A special gift offered to the Ecumenical Patriarch by Father Savas Pizanias

The touching moments he experienced along with His compatriots, the Imbrians of Sydney and New South Wales, will certainly remain etched in the memory of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. On Friday evening, 11 October, the eve of his departure from Sydney to Melbourne, when His All-Holiness attended a dinner in his honour, in the hall of the Parish – Community of Saint Euphemia, Bankstown.

The emotions that the evening had in store for His All-Holiness were many, associated with his birthplace and its expatriate children in Australia. An additional emotion, however, and an additional reason to keep this particular evening in his memory, is connected not only with Imbros, but with the Ukrainian Parish – Community of Saint Savvas the New of Kalymnos, in the Sydney suburb of Banksia. The Parish Priest, Father Savas Pizanias, offered a special gift to the Ecumenical Patriarch, a painting created by the Ukrainian painter Artur Orlenov, a personal friend of Father Savas. The panel depicts His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew himself, in his youth, with his late parents, Christos and Meropi Archontonis, by his side.

It was a gift that particularly moved the Patriarch, and it will continue to move him every time he sees it, as it will take him noetically both to his birthplace, Imbros, and to the distant Sydney, Australia.