His Grace Bishop Silouan of Sinope visits remote towns of Broken Hill and Renmark
In 2022, with the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia, His Grace Bishop Silouan of Sinope visited the outback mining city of Broken Hill with a small team to conduct the Divine Liturgy. This inaugural trip was timed to coincide with the feast of Ss Constantine and Helen (May 21st), when His Grace would naturally be visiting the rural town of Renmark for its feast day. By combining the trips His Grace was able to significantly reduce the total travel time compared with the time required to visit the two cities individually. With the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Makarios, His Grace decided to repeat the trip this year.
Because the feast day of Saints Constantine and Helen fell on a Sunday this year, the order of the visit was reversed so that the Liturgy at Broken Hill could be conducted on a Saturday in order to make it more accessible for the faithful. Not being on a Sunday also meant that the local Roman Catholic parish of Ss Peter and Paul was unused, and the parish priest (with the blessing of his own bishop) kindly made it available to the Orthodox community for worship. This certainly made for a much more comfortable worship experience for the visitors and locals alike.
The team departed Adelaide at around 12:45pm in order to arrive at Broken Hill for the 7:00pm Vespers for the feast of the Holy Martyr Thalalaios. The Vespers was conducted by His Grace with the assistance of Deacon John Saredakis, with Fr Jeremy Krieg leading the small, inexperienced but dedicated choir. The obligatory supper was offered after the service at the hall of the Roman Catholic parish of Sacred Heart. A half-dozen enthusiastic locals were also present to pray and also joined the team for supper.
Matins and Divine Liturgy were celebrated the following morning from 8:00am, with nearly a dozen locals in attendance. In what was a first for the Broken Hill trips, the young people outnumbered the elderly in this service. Very pleasingly (let us praise God) nearly all of those who attended were also able to commune – including some for the first or second time in their lives. His Grace warmly addressed the people and conveyed the blessings and respects of His Eminence Archbishop Makarios.
Most of those at the service were also able to return to Sacred Heart for morning tea after the service, where a small bookstore was also set up. Thank God, many were able to receive books and items from the bookstore. After morning tea commenced the 4.5h trip to Renmark for the Vespers of Ss Constantine and Helen.
The Vespers at Renmark was well attended by locals from Renmark and surrounding Riverland towns, with a full church of around 150 people. The service was served by His Grace Bishop Silouan of Sinope with Father Jeremy and Deacon Father John, who were also joined by the local parish priest Fr Dimitri Moraitis. His Grace addressed the people, conveying the pastoral blessings of His Eminence Archbishop Makarios and speaking about the miraculous sainthood of Emperor Constantine – who was able to draw near Christ in spite of being raised in a thoroughly pagan (and at times openly anti-Christian) environment. The combined committees of the community of Renmark and of Berri then honoured the visiting clergy with a supper after the service.
On Sunday morning the Liturgy was served with a great attendance bolstered by buses of pilgrims from Adelaide. His Grace again addressed the people and spoke about the need for all to be guided to Christ and in this way to be a guide to Christ for others, similar to how St Helen guided her son St Constantine who in turn guided his empire to take on a Christian identity. The service was followed by a lunch in the community hall.
Everywhere that His Grace and his small group travelled, they were warmly received by the faithful and felt extremely blessed to be able to serve the people of God in this way. They look forward to the next opportunity to serve the people in these and other remote towns of the Archdiocesan District of Adelaide.
