Dearly beloved faithful,
Greetings to everyone in the name of the Triune God!
It is with immense gratitude that I thank God Almighty for enabling the St. Thomas Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, Melbourne, to serve in this foreign land for almost the past 12 years. You will all agree with me that this community has come this far due to the dedicated lives and works of hundreds of faithful members, lay leaders, and ordained church leaders.
To witness Christ in this land, the support and encouragement of the Syrian Orthodox Community, the clergy, and the beloved bishops need special applause. I must express my gratitude to everyone who has played a crucial role in fostering the relationship between the Middle Eastern Syrian Orthodox community and the Malankara Syrian Orthodox community. The Syrian community has grown significantly, requiring multiple liturgical services, including Sunday afternoon services.
This is the perfect moment for both communities to express gratitude to each other, as God Almighty has blessed the St. Thomas community with a new location at 511-517 Barry Road, Dallas, Melbourne 3047. This is an old Anglican church. The Anglican Archdiocese in Melbourne generously provided us with moral support to purchase this property at its market value. St. Thomas Church is ever grateful to the Anglican Archdiocese and its Archbishop for organizing it for us.
The parish general body, parish committee, and the building committee are excited to hold on to God’s continued grace and to start its first service in the new place on the 20th and 21st of 2024, the martyrdom day of St. Thomas, the patron saint of this parish. The parish is thankful to His Holiness, the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, and Mor Athanasius Geevarghese, the diocesan Metropolitan, for their continued guidance. I am humbled to say my gratitude to the diocesan Metropolitan for advising me to do a temporary blessing of the church and to start the first holy qurbana in this parish on the above dates. However, in a short span of time, the parish expects to organize the consecration of the church with Holy Mooron.
Starting from the 22nd of December, we will move the regular Sunday service from the evening to the morning. The prayer time will be from 8 am to 10:30 am. As I conclude this note, I wish to thank God almighty for enabling my family and me to serve in this parish and also to journey with the parishioners to the new church building. I extend my gratitude to all the St. Thomas parish members, the managing committee, the building committee, and the members of all spiritual organizations for their dedicated and tireless work in making our mission of building a new church a reality.
Thank you.
Yours in Christ
Fr. Dr. Jacob Joseph,
(Vicar, St. Thomas JSO Church)