A solemn church service and memorial was held at St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Marrickville on Sunday to commemorate the 155th anniversary of the Arkadi Monastery holocaust.
Organised by the Cretan Association of Sydney and New South Wales, the event is held annually to remember the Cretans who paid the ultimate sacrifice at the Monastery of Arkadi in 1866.
All photos: The Greek Herald / Andriana Simos.
Cretan youth stood at the front of the church during the service.
This year, Cretan youth stood proudly at the front of the church dressed in traditional costumes and wearing a face mask due to the current COVID-19 restrictions in NSW.
The church service was presided over by His Grace Bishop Emilianos of Meloa, accompanied by the Very Reverend Archimandrite Christodoulos of Magnesia, the Very Reverend Archimandrite Prochoros of Charioupolis, and the Very Reverend Archimandrite Christophoros, among many other priests.
All photos: The Greek Herald / Andriana Simos.
Also present on the day were Costas Yiannakodimos, representing the Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Christos Karras, Terry Saviolakis, President of the Cretan Association of Sydney & NSW, and Maria Lagoudakis, Vice President of the Cretan Federation of Australia and New Zealand.
“It is an honour to be here today. It is an important day as we remember the Cretan sacrifice and battle for freedom in Arkadi on November 9, 1866. May God rest their souls. They will always be in our memory and heart,” Mr Yiannakodimos told The Greek Herald on the day.
Cretan youth with the President of the Cretan Association of Sydney & NSW, Terry Saviolakis (L) and Costas Yiannakodimos representing the Consul General of Greece in Sydney. Photo: The Greek Herald / Andriana Simos.
In a small speech after the service, Bishop Emilianos also acknowledged the ultimate sacrifice paid by the Cretans during the Arkadi holocaust and encouraged everyone to remember their brave actions.
At just 45 years of age, Justice Penelope Kari has gone from solicitor to barrister and now the first Australian of Greek descent to be appointed Honorable Justice to the Federal Circuit & Family Court of Australia.
In an interview with The Australian, Justice Kari says her success in South Australia’s legal industry wasn’t planned but rather she “turned off the white noise.”
She says her narrative has also been “coloured” by her grandparents, who migrated to Australia from Greece in the 1950s, and her parents, who worked multiple jobs to send her to a private school.
“I grew up being told you can do anything you set your mind to,” Justice Kari told the newspaper.
Adelaide Judge Penelope Kari.
“And that is true – but women have a different mentality and expectation on themselves, and that includes invariably being the nurturing parent and being the wife who makes the meals and all the bits and pieces. If you want to do it all really well, something has to give.”
It’s here where the conversation turns to Justice Kari’s thoughts on gender in law. She notes the gender imbalance among judges but argues she’s “not a believer in the boys’ club holding women back.”
Rather, she encourages women who want to get into law “to focus on being the best you can be and doors will open for you.”
“If you focus on what is holding you back, then that is a distraction. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing, it is not a competition,” she concludes in the interview.
The 109th anniversary of the liberation of the Greek island of Lesvos was commemorated on Sunday with a special memorial service and wreath laying ceremony by the Mytilenian Brotherhood of Sydney and NSW.
The annual event took place at Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Liverpool to remember those fallen heroes who sacrificed their lives for Lesvos during the liberation.
Memorial service presided over by Father Asterios.
Photos supplied.
The day began with a memorial service conducted by Parish priest, Father Asterios, and this was followed by members of the Mytilenian Brotherhood carrying an icon of the Archangel Michael around church grounds.
The icon was beautifully decorated by Georgina Kokokiris with flowers donated by her mum, Helen Kokokiris.
Icon of the Archangel Michael. Photo supplied.
Later, people gathered around a cenotaph on church grounds and recited the national anthems of Greece and Australia.
The President of the Mytilenian Brotherhood, Peter Psomas, then laid a wreath to mark the anniversary and thanked everyone in attendance, including former Brotherhood Presidents and committee members, among many others.
Members of the Brotherhood held a wreath laying ceremony outside. Photo supplied.
“I think it’s an event that needs to be acknowledged. The tradition needs to be carried on. We need to acknowledge our fallen heroes and the island we come from,” Mr Psomas told The Greek Herald after the event.
“Long live freedom, long live Greece and long live our lovely island of Lesvos.”
mRNA vaccines have been a game changer for COVID-19 and now, according to The Daily Telegraph, this new technology can also be applied to vaccines for cancer, pre-eclampsia and even cures for genetic disorders.
In fact, there are at least six mRNA vaccines against influenza and HIV already in the pipeline, as well as for Nipah, zika, herpes, dengue, hepatitis and malaria.
Professor Maria Kavallaris from the Children’s Cancer Institute (CCI) told the newspaper, mRNA was the future for the treatment for cancer as well.
“We know some tumour cells abnormally express — let’s call them little flags on their surface,” Professor Kavallaris said.
“They are not flags, but receptors on the cell surface and these are unique to certain types of cancer cells. So, if you have vaccine therapy, immune cells recognise this rogue surface receptor, the cancer cells, and the immune system can go and attack that cancer cell.
“With a vaccine you are stimulating the immune system to go and kill that cancer. The reason we get cancer is because cancer cells find ways to evade the immune system, so they are not seen. This is a way to be seen by the immune cells.”
A woman who went looking for her missing sister unknowingly ended up helping the man who had just mowed down her sibling in a horrific hit and run collision, The Daily Telegraphreports.
Chenai Radnedge was searching for her sister Tammara Macrokanis, 32, on the Gold Coast on October 17, 2020 after the mother-of-five stormed out of a family gathering.
Her search though was held up when she stopped to help a man lying on the ground next to his car on the shoulder of the M1 highway.
Tammara was a mother-of-five.
Ms Radnedge at that point had no clue the man she was calling triple-zero for was Kaine Andrew Carter, who minutes earlier had fatally struck her sister while under the influence of drugs and dragged her body 60m down a highway.
When police got him off the ground, Ms Radnedge recognised him. She knew him through friends and asked if he had seen her sister – but her question received no reply.
She continued searching for Tammara until she returned home. It was hours later that the siblings’ mum, Penny Macrokanis, would wake her daughter up to the news that Ms Macrokanis had been killed in a traffic incident.
“[Carter’s ute] was still there, surrounded by police. It clicked. Kaine killed Tammara (and) I had been there not long after it happened,” Ms Radnedge told The Sunday Mail.
Kaine Andrew Carter, driver of car that killed Tammara Macrokanis.
Forensic investigators later determined Ms Macrokanis had became wedged between the bullbar of the ute and the roadside guardrail and been cut in half.
Carter last month pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance and leaving the scene without obtaining help.
Reflecting on the scene a year later, Ms Radnedge said she regularly pulls over and stands at the tree where part of her sister’s remains were found.
“At first it was hard, I actually tried to avoid driving along the highway, and then I suppose I realised it’s something I have to live with now … I realised I had to stop jumping feet first into the life Tammara had gotten away from,” she said.
A new vaccination centre opened in Western Sydney on Sunday as New South Wales turns its attention to booster shots.
The opening of the Granville Centre, in partnership with Cumberland City Council, comes as the Qudos Bank Arena vaccination hub closes after administering more than 360,000 COVID-19 jabs.
Had fun meeting the hard working staff from Western Sydney Health today at our very own Granville Centre. pic.twitter.com/RLchUGJAFe
People aged 18 years and over will now be eligible for a Pfizer booster shot six months after receiving their second dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.
In attendance at the opening of the Granville Centre was Cumberland Mayor Steve Christou, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, and NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard.
Cr Christou said the centre would benefit his community and that he was excited to do whatever necessary to beat the pandemic.
The Granville Centre WSLHD Vaccination Clinic staff Derya Birnam, Maureen Hurley, Jessica King, Jonathan Herford and Madeline Grudgings. Photo: The Pulse.
“Donated by Council free of charge I would like to thank Cumberland City Council staff for their hard work,” Cr Christou said on Twitter.
The centre has the capacity to administer 1,000 booster shots per day and a surge capacity up to 2,000.
Premier Perrottet said the journey out of the pandemic was not over and the clinic would play an important role over the next 12 months.
The Greek Orthodox Community of North Australia (GOCNA) has issued a statement condemning the behaviour of members of Darwin’s Greek community at St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on October 31.
About 30 people used OXI Day celebrations at the church to push anti-vaccine mandate rhetoric, calling out ‘shame, shame, shame.’
NT Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro, who was at the event, was also addressed in a “very confronting and intimidating manner.”
NT Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro was also approached at the event.
In response, GOCNA said that although they “acknowledge the importance for individuals to be free to express their views,” the OXI Day celebrations “should not have been used as a platform to express those views.”
“This indifference shown on the 31st of October disrespects the ethos of this most solemn of Greek National days and the people who feel strongly enough to commemorate it,” the GOCNA statement reads.
“We must be mindful in the future to remain civil and respectful to each other to accord the proper due respect to days such as OXI Day.”
This statement came the same afternoon St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was told by Bishop Silouan of Sinopen not to provide its regular Sunday service due to the current NT lockdown, the NT Newsreports.
Pope Francis will travel to Greece and the eastern Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus on a five-day trip next month, the Vatican has confirmed.
According to AP News, the pope will visit Larnaca, Cyprus, from December 2-4, before travelling to Greece, with stops in Athens and on the island of Lesvos, from December 4-6.
The Vatican released no further details of the trip.
Pope Francis has visited the Greek island of Lesvos previously in 2016.
The Cyprus leg had already been confirmed by Cypriot officials, who said that the pontiff will hold talks with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades. Francis will be the second Roman Catholic pontiff ever to travel to the eastern Mediterranean island nation.
Francis had also previously travelled to Lesvos in 2016 to highlight the plight of refugees.
Cyprus has signed a deal for Israel’s military to build an electronic surveillance system to monitor activity along the UN-patrolled Green Line across the divided Mediterranean island.
The 180 kilometre Green Line has split the island from east to west since 1974. It divides the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union’s most easterly member, from the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognised only by Ankara.
Cyprus plans on spending 27.5 million euros on the project, which will be constructed over the course of the next three years.
A woman walks her dog on the Turkish side of the green line, a UN controlled buffer zone separating the divided Cypriot capital Nicosia. Photo: AFP.
The surveillance system will be used to monitor activity such as smuggling and illegal migration, as well as provide military intelligence, officials said.
“It is an electronic surveillance system that will provide us with images 24 hours a day,” Cypriot Defence Ministry spokesperson, Christos Pieris, told the Cyprus News Agency.
In May, Cyprus said it was in a “state of emergency” because of an inflow of Syrian migrants overwhelming reception centers.
Walking along Homer Street in Earlwood, you’re guaranteed to come across elderly Greek migrants sitting at the local café sipping their coffee and catching up with friends. But nothing can prepare you for the group of people gathered around a newly launched Street Library right outside Greek-owned tutoring business, First Education.
Street Libraries are a relatively new movement across Australia which encourage people to “share the joys of reading” with their local community. They can do this by giving, taking or sharing free books from Street Libraries set up on local Sydney streets.
Harry Mavrolefteros, who owns First Education, was so inspired by this idea that he decided to launch four Street Libraries outside his tutoring centres in Earlwood, Bondi, Maroubra and Mascot.
The Street Libraries have been a huge hit with the locals.
“The idea was born out of COVID because I wanted to have more communication and more contact with parents to support them in any way we could,” Harry tells The Greek Herald exclusively.
“We thought that if we can have books available for parents to take and give to their kids and support them, that’d be great.”
Typically, Harry fills the Street Libraries with free school books in subjects such as Maths, English and Science, but he says that over time this has evolved into people donating home appliances and Greek textbooks as well.
Harry’s Street Library in Earlwood. Photo: Andriana Simos / The Greek Herald.
“It started off as a school book type of thing but it’s evolved… We had four tomes of some Greek very hard-core looking text that I was worried wouldn’t go, but somebody took them,” Harry says with a laugh.
“In reality, it doesn’t really matter and the good thing is that the turnover is quick. I was worried that books would just sit there forever but that really hasn’t happened. The books disappear after a few days.”
‘We believe in building our students’ passion’:
This clear passion for the Street Libraries is not surprising as Harry has always advocated for community initiatives within the Greek community which foster the sharing of knowledge and information.
In fact, that’s why he started his own tutoring business back in October 2010 in a small room on top of his parent’s optometry shop in Maroubra.
Harry at First Education Earlwood. Photo: Andriana Simos / The Greek Herald.
“I always had this feeling as a kid where I never understood why people didn’t like maths and I found other people that were like that about English and History and Science as well,” Harry explains.
“I think if you find the right teacher, the right mentor, the right guide, then learning becomes the privilege and honour that it’s meant to be rather than something that you’re meant to do. You can just think more clearly because you understand things on a deeper level. So I wanted to share that with kids.”
It’s this realisation which saw Harry expand First Education from its Maroubra home-base to tutoring centres in the aforementioned Sydney suburbs of Earlwood, Bondi and Mascot as well.
First Education offers one-on-one tuition. Photo: Facebook.
At these centres, students from Kindergarten to Year 12 are given one-on-one tuition by dedicated tutors in a range of school subjects, and there are also group debating classes and study sessions for the Year 12 Higher School Certificate exams.
Harry says he’s incredibly proud of what his team has achieved so far.
“We really believe in building our students’ passion and confidence. There’s a big focus in everything we do on getting the students to enjoy the learning, to see the value in it and to believe in themselves,” he concludes.
A worthwhile goal for a Greek Australian who’s tutoring centres and Street Libraries are leaving their mark on the lives of students and parents across Greater Sydney.
