With due ecclesiastical splendour, the Great Vespers for the feast day of Saints Constantine and Helen, Equal-to-the-Apostles, was celebrated on Tuesday afternoon, 20 May 2025, at the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen in Newtown, Sydney. The Service was officiated by His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia, who was joined by the Parish Priest of the celebrating Parish, Fr. Nicholas Stavropoulos, and by other clergy of the city of Sydney.
During his sermon, after a brief reference to the feast of Mid-Pentecost, His Eminence focused on the personalities of the honoured Saints and emphasised the contribution of Saint Constantine to the Orthodox Church. After recalling that it was he who, as Emperor, convened the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, in the year 325 AD, he emphasised that the Orthodox Church owes him unlimited gratitude. As he characteristically pointed out, with the aim of defending the unity of the Church at a time when the people were divided due to the heresy of Arianism, Constantine the Great called the Bishops to discuss the emerging ecclesiastical issues and he himself preferred to sit aside. In this way, he inaugurated the institution of Ecumenical Councils and the synodical expression of the Church.
“Saint Constantine became an instrument of the Holy Spirit and opened the way for us, helped us to move forward and succeed in giving the people the truth,” the Archbishop emphasised elsewhere. “The truth of the faith is not expressed by individual persons,” he emphasised, “but by the Synod and the Church as a whole.”
On this occasion, His Eminence also expressed the great joy of the Christian plenitude of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia for the recent establishment of the synodal system in the local Church of the fifth continent. “We are happy, because now we also have our own Eparchial Synod in Australia and, whenever issues arise for resolution, the Archbishop does not decide alone, but the Bishops synodally,” he said.
In conclusion, His Eminence conveyed his paternal wishes to the large congregation and thanked the Parish Priest, Fr. Nicholas, for the effort he puts forth and for his prudent and quiet ministry in favour of the further progress of the Parish of Saints Constantine and Helen.
