Month: May 2017

Ελληνική αντιπροσωπεία στη Βενετία για τα λείψανα της Αγίας Ελένης

Τα ιερά λείψανα της Αγίας Ισαποστόλου Ελένης μεταφέρονται στην Ελλάδα. 
Ο επικεφαλής της αποστολής, Επίσκοπος Φαναρίου Αγαθάγγελος και διευθυντής της Αποστολικής Διακονίας παρέλαβε από τον Πατριάρχη Βενετίας της Ρωμαιοκαθολικής Εκκλησίας Φραγκίσκο το ιερό λείψανο της Αγίας με τον Τίμιο Σταυρό.

Έτοιμη προς αναχώρηση από το αεροδρόμιο της Βενετίας, προκειμένου να μεταφέρει τα ιερά λείψανα της Αγίας Ισαποστόλου Ελένης, είναι η ελληνική αντιπροσωπεία. Η μεταφορά του ιερού σκηνώματος και του Τιμίου Σταυρού στην Ελλάδα πραγματοποιείται με αεροσκάφος της Ellinair το οποίο παραχώρησε στην Εκκλησία της Ελλάδος ο ιδιοκτήτης της Μπόρις Μουζενίδης.

Νωρίτερα, στις 12.30, η αντιπροσωπεία έφτασε στον μεγαλοπρεπή ναό του αγίου Μάρκου στην ομώνυμη πλατεία της Βενετίας, όπου την υποδέχθηκε ο Ρωμαιοκαθολικός Πατριάρχης της Βενετίας και ξεκίνησε η λιτή τελετή παράδοσης – παραλαβής των ιερών κειμηλίων, του ιερού λειψάνου της Αγίας Ελένης και του Τιμίου Σταυρού, από την ελληνική αντιπροσωπεία σε κλίμα κατάνυξης.


Παραλαβή του ιερού λειψάνου

Ο επικεφαλής της αποστολής, Επίσκοπος Φαναρίου Αγαθάγγελος και διευθυντής της Αποστολικής Διακονίας παρέλαβε από τον Πατριάρχη Βενετίας της Ρωμαιοκαθολικής Εκκλησίας Φραγκίσκο το ιερό λείψανο της Αγίας με τον Τίμιο Σταυρό.

Ο Πατριάρχης Βενετίας χαρακτήρισε ευκαιρία επικοινωνίας μεταξύ των δύο Εκκλησιών το σημερινό προσκύνημα και την παραλαβή των λειψάνων της Αγίας Ελένης, ενώ από την πλευρά τους τόσο ο μητροπολίτης Καισαριανής Δανιήλ όσο και ο Επίσκοπος Φαναρίου Αγαθάγγελος εξέφρασαν την ευγνωμοσύνη τους για την ευλογία που τους δόθηκε να μεταφερθούν στην Αθήνα τα ιερά λείψανα.

Στην τελετή συμμετείχε και ο μητροπολίτης Ιταλίας Γεννάδιος, ο οποίος θα συνοδεύσει την αποστολή στην Αθήνα. Εκπρόσωπος της Ιεράς Συνόδου της Εκκλησίας της Ελλάδος στην αποστολή είναι ο μητροπολίτης Καισαριανής κ. Δανιήλ.


Αναχώρηση για την Αθήνα

Εν συνεχεία, πραγματοποιήθηκε η λιτάνευσή του προς την αποβάθρα Κορνολντί της Βενετίας, από όπου οδηγήθηκε στο αεροδρόμιο Marco Polo της Βενετίας.

Η λιτανευτική πομπή πραγματοποιήθηκε υπό τους ήχους της Φιλαρμονικής της Βενετίας «Τεσέρα». Προηγούνταν τέσσερις νέοι με παραδοσιακές φορεσιές, Κρητικοί και Πόντιοι βρακοφόροι, που κρατούσαν τη σημαία της Βενετίας, καθώς και άλλοι τέσσερις που κρατούσαν τη βυζαντινή σημαία.

Ακολουθούσε τριάδα ιερέων με αναμμένες λαμπάδες, ο αρχιμανδρίτης Ιουστίνος Μαρμαρινός, διευθυντής ΓΕΝ, ο π. Κυριακός Τσουρός, γραμματέας της Ιεράς Συνόδου και ο π. Ευθύμιος Κερμελής, προϊστάμενος του Ι.Ν. Αγ. Αναργύρων Ηλιουπόλεως.

Ο Επίσκοπος Φαναρίου μετέφερε τον Τίμιο Σταυρό, τη συνοδεία των αρχιμανδριτών Ιερώνυμου Νικολόπουλου, α’ γραμματέα Ιεράς Συνόδου, και Ιερόθεου Καλογερόπουλου, γραμματέα Ιεράς Συνόδου.

Τη λάρνακα με το ιερό λείψανο της Αγίας Ελένης μετέφεραν οι αρχιμανδρίτες και γραμματείς της Ιεράς Συνόδου Αθηναγόρας Σουπουρτζής, Διονύσιος Χατζηαντωνίου και Χερουβείμ Μουστάκας, ο ιεροκήρυκας της Ι.Μ. Καισαριανής αρχιμανδρίτης Καλλίνικος Νικολάου, ο εφημέριος του Καθεδρικού Ναού των Αθηνών π. Βασίλειος Χρυσόπουλος και ο διευθυντής Θρησκευτικού ΓΕΕΘΑ π. Νικόλαος Γουρδούπης.

Ακολουθούσαν οι μητροπολίτες Καισαριανής Δανιήλ και Ιταλίας Γεννάδιος, οι αρχές της Βενετίας, οι χορηγοί και τα υπόλοιπα μέλη της αποστολής.

Τελετάρχης της λιτανευτικής πομπής ήταν ο πατήρ Θωμάς Συνοδινός.

Υποδοχή από τον υπουργό Άμυνας στην Αθήνα

Το πρωί, στις 11.00-11.15, η ελληνική αντιπροσωπεία εκκλησιάστηκε στο ναό του Αγίου Γεωργίου των Ελλήνων, όπου ανέμενε ο μητροπολίτης Ιταλίας Γεννάδιος και συμπροσευχήθηκαν οι ιερείς της αποστολής της Εκκλησίας της Ελλάδος, παρουσία ορθόδοξων πιστών.

Τα ιερά κειμήλια θα υποδεχθούν στο αεροδρόμιο της Αθήνας ο μητροπολίτης Μεσογαίας και Λαυρεωτικής Νικόλαος και ο υπουργός Εθνικής Άμυνας Πάνος Καμμένος, για να οδηγηθούν ακολούθως στο Δημαρχείο Αιγάλεω και εν συνεχεία η λιτανευτική πομπή θα οδηγηθεί στον Ι.Ν. Αγίας Βαρβάρας όπου και θα φιλοξενηθούν για ένα μήνα.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ/Δ.ΜΑΝΩΛΗΣ

Running order for the 2017 Grand Final released!

The line up of the Grand Final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest is now complete and we can now reveal the order in which the 26 acts will perform on Saturday.

Ten acts from each Semi-Final have gone through to Saturday’s Grand Final and join the so-called ‘Big Five’ — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom — and Host Country, Ukraine.

The running order was proposed by UA:PBC and approved by the EBU Executive Supervisor, Jon Ola Sand and by the Chairman of the Reference Group, Dr. Frank-Dieter Freiling.

Last night the European Broadcasting Union released the official running order for the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. Australia’s Isaiah Firebrace will perform as 14th on Saturday, whilst Australian Anja Nissen will take the stage as 10th on behalf of Denmark.

Interesting to see is the fact that Bulgaria got a great starting slot near the end of the show, as did Sweden. Could this mean they did very well in their semi finals? Or is just bad luck for other favourites such as Armenia, Portugal and Italy that they were allocated in the first half.

The running order of the Grand Final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest:

1. Israel

2. Poland

3. Belarus

4. Austria

5. Armenia

6. The Netherlands

7. Moldova

8. Hungary

9. Italy

10. Denmark

11. Portugal

12. Azerbaijan

13. Croatia

14. Australia

15. Greece

16. Spain

17. Norway

18. United Kingdom

19. Cyprus

20. Romania

21. Germany

22. Ukraine

23. Belgium

24. Sweden

25. Bulgaria

26. France

Vasilis Vasilas’ interview with Harry Hondros whose family owns Enfield Produce and Pets

Vasilis has recently interviewed Harry Hondros whose family owns Enfield Produce and Pets… Yes, a Greek pet shop in Sydney! Jam-packed with products and pets!

Vasilis believes Harry is one of the most colourful Greeks he has ever met, ‘When Harry was working in Tumut NSW (1960s), at the Excelsior Café, he became so much part of the local community that he played rugby league for the Wynyard Pub’s team, Wynyard Wobblers, became a bull-jumper at the local rodeo club, which competed in rodeos all over NSW (and even Queensland) and even trained in Ju-jitsu… which is simply amazing for any Greek migrant at the time.’ 

On a serious side, Vasilis greatly admires Harry and his family’s determination and love for their work. ‘Having to compete with the megastores such as Bunnings and Petbarn does not daunt them in any way; they provide the customer service and good quality products customers want and this is why they have such a thriving business,’ Vasilis explains.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/SYNDESMOS-CONNECTING-PEOPLE-FROM-LESVOS-393246219501/

The story of Hellenic Textile Mill starts in the 19th century

Documenta show sheds light on family business

The story of Hellenic Textile Mill starts in the 19th century, in the cosmopolitan Ottoman Empire, and ends at a building complex on Pireos Street that has been home for the last few decades to the Athens School of Fine Arts, where the Sikiaridis and the Ambazoglou families, bonded by marriage, founded one of the country’s most important textile mills.

“Documenta asked us to make a short film about the premises that once belonged to our family,” says architect Elizabeth Sikiaridi, who is one of the narrators of the 18-minute documentary “Fabric,” along with her brother Simos Sikiaridis.

The film is being screened at the art school’s old library at 256 Pireos Street as part of the documenta 14 international art show. While detailing the history of the textile mill, the documentary also casts light on the lives of the middle and upper classes in the Ottoman Empire. In addition it offers insight into industrialization in Athens after 1922 and the influx of refugee workers from Asia Minor.

“The documentary presents the history of Hellenic Textile Mill but also the story of our family, which, starting from Cappadocia and stopping in Constantinople and Beirut, settled in Athens in the mid-1920s and founded the business,” says Sikiaridi.

The factory was founded by Simos Sikiaridis, the narrators’ grandfather. Before 1924, his business had extended beyond the Ottoman Empire to the West, the main market for his fabrics. When the Sikiaridis and Ambazoglou families moved to Athens, they decided to open a mill for processing wool. Both families were wealthy – the former thanks to textiles and the latter to grain – and bought land on Pireos Street, building their homes and the factory, and later selling other plots at a profit. They founded the Sikiarideio Foundation to treat children with trachoma but World War II scuppered the original plan, though after the war and up until 1971 it did help children at risk of tuberculosis.

The family also invested in the Greek capital’s boom and built the avant-garde Rex Theater on Panepistimiou Street, as well as founding a Greek community school in Beirut in 1951. Despite being rebranded as the Anglo-Hellenic Textile Mill, the factory gradually lost its edge and eventually went bankrupt in 1981. The space was saved thanks to Nikos Kessanlis, who was looking for a new home for the Athens School of Fine Arts, and in 1992, the entire complex was bought by the state.

“There is virtually nothing left of the family’s history,” says Sikiaridi. “But the purpose for which the space is being used is perfect.

Source: ekathimerini.com

Vasilis Vasilas’ interview with Miltiade Miltiadou Milton’s in business in Tailoring in Belmore, Sydney

Vasilis recently interviewed Miltiade Miltiadou who is from Spathariko, Ammohosto, Cyprus, about the story behind his business, Milton’s Tailoring, which is in Belmore, Sydney. 

As Vasilis points out about his motivation to do this interview, ‘Tailoring is unfortunately a dying trade and Miltiade would be one of the last Cypriot or Greek tailors in Sydney; it was just an opportunity to get his story and his views about the changing fortunes of tailoring…’

Source: https://www.facebook.com/SYNDESMOS-CONNECTING-PEOPLE-FROM-LESVOS-393246219501/

A lecture entitled “The Letters of Chion and Themistocles” will be presented this Thursday 11 May 2017 by John Penwill

PRESS RELEASE ​​                           

9/5/2017

 

Greek History and Culture Seminars:

The Letters of Chion and Themistocles

A lecture entitled “The Letters of Chion and Themistocles” will be presented this Thursday 11 May 2017 by John Penwill from LaTrobe University, as a part of the Greek History and Culture Seminars, offered by the Greek Community of Melbourne.

This lecture will take a close look at two collections of letters, neither of which is highly regarded by the academic community: The Letters of Chion (hereafter LC) purport to be a set of letters home by a young man on his way to Athens to study in Plato’s Academy and the effect his time there has on his political judgement when it comes to deciding what to do about the dictatorship in his native city, Heraclea, following a successful coup d’état during his absence.

The Letters of Themistocles (hereafter LT) likewise focus on an individual protagonist prominent in Athenian politics about a century earlier, and like the LC purport to be a set of letters written to a selection of friends and enemies in his home city and elsewhere following his ostracism in 471 BCE.

Both texts use the epistolary form to explore the character and motivation of their protagonist, but do so in very different ways: all letters bar one of the LC are addressed to Chion’s father Matris, whereas in the LT the recipients come from a range of individuals and locations.

But in both cases what we are clearly dealing with is a carefully constructed and thought-provoking text, and one that is at least one grade of sophistication above the essays on such topics which students were required to compose in the schools of rhetoric that abounded in the first and second centuries CE.​

John Penwill grew up in Tasmania and studied first at the University of Tasmania and subsequently at Downing College, Cambridge . He has a first class honours degree in Classics and a Diploma in Education. He taught at Monash University from 1972-1977 and at the University of Tasmania from 1978-1981 before being appointed to La Trobe University’s Bendigo campus.

John’s general research interest is in the field of Greek and Roman literature. He has for the past 40 years been Associate Editor of the international refereed journal Ramus: Critical Studies in Greek and Roman Literature, to which he has himself contributed a number of articles. His particular interest is in Roman literature of the late republic and early empire, and his focus within that is the interface between literature and philosophy.

John has also published articles on Plato’s Symposium, the Letters of Themistocles, the literature and philosophy of the Flavian period, Virgil’s Aeneid and Georgics, Epicurean theology, Lactantius’ De Ira Dei, the battle narratives in Homer’s Iliad, Livy’s representation of Numa (the second king of Rome), Tacitus’ Dialogue on Orators, Terence’s Hecyra, Seneca’s Trojan Women, the Letters of Chion and epic poetry of the Flavian period.

He is a Vice-President of the Classical Association of Victoria, and was editor of the CAV’s journal Iris from 1996 to 2012.​

 

When: 11/5/2017 @ 7:00pm

Where: Greek Centre, Mezzanine, 168 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne

Entry: FREE​

 

__________________________

More information: 9662 272

Level 3, 168 Lonsdale St., Melbourne, Vic. 3000

Phone: +61 3 9662 2722, Email: info@greekcommunity.com.au, Website: greekcommunity.com.au

Eurovision Song Contest 2017 – Opening Ceremony – full video

The opening ceremony of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest will broadcast live from Mariyinsky Palace in Kyiv. 

All 42 countries and the hosts will enter the red carpet and be interviewed by press from all over Europe and beyond. 

The opening ceremony marks the start of the Eurovision Song Contest weeks. 

The Finals of the Eurovision Song Contest will take place on the 9th, 11th and 13th of May.

Vasilis Vasilas’ interview with the Houlis family who opened their fruit shop in Marrickville in 1969

The fruits of their labour.

Vasilis has interviewed the Houlis family who opened their fruit shop in Marrickville in 1969 and are closing in on their fiftieth anniversary…

They have an incredible story: Frangoulis lost communication with his siblings at the end of the Greek Turkish War (1922), as he was marched into the Asia Minor hinterland, while they were saved by being taken to Kalymnos. 

At the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey, Frangoulis, is sent to Kefalonia, where he manages to locate his siblings through the Red Cross. Getting to Samos was not difficult; however, Kalymnos was under Italian rule at the time. 

It was only when Frangoulis sails across to Kos, under Italian rule too, that he works on a tobacco farm and finally gets the paperwork to get Kalymnos, where he reunites with his siblings. What an odyssey!!!! Frangoulis undertook another odyssey- to Australia in 1961…

Brothers, Nominos, John and Theophilos, as well as their father Frangoulis, worked for years in the cane fields of Innisfail, Queensland, and would do seasonal work, grape picking in Mildura, and pick and shovel work in Sydney (during the off season of cane-cutting). 

As Vasilis points, ‘The Houlis story epitomises the migrant’s story, as this family worked its guts out for years to successfully establish their family and business in Sydney.’ 

In the photograph is Theophilos and Giannis Houlis…

Source: https://www.facebook.com/SYNDESMOS-CONNECTING-PEOPLE-FROM-LESVOS-393246219501/

Vasilis Vasilas’ interview with Arthur Gerakas of Speedy Shoe Repairs in Ashfield

Vasilis continues on his merry way; this time he interviewed Arthur Gerakas of Speedy Shoe Repairs in Ashfield. It was Arthur’s brother-in-law, Elias Stavrou, who opened the shoe repair business in the late 1960s, and Arthur took over the shop in 1972, and Arthur’s son, Jim, has run the shop since the mid 1990s. Arthur continues working in the shop for a few hours a day, helping out Jim. 

The Gerakas family has seen a lot of changes to Ashfield over forty years; they are now the last Greek-run shop, of the post War generation, left in Ashfiled, as the Greek delicatessen shut shop about seven months ago. 

As Vasilis explains, ‘I call Arthur and Jim the dynamic duo; they are are great team..I also love the way the trade has passed down from one generation to the next; in this case, it is passing from Arthur to Jim’s hands, and the trade (and shop) survives to service the community.’

Source: https://www.facebook.com/SYNDESMOS-CONNECTING-PEOPLE-FROM-LESVOS-393246219501/

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