A History of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Western Australia

Wal J Slaven

Eastern Orthodoxy is among the oldest expressions of Christianity, yet it was not until after World War Two that migration resulted in significant numbers of Orthodox Christians coming to Australia. As a faith community, Orthodoxy within Australia has attracted only slight scholarly attention, and there has been almost no historical analysis of Orthodoxy in Western Australia. This thesis is intended to in part address that lacuna. Traditionally there has long been a close and complex relationship between the various Orthodox Churches, ethnicity and the nation-state. Examined here as a diaspora community in an entirely new milieu, this research seeks to determine the manner in which each of five ethnically-based Churches has emerged within Western Australia, the nature of relationships with their European parent-Churches and traditional homelands and the changes that migration and settlement have wrought in those relationships. The analytical framework of the thesis is drawn from Victor Roudometof’s theory of ‘transnational glocalisation’ where elements from global and local environments meet to form hybrids. His theory offers an explanation as to how changes occur within Orthodox diasporas that creatively restructure ties and connections with parent-Churches. Accordingly, relevant historical events drawn from traditionally Orthodox homelands and their Churches are presented in order to provide context and contrast with the events surrounding emergence of Eastern Orthodoxy within the state. The thesis will demonstrate that the history of Orthodoxy in Western Australia has witnessed the evolution of practices and understandings within the different Orthodox communities previously unknown to their parent-Churches, forcing the latter to engage in new ways with their Churches in diaspora. The result is a hybridised form of Orthodoxy that is more appropriate to its new environment than its European past.

A History of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Western Australia

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