Adelaide: Parish of Saint Panteleimon in Glenelg reopens as an English-speaking parish
With the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia, the parish of Saint Panteleimon in Glenelg North, recently relocated to form the parish of the Holy Cross in Glenelg. These new premises afforded a much larger and more suitable space to accommodate the growing parish – the only parish that catered to the South-Western suburbs of Adelaide. After a few weeks of services at the new location, it became apparent that the transition had been a success and well supported by the existing parishioners. The question then turned to what to do with the much loved (and currently empty) parish of St Panteleimon.
Again with the blessing and inspiration of His Eminence, a vision of opening a second English-speaking parish in Adelaide was able to be realised. The Parish of Saint Sophrony of Essex had been a big success, but being located in the North-Eastern suburbs it is not all that convenient for those living on the other side of the city. Being a small church in the South-Western suburbs, Saint Panteleimon seemed like the perfect complement to Saint Sophrony to become the second parish in Adelaide dedicated to English.
With the invaluable assistance from the “mother parish” of Holy Cross, the Saint Panteleimon church was made ready, and the first all-English hierarchical Divine Liturgy was held on the Eve of the Nativity (Sunday 24th of December 2023), presided over by His Grace Bishop Silouan of Sinope. His Grace conveyed the paternal blessings of His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia and spoke to the people about the genealogy of Christ (the Gospel reading for the day) – noting Christ’s humility in that He was not ashamed for people to know about the less honourable members of His ancestry, and exhorting us to emulate His holy humility.
The parish also had the blessing of performing an all-English service the following day for the Great Feast of the Nativity itself. Both services were well attended – the newly-configured Church could now fit 40 people seated, and on both days it was full to overflowing. It is hoped that, with Saint Panteleimon’s intercessions, this strong foundation can be built upon in the coming weeks and months to establish a parish that can be a strong presence in the Western suburbs to cater to the needs of the English-speaking people in the West.
