoplealike by a number of archaeological projects on Kythera.While the name Kythera is becoming more widely usedinternationally, many Greeks know the island by thename Tsirigo, from the Italian name Cerigo.

The main body of Tzeli’s book is taken up with notes onvarious options for visitors wanting to travel particularroutes from one village to another. Here the book trulyshines. Scattered throughout are historical tidbits,phrases to help people communicate with Greeks, par-ticular features (or pitfalls, often literally) to look outfor, associated tales (some quite gruesome), local char-acters and important and useful facts about where tostay, to eat, to shop. An index would greatly enhancethe book’s usefulness, and hopefully may feature inlater editions.

The opening chapters deal with, as one might expect,some history and Kythera’s place in mythology, as wellas pages on produce, the people, architecture, and soon. While artefacts are used to throw light on past cul-tures, Tzeli notes the influences present in contempo-rary cultural practices, including dances performed onthe island, the traditional Greek dances hearkeningback to the most recent migration to Kythera byCretans. While only about 4,000 people live on Kytheratoday, it has been estimated that Kytherians and theirdescendants living in the diaspora number around80,000. Professor Chrysa Maltezou, on a visit to Austra-lia, talked about the Kytherian dialect, which she said isheavily influenced by Italian. While Tzeli notes in herbook that there is a strong influence on Kytherian Greekfrom Australian speech, it is interesting to note the sim-ilarity between Kytherian speech and that of Greeks

from the other Ionian islands, suggesting that the ac-cent itself may also owe a lot to the Italian connection.

Along with two pages of ‘essential information’ - basi-cally useful local phone numbers - there is the warningin the travel guide for visitors to not be too pedanticabout arrival or departure dates, as these are subject tothe weather. Some have noted that this possibility ofdisappointment in not being able to reach Kythera aspredicted has a history. Watteau’s paintings, TheEmbarkation for Cythera, and Pilgrimage to Cythera,depict the island as a verdant, mythical paradise, an ide-alised designation. The paintings bear no relationship tothe island itself, but are based on its association withAphrodite, Cyprus and Kythera both sharing a common,although slightly different, claim to the ancientGreek/Phoenician goddess. This idea of Kythera being aplace never to be reached, but desired, has subse-quently been reflected in later art works, notably thepowerful film Voyage to Cythera by the Greek director,

the late Theo Angelopoulos. The theme composed forthe film by Eleni Karaindrou is found on one of her mostbeautiful and haunting soundtrack CDs. Having GeorgeDalaras singing the theme song helps, of course.

However, as Tzeli Hadmidimitrou’s book reveals, theisland of Kythera is quite real and definitely accessible.Its natural beauty is waiting to be discovered, andenjoyed. This travel guide is available from the Kythe-rian Association of Australia, along with a number ofother books on the island itself, and on the history ofKytherian settlement in Australia from the late 19th cen-tury onwards, particularly in relation to the spread ofGreek cafes and often also cinemas, throughout thecountry towns of New South Wales and S-E Queensland,and sugar/tobacco plantations in northern Queensland.

References

* John Fardoulis is quoted in The Kytherian, March 2012from an article published in the international magazineOdyssey entitled ‘The Kytherian Adventure’, by MarySinanidis.* Eleni Karaindrou, Voyage to Cythera: Music for thefilm by Theo Angelopoulos. EMI Classics 5 099944 090722 * Kytherian Association of Australia, PO Box 183 Rock-dale NSW 2216 or phone 9599 6998Professor Chrysa Maltezou, Director of the HellenicInstitute for Byzantine and post-Byzantine Studies inVenice, Italy. Articles and quotes appear on a number ofinternet sites.Voyage to Cythera, director Theo Angelopoulos (1984)http://www.kythera-family.net

After testing and sampling many recipes, here ispart two of our review on quinces. We hope you en-joy this fantastic recipe!

Baked Spiced Quinces

For this dish you’ll need 2 large ripe, fragrantquinces, rind and juice of half a lemon (preferablyun-waxed), 2 bay leaves, 1 stick cinnamon, 85g(60ml) mild fragrant honey - raw is best, 140g castersugar, water.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Take thelarge quinces, and under warm running water, rubthe fur off the skin. Cut the quinces into quarters andremove the core and seeds (as you would for an ap-

ple) and rub the surfaces with some lemon to stopthem browning. In a large casserole, place thequinces, skin side down, add the lemon rind andjuice, bay leaves, cinnamon, honey and sugar, and e-nough water to come half way up the fruit. Coverwith a well-fitting lid and bake for approximately twohours (basting the fruit with the syrup occasionally).The quinces are ready when the flesh is soft and hasturned a pretty pink-red colour. Remove from ovenand leave to cool in the cooking syrup. The quincesmay be served warm or cold with a drizzle of thecooking syrup and a dollop of thick cream. They mayalso be cooked in advance and kept in the fridge, intheir syrup for a few days.

I.C.

FFoooodd && WWiinnee


The Greek AustralianVema

The oldest circulating Greek newspaperoutside Greece

Tel: (02) 9559 7022 Fax: (02) 9559 7033


IT STOPS HERE: UNITED EFFORT TO END DOMESTIC AND FAMILY VIOLENCE IN NSW

Minister for Women Pru Goward was joined by Minister forHealth Jillian Skinner to announce the NSW Government’snew reforms to improve the response to domestic and fami-ly violence.

“Domestic and family violence affects far too many peoplein our community. Police recorded more than 30,000 domes-tic and family violence assaults in NSW between September2011 and September 2012,” Ms Goward said.

“It Stops Here: Standing together to end domestic and fam-ily violence reforms is a whole of government response to do-mestic and family violence.

“More than 300 domestic and family violence experts frommore than 50 non-government and government agencieshave worked together to design these new reforms, includingthe following on-the-ground initiatives:

• A common risk identification tool to help identify peopleat high risk of further violence.

• Central referral points to ensure support services relevantto the victims needs are quickly engaged in a coordinatedmanner, as well as enabling referral of those at serious threatto Safety Action Meetings.

• Safety Action Meetings bringing together local agenciesand service providers to share information about high-riskcases so service providers can respond more collaboratively.

• Investment in early intervention programs that supportmen, women, young people and children in NSW to under-stand and develop healthy, respectful relationships to breakthe inter-generational cycle of violence.

• Minimum practice standards for all agencies, which willenable a consistent and appropriate level of response frommainstream and specialist domestic and family violence serv-ices for victims.

“Collectively we must do everything we can to stop the vio-lence from occurring in the first place, which is why we

worked with experts to develop these on-the-ground initia-tives, and committed $9.8 million for preventative domesticand family violence work.

“The reforms also recommend a new focus on violence pre-vention to address beliefs, and attitudes that allow violenceto occur in the first place. Key preventative activities include:

• Investing $620,000 in three major violence preventionstudies to inform future funding allocation - focusing on menand boys’ violence prevention; at-risk groups and communi-ties and child centred responses that stop inter-generationalviolence.

• Spending $2 million (over three years) on a new men’stelephone counselling and referral service, which will provideimmediate assistance to men who are violent and want tochange their behaviour.”

CEO of the NSW Women’s Refuge Movement Tracey Howesaid the proposed reforms will enable sector workers to bet-ter identify and support people who face a serious threat totheir safety.

Kay Schubach, who was in an abusive relationship and wasnearly killed in her own home, said the reforms to the servicesystem would have supported her to take action sooner.

“The proposed reforms recommend a central referral pointso that people who need help can navigate services, and a co-ordinated team approach with police and agencies to identi-fy the level of danger the victim is in. This would have been soeffective for me as under extreme duress and threats to myloved ones, I retracted my statements and was too afraid toface my accuser in court.

“Knowing that a team of people believed, could help meand understood the danger I was in, would have given me thepower to leave my abuser earlier rather than remaining toolong in an extremely volatile and dangerous situation,” MsSchubach said.

June tourism arrivals

point to major increase for 2013

Not only is the Greek tourism destina-tion more than likely to exceed the tar-get of 17 million arrivals from abroad andmeet the goal for revenues of 11 billioneuros, but the prospects for next yearare already pointing to further growth intakings from the country’s main econom-ic activity.

June arrivals at the country’s main air-ports grew 14.6 percent compared withthe same month last year, amounting to1.96 million, from 1.71 million in June2012. In total, arrivals in the first half ofthe year posted a 10 percent rise fromH1 of 2012, to reach 4.35 million, accord-ing to data processed by the Associationof Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (SETE).

Eleven out of the country’s 13 biggestairports reported a rise in arrivals fromother countries last month, with Santori-ni reporting a 30.6 percent annual rise,followed by Iraklio (up 21 percent) andRhodes (19 percent). Even Athens, a reg-ular underperformer, showed a 9.6 per-cent yearly rise.


Travel

BY H. ARGYROPOULOS

Without the tremendous vol-canic eruption around 1630BC,which destroyed its center andtransformed its shape into acrescent, Santorini, the south-ernmost of the Cycladic islan-ds, might have well retained itsMinoan name of Strongyle(meaning “round”) and havenone of the special attributesthat have made it famous onthe world travel scene.

From a distance, the whitehouses of the villages of Fira,Imerovigli and Oia, built on thebrow of the caldera - thebreathtaking crater created bythe explosion - give the ap-pearance of a snow-cappedplateau rising vertically somehundreds of meters from thesea.

As the boat approaches, theeye focuses on the intense va-riety of colors of the successivelayers of lava, piled up over 3million years. The view is trulyawe-inspiring, leaving indelibleimpressions on the visitor.

The caldera, measuring 11kilometers on the north-southaxis and 7.5 km on the east-west axis, is shaped by Santori-ni and the smaller islands ofTherasia and Aspronisi, alsoremnants of the explosion, onthe western side. Subsequentunderwater eruptions createdthe islands of Palaia Kameniand Nea Kameni inside thecrater.

The outer - northern, easternand southern - shores of the is-land are lined with endlessbeaches of sand of differentcolors. Vlichada on the south-ern shore, and Columbo on thenorthern side are the two mostimpressive and least congest-ed.

Santorini covers an area of76 square km, with 69 km ofcoastline. The island is arid butits volcanic soil yields choiceproduce, like wine grapes, yel-low split peas (fava) and toma-toes.

Finds at Akrotiri, the Minoancity found wonderfully pre-served in volcanic ash, provideevidence of wine production3,600 years ago. In fact, wine-making has been one of Santo-rini’s prime sources of incomethrough most of its history, ha-

ving only been overtaken bytourism in recent decades. Thetwo industries now competefor land. The Asyrtiko wine va-riety is second in consumptionin Greece today, closely behindMoschofilero. To protect gra-pes from strong winds, the is-landers plant the vines in smalldepressions in the earth andweave the new shoots aroundthe stump in the shape of a ba-sket.

Besides the caldera and Ak-rotiri, Santorini (name derived

from Santa Irini, given by theVenetians who occupied it inthe 13th century) has manyother impressive sights, no-tably in Fira, the capital, and inthe traditional village of Oia. Fi-

ra, with its brilliant white hous-es, can be reached from sealevel either by bus, taxi, mod-ern cablecar, the traditionaldonkey-back or by climbing the600 or so steps.

Dotted with impressive man-sions, vaulted churches andmedieval convents, it also hasseveral museums and culturalvenues, plentiful shops, finerestaurants and lively nightlifeand is the starting point for anytour of the island.

Besides a plethora of impres-

sive mansions, testimony towealth mostly amassed fromseafaring, most of Santorini’svillages boast houses with anamazing maze of subterraneanextensions hollowed out of thesoft rock. Originally used ashouses by the poor folk and aswine cellars (kanaves), thevaults have been widely exten-ded in recent decades to meetthe requirements of the tou-rism industry.

Oia, 11 km from Fira, is oneof the loveliest villages in theisland and famous for its sun-sets. The houses follow the tra-ditional style: small terracedblocks built of stone, vaultedchambers or brightly paintedcubes among the narrowstreets. The sights include theruins of a Venetian castle, witha unique view over the sea,particularly at sunset and theNautical Museum, with relicsof the seafaring heritage of the19th century.

Particularly worth exploringfor their traditional architectu-re are also the villages of Pyr-gos (with a medieval castle)and Emboreio, in the south,and Finikia, close to Oia.

Source: ATHENSPLUS

SantoriniPast volcanic activity on the island largely to thank for its quality produce and cuisine

Awe-inspiring beauty

Getting thereAegean Airlines (801.11.20000,

www.aegeanair.co) have several fli-ghts a day from Athens. From Pira-eus or Rafina conventional ferriestake about 8 hrs 30 mins, catama-rans 6 hrs and high-speed vessels 4-5 hrs. The local bus service is satis-factory, but the service from Fira(the hub) to Oia is always crowded.You can rent cars and motorbikesbut, remember, there are manythousands of drivers on mediocreroads and not always sober - this is aparty island. Local code 22860. PortAuthority 22239 28702, airport33580.28405.

Where to stayThe array of accommodation facil-

ities is vast. In Fira: Santorini Palace(22771), Astra (23641), Enigma Apts(24024), Loukas (22480), Hellas(23555), Villa Renos (22369), Theox-enia (22740), Remezzo Villas (23030), Panorama (22481), Pelican (23113); Rooms: Summer Time (24313). In Kamari: Rivari (31687), Rous-sos Beach (31590), Venus (32760)Orion (31182). In Imerovigli: DreamsLuxury Suites (28787), On the Rocks(23889), Alexander Villas (24848),Astra (23641). In Oia: Katikies Suites(71401), Perivolos (71308), 1864 Ka-petanospito (71983). In Akrotiri:Adamastos (81188).

\

Where to eatAward - winning “Koukoumavlos”,

with a great view of the caldera, Se-lene and Saltsa in Fira, and 1800 inOia are top choices, but competitionensures bad food is hard to find. Al-so in Oia, Castro and Melenio; Marioin Monolithos for fresh fish; Skala,with excellent ambience for pastra-mi pies and octopus in wine; Dim-itris in Ammoudi; Ferentini in Oia onthe caldera; Nychteri in Kamari in anidyllic environment; Sphinx in Fira,Mediterranean cuisine with superbview; Schiza in Oia, home food; Sea-side in Perivolos; Vanilia and Il Cen-tuccio in Firostefani. Good value formoney: Nikolas in Fira and Lava inPerissa.

What to seeThe Archaeological Museum and

the site of ancient Thera; the Muse-um of Prehistoric Thera; the Mar-itime Museum in Oia; the SantoriniFolk museum; the Bellonio CulturalCenter; in Fira, the Dominican con-vent; the Argyros Mansion in Mes-saria, a listed building and guest-house; the famous Oia sunset; pa-noramic views from Profitis Ilias inExo Gonia and from Faros in Akroti-ri; the historic castle of Scaros, atthe end of cliff, on foot from Imero-vigli; take a submarine tour of thecaldera at 25-30 m., and a sailingtour of the caldera; there is a varietyof water sports and several divingclubs.

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