St Mary’s Indian Orthodox Church
PRESS RELEASE
12 June 2004

Fire has devastated Victoria’s only Indian Orthodox Christian church building. Fire fighters were called to the blaze in the early hours of Sunday morning, as worshippers were preparing for their weekly Sunday mass. The church interior was burnt beyond repair. The altar, the religious icons of the church including the Holy Cross, Holy Books and several large paintings, were lost to the fire.

For the small Indian Orthodox Christian community in Melbourne the fire is a fierce body blow. The church had just completed a project to build a parish hall and parsonage, based on the financial commitments of its small membership. It had taken the community 15 years before the church building could be bought in 1994. The building had become a focal point for the Orthodox Indian Christian community. The church is a part of the Indian (Malankara) Orthodox Church, which hails its origin in AD 52 and was established by St.Thomas the disciple of Jesus Christ. Our members live in different parts of Victoria as far as Bendigo and Sale. They come every Sunday to attend the Holy Mass at this church.

Beyond its weekly services, the church has been running several fund-raising events to help the underprivileged both in India and in the local Australian community. Only recently had the church received a certificate of appreciation from CFA for the donation of heaters through an ABC Drive programme initiative to provide warmth for the needy in the local community.

“It is a shocking news to me, it is unbelievable that such an incident has occurred. In this hard situation, May God Almighty bless us with his heavenly peace. I am very sure that by God’s grace we will soon be able to renovate the church in the best way possible” said H.G. Dr.Yakob Mar Irenaios, the Diocesan Metropolitan.

“We have very meagre means ourselves. But we have always felt that whatever we can do for the underprivileged in our local community, we must do, this is our duty as Christians to help our fellow neighbours, in every which way we can.” said Reverend Fr. M.D.Varghese, the parish Vicar.

It now seems the St Mary’s congregation is in need of the same neighbourly love. Whilst it is too early to estimate the total damage to the Church, re-building the church as a place of worship will take many months.

“The Sunday services were our way of spiritual nourishment. But our soul will not be crushed, we will continue our services in the parish hall. What will be harder is to ask the same few members who have given so much of their livelihood to construct what we had, to dig deeper to re-build what we have lost today. For many, this will be the last straw.

We are appealing to the community for support. Many of the items we lost today were irreplaceable, items that had been passed on by our forefathers from India. But we must look forward, and I hope that with community support, we can at least start picking up the pieces, and start restoration. It will be a slow and painful process, but we will not be deterred,” Reverend Varghese said.

Firefighters suspect the fire was deliberately lit. Police are carrying out investigations, and had cordoned off the area this morning. Reverend Fr. M. D.Varghese said that the congregation was still in shock.

“We are a close knit community that has built this church from scratch. We have made Australia our home, and have been proud citizens of the local Coburg community. It is hard to understand why anyone would do this. For us now, we will use this time to bond together even stronger than before, knowing that our Lord is watching over us.”

A long time friend of the Church, Reverend Dr.Robert Gribben, (Prof. of United Faculty of Theology) also struggled to make sense of the attack

“I have been a close friend of this church for the last 10 years. I cannot even start to understand why anyone would do harm to these ethnic community. More than ever, I hope that the whole Christian community rallies behind the church in this, their hour of need”.

The church was bought in 1994 from Anglican Church. The church completed its new parsonage and hall building and had it consecrated on this April 24th. The small community has a big financial burden for the next 25 years to pay off the loan taken for constructing the hall and parsonage.

Contact details:
Rev.Fr.M.D. Varghese,
St. Mary’s India Orthodox Church,
118-122 Nicholson Street,
East Coburg, Victoria-3058.
Australia.
Tel:+61-3-93837944
Email. frmdv@yahoo.com