Message from Mr Angelo Sardellis
Message from the President of The Greek Orthodox Community of Oakleigh & District Inc.. Mr. Angelo Sardellis
Welcome to our web site and as we have always said, welcome to our family which is The Greek Orthodox Community of Oakleigh & District Inc..
The Greek Orthodox Community of Oakleigh & District Inc. is a community based, not-for-profit organisation, which was set up in the 1960’s with one goal in mind; that of maintaining, upholding and promoting our Hellenic values, history, culture and Orthodox Christianity. We were blessed from the beginning of our Community’s history with the appointment of our Parish Priest and spiritual Father, the late Father Nicholas Moutafis, who had the foresight for what our Community stands for today. Soon after the completion of the Church of St’s Anargiri, other programs were implemented with his guidance, and came into fruition, such as after hours Greek language classes. Other formal and non-formal committees and sub-committees were created in order to meet the spiritual, educational and social needs of the growing Greek-Australian community in the area. We are indeed blessed and very privileged, with the coming and passing through our lives of our Late Father Nicholas Moutafis who, without his guidance, one would have to doubt whether our Community would have grown to the admirable place that it currently holds.
After the passing of the late Father Nicholas Moutafis, we were once again very privileged with the appointment of the Very Reverend Archimandrite Father Iakovos Tsigounis as our Parish Priest and spiritual Father, who like the late Father Nicholas Moutafis, has embraced our parishioners and has continued his efforts to maintain and strive towards reaching the goals and objectives of our Community. All these were established by a plethora of volunteers, our founding fathers, who worked tirelessly and laid the solid foundations, for what many have described our organisation to be one of the largest ethno-specific organisations in Australia and one of the largest Hellenic organisations in the Diaspora.
To this day, the responsibility and accountability of the organisation rests on its volunteers, from the Management Committee and the Trustees Committee, through to the College Council, the Ladies Auxiliary, the Youth Association, the Elderly Citizens’ Club and the many other sub-committees that have been formed from time to time. These people, along with our members, sponsors and parishioners, form the family which is The Greek Orthodox Community Oakleigh & District Inc. and it is a very large family.
We are proud of our many achievements. We are also proud of our practice of inclusion, vision, pro-activeness and commitment. I take this opportunity and I feel ethically-bound, to thank the many individuals that have served The Greek Orthodox Community Oakleigh & District Inc. over the years in any capacity and I encourage all who are willing to assist, all who are eager to serve and all who are enthusiastic to lend a hand, to join in furthering the scope of this great community based organisation.
Angelo Konstantine Sardellis
President of The Greek Orthodox Community Oakleigh & District Inc.