DIOCESE OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND: September 19, 2019
Divine services resume at the Parish of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” in Geelong, Australia

As a result of the serious illness culminating in the death of Protopriest Simeon Kichakov on July 25, 2019, divine services have not been held at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” in Geelong, Victoria, in Australia, for approximately two years. His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, Ruling Bishop of the Diocese of Australia and New Zealand, appointed Protopriest Yaroslav Belikov as rector of the parish.

Fr Yaroslav was finally able to obtain a visa, and he arrived in Geelong on September 13, and divine services have once again commenced.

It seems providential that on the day of the ecclesiastical new year, September 14 (new style), is the feast day of St Simeon the Stylite, the heavenly patron saint of the previous rector. After Divine Liturgy, Fr Yaroslav performed a pannikhida for him, and all the parishioners prayed for the repose of Fr Simeon.

The community has once again united under their new priest, and the full cycle of divine services has resumed, as has the parish school, religious discussion meetings and all the traditional parish events of the Russian diaspora.