ON SECONDMENT

 

Widely debated in our community of late, is the news that the Greek government, through an initiative by the Minister of Education, Religion, and Sports, will send 600 clergy on a three-year secondment to Greek-speaking Patriarchates. While the government spokesperson clarified that the goal of the initiative is to provide Greek communities with priests from Greece and to support the ancient patriarchates, the Minister for Education commented further that through this act, the government is “supporting Hellenism worldwide…in all Greek-speaking Orthodox Churches around the world.”

One immediate benefit of the scheme, will be that as the wages of the priests will be paid by the Greek government, this removes financial pressure from diasporan churches. The ensuing glut of priests in such churches could also conceivably free incumbents from their parishes so that they could engage in community outreach or missionary work.

What is not defined however, is the term: “Greek-speaking Orthodox Church.” Would this include the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which although Greek in liturgy, is primarily made up an Arabic-speaking population? How would such clergy minister to the needs of this distinct Orthodox demographic? What about the Patriarchate of Alexandria, a missionary church which, while its Patriarch is Greek, ministers to the whole continent of Africa in the languages of its people?

Quite possibly, the aim is to strengthen and assist diasporan churches in Europe, America and Australia and it is in relation to these regions that the government’s initiative has given pause for thought. Do we consider America, with its primarily third, fourth and fifth generation migrant congregation, and its English liturgies, a Greek-speaking church?

In Australia, where church services are only now beginning to switch to English, and where at least in theory, lip service is paid by the community to the importance of the Greek language, it is arguable that an infusion of clerics from Greece, if in fact this is intended, and we can only speculate at the present time, will provide the church and the community with the requisite tradition, language and practices that the Greek government obviously believes are sorely lacking.

There are a number of questions that arise from this approach, if Australian will form part of this initiative, the first relating to the way the Greek government appears to regard our institutions. Last year, we celebrated the one-hundred-year anniversary of the foundation of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. Now, in its one hundred and first year, is it somehow being somehow suggested that we cannot make it on our own, that our existing structures and “native” personnel are not entirely adequate and assistance by means of Greek speaking priests is required? Assuming that we will be the recipient of the largesse of the Greek government, are we now to understand that one of our most important and long-lived institutions appears not to be considered by the Greek government to be soundly rooted in the fabric of the land in which it has implanted itself for a century and instead, as a “colony” that must be re-hellenised, or indeed, that cannot stand on its own two feet and requires arbitrary external intervention?

This is significant because increasingly, our dwindling congregations are becoming monolingual and Anglophonic in nature. The socio-linguistic complexity of the Australian church, coupled with the in inexorable process of assimilation and the rapid secularisation of the broader Greek-Australian community presents multi-faceted challenges for the future. It is not at all certain that these challenges can be comprehended, let alone addressed by the Greek government, at a time when we ourselves are struggling to appreciate the magnitude of the task we have before us and all the social factors that are fashioning us into an entity that defies definitions and stereotypes of language, class and creed.

Ours is a church rooted in tradition, with a singular relationship with the passage of time and the human condition. In Australia, it abides within a climate of modernity that is progressively more aggressive and inimical towards organised religion. To some extent, this discourse has been absorbed by large sections of our community. We are in dire need of people who are capable to enter into that discourse and articulate our unique perspective, if we are to have s stake in the great social movements and debates of the age. It is not known whether it is envisaged that our potential new arrivals will be possessed of the skill-set to do so, or will be able to facilitate others to do so, or indeed whether the Greek government identifies this as a priority at all.

That is not to say that we are, should the scheme commence, to expect a tidal wave of Grecian priests flooding our shores. After all, they would have to fulfil the visa requirements of this land, which are exacting and not always easy to meet. Further, their wages would be paid according to Greek law, which means that they will struggle with the cost of living in this country, the way that Greek teachers on secondment do. The task of assisting them may fall to us after all. Nonetheless, it has to be said that the Greek priests that have been already received from the motherland into our communities have been universally embraced, fully integrated and they have made positive contributions to the parishioners to whom they minister and are loved by them. Perhaps the role of the new batch of seconded priests will minister to the first generation, allowing “native” priests to minister to the subsequent generations. It is unclear how this will provide the infusion of Hellenism for those generations that the Greek government manifestly thinks is needed. We do not know, for the Key Performance Indicators for these priests, or even the Success Criteria of this initiative have not been disclosed.

The second question arising from the initiative is the manner in which it seems to be linked to education and the Greek language. This is understandable, for traditionally, it was the church and its clergy that were the guardians of Greek letters and here in Australia along with other, secular organisations, one of the key fields in which the church has always been active, has been in Greek language education. It is fair to say however, that Greek language education is collapsing. In Victoria, a state which prides itself on its large and vibrant Greek community, only 181 students chose to study Modern Greek and VCE level. Greek schools are haemorrhaging students, as other activities such as sport are given greater priority by parents. The proficiency of those enrolled is often questionable and as a community, we lack the courage to ask: what do we expect of Greek language education for our children, and are we in fact achieving it? Greek priests can and have served in our community as inspiring and charismatic teachers and many Australian-born priests today continue to make valuable contributions in this field, but the vast majority of those potential applicants for secondment are not trained in this discipline, nor would they have a grasp of the state of the Greek language among the latter generations in this country. We can only hope that, assisted by the rest of the community, they will learn quickly.

Along with the priests, who are most welcome, the Greek government should consider sending us the expert Greek teachers which as the influx of teachers from Greece in the wake of the Crisis has proven, have the potential to revitalise the teaching of the language. They are not doing this for two reasons: firstly, because the system of secondment allows only for five year appointments on Greek wages, and an extension of five years without pay, meaning that such teachers would have to be paid by the community or find other means of employment. If they do not return to Greece upon the expiration of the extended period, they are fired. It was this illogical system which completely ignores the realities on the ground of diasporan communities, that compelled gifted educators like Manos Tzimpragos to up sticks after an inspiring era of language re-genesis and return home, leaving their important work in its infancy. Secondly, whether it is because of distance, or cost, last year, no Greek teacher applied to be seconded to Australia or New Zealand. In all of Greece, only twenty-one teachers applied to be seconded to other countries around the world. At a time when the Greek government and the very people who we need to assist us, teachers, appear to have given up on Australia, how will this new initiative achieve anything different?

The point should be made for it is an important one, that the wishes or needs of Greek-Australians do not seem to have been canvassed when this decision was made. No fact-finding mission was sent here to confer with key community stakeholders, no public meetings held, no calls for submissions made. Instead, the Greek government took it upon itself to unilaterally determine what is best for us, regardless of the fact that we are Australian citizens, with our own complex, competing and often contradictory views on what our needs and priorities are, and with our own internal historical narratives and discourses. Owing to our psychological attachment to our ancestral homeland and our emotional identification with it, we sometimes neglect to remember that Greece’s interests, perceived or otherwise, and those of the Greek diasporan communities, do not always align and it is incumbent upon the party that has an interest, to further it by whichever means best it can.

One of the great things about our community, is that despite any internal debate we may have about the appropriateness of the Greek Government’s infrequent and spasmodic attempts to nurture diasporan communities, we always welcome our compatriots from overseas warmly and induct them within our community enthusiastically. We grow to love them and they grow to love us and we ought not to forget that it is the successive waves of arrivals here as a historical process that provide layers of culture and perspective that inform, challenge and ultimately enrich us. What we cannot do, is to rely on the Greek government to cover our shortcomings, to address our needs, or to plan our future. That task, is solely our own.

DEAN KALIMNIOU

kalymnios@hotmail.com

First published in NKEE on Saturday 15 February 2025