Eastern Hierarchs Ecumenical Service

A prayerful, peaceful, service in the spirit of Christ's love for all was held at 7pm on Monday 24 April 2006, at Saint Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church Punchbowl, NSW.

This Eastern Hierarchs Ecumenical Service was held today, the day after Orthodox Pascha, to commemorate Christ's suffering and death on the cross, his descent into the underworld, and his rising from the dead on the third day, which we all believe in and model our lives upon.

Present were 8 nuns, and 38 clergy including Metropolitan Archbishop Paul, bishops, archimandrites, archpriests, protopresbyters, priests, hieromonks, archdeacons, hierodeacons, deacons, and subdeacons. They were from the Alexandrian Orthodox Church, Antiochian Orthodox Church, Church of Cyprus, Coptic Orthodox Church, Greek Orthodox Church, Maronite Catholic Church, Melkite Catholic Church, Romanian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church, and Syriac Orthodox  Church.

In attendance, singing together, and singing separately were the Sydney Antiochian Choir, Sydney Coptic Orthodox Choir, Sydney Maronite Nuns Choir, and Sydney Melkite Clergy Choir. 

Those in attendance represented a wide variety of countries including Great Britain, France, Italy, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Kenya, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the USA.

Eastern Hierarchs is a friendly, effective organisation, working for the love of God spreading throughout the whole mystery of His Church in Australia. It succeeds because of its spirit of Christ-like co-operation, without accusation, judgment, condemnation, or lust for power.

The Eastern Hierarchs Ecumenical Service is held annually in Australia.