On Monday, 28 July 2025, at the Cathedral of the Annunciation of Our Lady in Sydney, the Funeral Service of the Late Archimandrite Nektarios Zorbalas took place in an atmosphere of deep emotion.
The Service was presided over by His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia, while he was joined by Their Graces, Bishop Kyriakos of Melbourne, Bishop Evmenios of Chora, Bishop Bartholomew of Brisbane, members of the Holy Eparchial Synod, Their Graces, Bishop Iakovos of Miletoupolis, Bishop Christodoulos of Magnesia and Bishop Themistocles of Nicopolis (Patriarchate of Alexandria), Archimandrite of the Ecumenical Throne Christophoros Krikelis, Chancellor of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia, a multitude of clergy; and the Archdeacon of the Ecumenical Throne, Father John Chryssavgis, originally from Sydney.
Crowds of people flocked to the Cathedral to pay their respects to the venerable and beloved cleric, who for more than half a century served the local Church sacrificially. Among those present was the Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Mr. Ioannis Mallikourtis.
His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia also conveyed to the relatives and spiritual children of the late Father Nektarios the condolences of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
“We feel human sadness and pain, because a person is leaving this world for whom we all have our own experience of his benevolence, of his good deeds, of his kind words, of the spiritual and material help he offered us,” His Eminence noted in his eulogy. “At the same time,” he pointed out, “we must not forget that what the late Fr. Nektarios did throughout his life was to bear witness to this very moment of the transition from death to life.”
The Archbishop then briefly presented the main stages of the virtuous life of the late Father Nektarios and his God-pleasing ministry in the Orthodox Church of the fifth continent. Referring to his first priestly steps, when in the 1970s he served, under adverse circumstances, at the Parish of the Dormition of the Theotokos in remote Innisfail, North Queensland, he emphasised that “the priesthood was a university for him, because he did not enter the Church with his own prerequisites and with his own demands. He entered without conditions and gave everything to the Church.”
Finally, His Eminence made extensive reference to the many years of ministry of the late Archimandrite in the Parish of Saints Constantine and Helen, in Newtown, Sydney, where he served exemplarily for more than three decades and developed admirable charitable work, through the “Soup Kitchen”. In addition to almsgiving, which constitutes a fundamental Christian virtue, the Archbishop emphasised the commitment of the late Fr. Nektarios to the Truth of our faith, which he preached with divine zeal, without judging or criticizing people.
After the end of the Funeral Service, the burial took place at the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park Cemetery in Sydney.
