Ideological influences of the jurisdiction to the Autocephalous Church of Greece on the first Constitution of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria.
On the 31st of August 1902 the First Constitution of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and the Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, which was the first Orthodox church of the city, was unanimously approved at a General Assembly.
The Constitution included the Articles of Faith, the Ten Commandments and 18 articles defining the structure and operation of the new collective organisation. One of the terms was setting the Church of the Annunciation under the jurisdiction of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece - almost after a decade of efforts to secure a priest from the Patriarchate of Jerusalem - and the exclusion of non-Greek Orthodox.
What were the reasons that prompted Orthodox Greeks to seek the change of their church jurisdiction in such a short period of time? Did they had the option of choosing their ecclesiastical authority according to the Orthodox ecclesiastical tradition?
What were the ideological-political influences of their decision and how did they shape the cluster in conflicting groups among Orthodox.
Through the primary sources of the Dardalis Archives of La Trobe University, the correspondence of the protagonists of this movement, an interpretation will be given to their actions centred on the fluid national identities of the particular historical period and their association with Orthodox religious doctrine and the Autocephalous Church of Greece.
