Fr Michael is the priest of the Dormition Church in Dandenong. In the morning he took me to the Russian Welfare Society, where he works voluntarily as the Principle. This was a truly amazing care home, with accommodation for elderly people who could self-cater, for those who could not, medical facilities, and at the moment they are proposing to build a wing for those suffering from dementia. I also visited their church hall, which was enormous and built by the parishioners, and has classrooms for each grade of their church school. At the Welfare Society, I met another English priest, Fr Nicolas de Carleton, who was formerly in the Antiochian Church and had been at Balamand in his youth. He took me to his home for coffee, and show me his albums and told me of his great love of the Palestinians. After lunch, Fr John Smelic came to visit, and then we went to Father Michael’s church. By Australian Russian standards it is compatively small, but is, like most of the others, magnificently frescoed in a strong Russian style, and is a treasury of sacred relics, all immaculately kept in special cabinets. To the north they have a baptistery for adult baptisms, and the frescoes in this wing are of the great missionary saints, including St Boniface of Crediton and St Patrick of Ireland. When we arrived home again, I found that matushka, like her Bishop, had done my laundry - by that time I must have been rather smelly.
That evening I gave a talk to the recently formed Victorian Orthodox Social and Cultural Association (VOSCA) - the association is Victorian with reference to the State, not to the period in which they live. This was in the church hall attached to the Cathedral of the Protection in Melbourne, and its pastor, Fr Nicolas Karipoff, the brother of Mother Anna, showed me round the immense newly built church. The interior is still not wholly complete, many of the frescoes have to be finished, and a side chapel is being appointed to St Xenia, but it will undoubtedly be a superb church when finished. VOSCA have published a report on their seminar in their internet magazine, “The Ark of Salvation,” - it contains a beautiful picture of the shrine here at Brookwood. Contact; <voscassociation@gmail.com>
In the morning, Fr Nicolas took me to the airport at five to catch the plane back to Sydney. He had told me that Melbourne was full of Greeks, and this was obviously the case, because even one of the black porters at the airport, recognising that we were Orthodox, greeted us in Greek.
Then occurred the only glitch in the whole trip. I arrived back at Sydney, and the arrangements for someone to meet me had gone awry. I waited there for about three hours, - of course I had not taken an address or phone number with me. However, if you wait around in Australia long enough you are bound to see a Russian. And sure enough, Liza, one of the Syezd participants turned up having flown back from Melbourne a day later. She arranged for her parents to take me to the Archbishop’s house.
Twenty minutes later we were off again! Fr Daniel Metlenko was celebrating his nameday, and off we, Archbishop Hilarion and I, went again to a reception with his parish, staying over for the All Night Vigil in the house-chapel of St Vladimir, which is his parish centre and the oldest church in Sydney.
The next morning, the Sunday and my last day in Australia, I was appointed to serve with Father Boris Ignatievsky (whose freezer we had raided) and Fr Michael Lee at the Church of the Protection in Kabramatta, yet another magnificent church in Russian style. Again there are care facilities alongside the church, and as the senior celebrant I had to give communion; there were about twenty communicants in wheelchairs as well as about forty others. Then we rushed off briefly to attend the nameday celebration of an elderly parishioner, before returning to the church hall, where again I was due to give a talk - the fifth of the tour. Archbishop Hilarion arrived for this and so did Fr Joachim. Afterwards we returned to the Archbishop’s house for tea and for me to pack my bags. Then I took my leave of the Archbishop who had shown me such kindness and hospitality, and who is so evidently loved by all his flock. Fr Deacon Christopher Henderson and his matushka took me out for a burger, a final tour of the sights of Sydney, and to see the view from their balcony, which overhangs the wharf in Sydney, where preparations were being made for the New Year celebrations in the harbour. They kindly took me to the airport.
On my return, I again had a stop-over at Singapore and stayed with Fr Daniel for a couple of days, meeting some of his parishioners. He took me to the Armenian Church (the oldest Christian church in Singapore), and we tried to visit the Saint Nectarius of Pentapolis chapel of Fr Demetrios Sithuraj Ponraj (Synod in Resistance), but unfortunately he was out of town and we could only contact him by phone. Fr Daniel treated me to tea at Raffles - we had to do this in memory of Fr Niphon’s childhood days in Singapore, - and then later put me back on the plane home.
It was uplifting to visit a diocese in which the churches were thriving, and in which, despite some tensions and deep concerns regarding the rapprochement, there seemed to be an undoubted bond of love and mutual support between the clergy and the lay people. In two weeks, I stayed with more priests and their families than we have in England, and I owe a deep debt of gratitude, first to Archbishop Hilarion, whom I have known since 1970 and by correspondence even longer, to Archimandrite Alexis, Abbess Anna, Abbess Maria, and to Fathers Michael Protopopov, Nicolas Karipoff, Boris Ignatievsky, Gabriel Macarov, and to their matushkas and families, and to many others clergy and laypeople, for their extraordinary kindness and hospitality, and of course to Archimandrite Daniel too for putting up with me twice. There is no way I can thank them except to remember them in prayer, and I hope they will always pray for me.
Father Alexis 
