The Great Feast of the Transfiguration of our Saviour Jesus Christ was celebrated with ecclesiastical splendour and magnificence in Thomastown, Melbourne. In the Church of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia, celebrated the Divine Liturgy on Wednesday morning, 6 August 2025, with the concelebration of the local Bishop of Chora, His Grace Bishop Evmenios, His Grace Bishop Kyriakos of Melbourne, and clergy from the Dioceses of Chora and Melbourne, including the Parish Priest of the Church of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, Fr. George Frangos. Among the numerous believers who attended church were the Consul General of Greece in Melbourne, Ms. Dimitra Georgantzoglou, and the President of the Intercommunities Council of Victoria, Archon of the Great Church of Christ, Mr. Tony Tsourdalakis.
At the end of the festive Divine Liturgy, His Eminence Archbishop Makarios addressed a spiritually edifying address to the large and pious congregation. Describing the feelings experienced by the three Disciples, who were present at the event of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, he focused his attention particularly on the feeling of joy, which was expressed in the words of Peter: “Lord, it is good for us to be here” (Matt. 17:4). This was, as he explained, the spiritual joy that communion with the true God offers.
Then, His Eminence contrasted this joy with the fleeting and superficial joys that people of our time draw from material things, passions, and sins. “Today we seek joy, but we knock on the wrong doors,” he emphasised. “The joys we have are false,” he pointed out, noting that ultimately the dominant emotion in the life of modern human being “is not joy, which comes and goes, but disappointment.”
Urging everyone to seek the true, lasting and irreplaceable experience of joy, which is found in communion with Christ, he explained that this means freedom from every inclination towards sin. “When a person gains full communion with Christ, all other joys of the world are nothing before them,” His Eminence explained. “If you want to be free from your mistakes, passions, weaknesses and sins,” he continued, “then there is only one way, to love Christ, to put Christ in your heart and to fill your being with Christ. If you love Christ, the joy that will arise from this loving relationship will be so strong and so intense that no sin will touch you.”
Archbishop Makarios concluded his address by expressing gratitude to the Parish Priest, Fr. George, for his pastoral work at the Parish of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, while he asked the members of the Parish to support him in his ministry and to continue to walk together, with love and unity.
