The newsletter of the Hellenic Community

and Orthodox Parish of Auckland

/ April / May 2009

BATTLE OF CRETE COMMEMORATION

The Cretan members of the Hellenic Community of
Auckland wish to invite you to join with them to
commemorate the battle of Crete which took place
on May 1941. They will host a dinner on Saturday
23rd of May at the Community Hall, 106 Western
Springs road.
Dinner will be served at 7p.m. Everyone is welcome.
Please, bring your own drinks.

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Photo on the left: Minutes before the immortality: Em.
Katsanevas and his son Lefteris (free:.legteros) from
Perivolia, Chania, facing death. Minutes before their execution.
(http://members.tripod.com/petrokefali/phodoc.htm)

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LETTERTOTHEEDITOR
EASTER 2009

ally covered all those bits that I forgot!

All those lovely people that worked so hard when
they came, and jumped in to help this Kiwi novice
were most, most gratefully appreciated.

From the experiences and impressions of the Kiwi

Novice-cook!

Special thanks have to go to those ladies that prepared dishes, made cakes that no-one could resist
(Heather), the to-die-for Baklava (Andreas) and the
What an event!
MILLIONS of Koulourakia (Tasoula), and those ladies
After a week of shopping, arranging, taking bookings that made their own delicious Koulourakia Vasso,
Alexia, Litsa to name a few (that went in a flash),
and general planning, Holy Saturday started with
Tzatziki, Noodles, chocolate cake, and those fantasthe blank-slate of an untidy Community Hall and
tic traditional Tsourekia that were outstanding on
the dilemma of just how we were going to make
the Easter dessert table!
room for over 135 people!...let alone the ones that
would come even without a booking
For those wonderful dishes that I didnt mention (or
see, because they went so quick) thank you so much
Andreas, and I spend the majority of the day cleaning, finding and setting up tables, and with the very for your contributions and your generosity.
welcome help of Christina Miliotis (who just happened to poke her head in the door with her delightNOW, the lambs (that were the centre of the whole
ful family after attending the church service) we armeal) were fantastic werent they? Best ever, and
ranged table-cloths and flowers to set-the-scene..
ably roasted by Takis, Demetri, Theo and Richard (I
With a wee bit of a break for an hour or two Andreas am sure they got the best bits!!!! hehe, taking adand I were back at the hall to help Takis, Demetri,
vantage of roasters-choice rules of course) and fanElias and Con to prepare the lambs for the spits
tastically carved by Takis and Craig artists..they
home was welcome at about 10pm! Andreas had a
managed to feed the multitudes with just three
shower and was back at the Church for the midnight lambs! very impressive guys, as there were quite a
service by 11, and home again at nearly 2am!!..
lot of unexpected guests. Talking about multitudes,
I have to say that the special blessing of the food
Sunday morning dawned grey and threatening rain
and the rousing Christos Anesti from our own Faat 6ambut by the time Andreas and I arrived at
ther Nick did impress us all, reminding us of the
the Hall it was warming and we could see some
reason that we were all together and celebrating.
breaks. With a couple of false starts trying to get
stuff from Supermarkets and Daries that didnt open Thank you Father Nick for reminding us all why, and
until 8am (I had been told that they opened at 7am!) how important the event was! Alethos Anesti!!
I managed to rather inexpertly cook breakfast for
the team of men that arrived first thing to get the
spits going and the lambs cookinggood thing those
blokes didnt notice the burnt bits in the eggs
haha

Dancing was another highlight of the celebration,

along with the contributions of those amazing and
dedicated members of our Greek Community, the
lovely children that experienced and enjoyed Greek
hospitality (special mention of 4 day old Christina
Pavlides, who slept thru her first ever event) and the
By about 9.30am the pressure started,,,me making
Mayieritsa from a Greek cookbook that my sister-in- fine (thank goodness) weather that allowed us all to
enjoy the day.
law had given me as present the last time I was in
Greece, and not wanting to sample it to test for salt I could go on forever thanking people that helped
(got some blokes to do that) and being very ably su- with the preparation, the serving, with the dishes
pervised and helped by Aleka to do the agvo-lemeno, and the cleaning up, and those who just by their
we managed to put the soup together to be edible presence (Ernest, Katy and Heidi, Soula Lymberry,
then it was on to making four trays of Youvetsi at Mary Arabito, Litsa & Costa Evangalithakis, Penny
least I had some experience doing that.. then on to
and Christos Stilianyou and all you others that I
preparing the Green Beans that Costa and Demetri
know and love) made the whole day well worth the
managed to find fresh at the last moment..Maria and hard work and long hours. I enjoyed it and am really
Aleka spent at least and hour top and tailing them,
grateful for the cooking lessons, the support and the
but what a great taste having them fresh I am sure
love that you all shared with me on such a special
you all will agree!..Elias arrived with bucket-loads of occassion.
prepared potatoes which migrated into 5 large trays,
and werent they great?! Thank goodness we had
access to two cookers (even if the warming drawer of Lesley Dionysiou
one didnt work at all).
Penny spent hours at the sink cutting lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and so forth (along with Aleka and
Maria), and prepared the delicious salads, then she
and Christina prepared the meze plates (that we just
couldnt keep up with as they were so yumthat
Tzatziki went like crazy!)
Lois arrived and immediately started cutting the
bread ready for the meal.manned the Bar, got
drinks for the workers, handed out plates and gener-

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RELIGIOUS EVENT OF THE MONTH

HISTORICAL EVENT

- 2009

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20 1941

20 1941 ,
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. April Holy Easter 2009
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Christ is Risen! With Gods help we celebrated the Holy

. , , , Easter this year as well. The joy of the Resurrection of our

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Lord filled our pained souls. Everything is full with the
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light of the Resurrection. Jesus died on the Cross, went
..,

down to Hades and despoiled him and then after three
days He resurrected Himself, since He is the source of Life, . ( 1 1941 ),
, ...
and is glorified by every living breath and creation.
The Word God, Jesus Christ, became perfect human as
well for our salvation. That is Divinehuman. So He came
among us, He preached, taught, made wonders, suffered,
was crucified and died and then after three days He resurrected Himself.

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Before Him, came in the desert of Jordan Saint John the
Forerunner and prepared the people to accept the Messiah. .
The One who brought the Grace and the truth to us. The
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Grace is the forgiveness, the absolution, the mercy, it is

the absolute kindness. And this is very important, we need
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it. Humans want to be discharged from their guilt and from
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their faults and to become pure, whiter than snow. They
, can achieve this through the Crucified Christ, after they
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have honestly, wholeheartedly and humbly made their con-
fession and received the Body and Blood of Christ. Then
:
their sins are gone and they are free and obtain insidethem
theeternallife.
'',
It is our chance now that Christ has resurrected Himself,
to glorify Him and to take advantage of His Resurrection,
to be also resurrected and reborn in spirit. It is of our
benefit and we need it.
Christ is Risen!

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COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS
The last couple of months have been very busy for the Hellenic Community with some large social and religious events
taking place during that time. Many people have worked
very hard in order to see these events through, which we are
very grateful for.
Auckland City Council International Festival, 29th March
2009.
To begin with, our community participated in the Auckland
City Councils International Festival, which took place on
Sunday the 29th of March at the War Memorial Park in Mt
Roskill. This was the 3rd year in a row that our community
took part. In our previous participation at the festival we
cooked and sold souvlaki and also had a dance group perform Greek dances, which proved to be very popular however
this time we only sold souvlaki.
This year he event was much more successful in every aspect. The Greek Community stall once again was incredibly
popular and the queue of people waiting to buy souvlaki
was 10 to 15 deep for long periods. The service was fast and
everything ran smoothly thanks to all the contributions of
those community members (and their families) who were
involved. We managed to sell everything before the end of
the day and were able to make a very handsome profit for
the community (over $3,000!), which is very welcome in
view of the expenses for renovations that are currently taking place in the house above the hall and the kitchen in the
Hall that will in the next couple of months.
A lot people contributed generously with their time and labour both on the Saturday with all the preparation of food
and materials and also on Sunday, beginning with the transportation of all the necessary items from the community
hall to the park and ending with all the transportation back
to the Hall at the end of the day.
We would like to give a huge thank you, to everyone who
came along and contributed their time, experience, commitment, and enthusiasm to help make the day such a success
for our community.
Greek National Independence Day - 25th March 1821 Anniversary / Celebration 4th April
The Celebration of the Greek National Day is one of the most
important events on the Greek calendar. In Greece and Cyprus the 25th of March begins with a special church service
and it concludes with marching by students of schools and
the armed forces.
Here in Auckland, on Sunday the 22nd of March, the Ambassador of Greece to New Zealand, Mr Evangelos Damianakis,
visited us and participated in the church service which included a special prayer / doxologia for this occasion.
The Ambassador addressed the participants and talked about
the significance of this day both for the Greek people and for
the rest of Europe.
Under normal circumstances the celebration of would have
taken place on Saturday the 29th of March, however that
coincided with the Auckland International Festival. Therefore it was more appropriate that we planned the celebration
for the following Saturday the 4th of April.
The early indications for numbers for this evening were very
discouraging. By Friday afternoon we had only 35 confirmed
seats, so we decided to allow a little more in the catering
just in case a few more guests came at the last moment (as
we usually do).
However, on the Saturday evening the number of people that
turned up for the celebration was totally unexpected and

unprecedented. All of the 80 seats that were available in the

Hall were filled and it was a little cramped to say the least.
We certainly love having as many people as possible coming
to our events however when you have more than 100% of
the expected number turn up you cannot help but feel
somewhat uneasy. The committee had been working hard
all day Saturday preparing and cooking the food and only
managed to have just enough for everyone because of the
generous contributions of some of the guests. Thank goodness..and grateful thanks to those members who bought
along their special dishes. Thanks also to Father Nick whod
blessed the food so we were able to feed the multitudes... J
The evening was a very successful one, and it would have
not been such a success without the fantastic music by the
band Greek Nights. Theo, David and Christina provided
the music free of charge because they just love playing and
singing Greek music. They created such a wonderful atmosphere with their rich repertoire of Greek music and many
people didnt want to leave until very late at night. Many
danced themselves legless.
Many thanks to everyone who contributed in any way, food
donations, cleaning and washing up and so much more.
Just a note **We say thats the Greek thing; we can turn
up to events without informing anyone, and to have a seat,
and for there to be plenty of food and drink. In the future if
you could please ensure that you let the organisers of such
events know of your intention to attend, well in advance, in
order to make sure that there is no chance of you missing
out on all that lovely food!
Easter 2009
This year, the Greek Orthodox Easter was one week after
the Catholic one.
The Holy Week was very busy for Father Nick and the
church, with evening services every evening and often during the day as well.
The culmination of the whole week was the Anastasi liturgy on Saturday at midnight. The church was full and everyone felt quite elated with the proclamation that the Lord
Jesus Christ was risen being announced in 5-6 different
languages! Christos Anesti Alithos Anesti
Early on Saturday evening four whole lambs were prepared
(put on the spits and marinated) by our community experts,
Takis Porfiriadis and Dimitris Papadakis with the help of
Con Kritos and Ilias Drakakis, and the Hall was prepared for
the following day.
Sunday morning the day started at 6:30am with the setting
up and preparation of the roasting spits under the gazebo.
Just after 7:30am the lambs were roasting. Takis,
Dimitris,Theo Despotakis and Richard Atkins looked after
the lambs while they were roasting for over 5 hours and
they were cooked to perfection.
Lesley Dionysiou, Ilias and Maria Drakakis, Aleca and Christina Miliotis, Tasoula Despotakis and Penny Williams
worked non-stop busy in the kitchen making the
mageiritsa, mezedes, salads and other dishes for the buffet.
Takis and Craig Hobbs carved the lambs and made sure that
everyone had plenty of that delicious spit-roasted lamb on
their plates. The additional food was delicious and everyone
enjoyed it. Special thanks to those who bought their special
dishes and sweets againthey certainly contributed to us
being able to provide enough food for all our guests.
The number of people who had called and booked seats for
the Easter celebration were much greater than the available
seating in the Hall, which was fantastic, but it came with its
own set of issues just how were we going to fit everyone in
and just how were we going to be able to provide enough
lovely Easter dishes for all?
All the available tables and chairs were bought out of storage and Con Krtitos bought chairs and tables from his home
in order for us to have enough places for all those 138
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COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS
guests expected.
SO MANY MORE people than the 138 expected came without bookings, which put the whole committee and helpers
under a lot of extra pressure. Most regrettably, I had to
make the decision to turn some people away as there just
was not any space or catering allowances left! In the end
there were some people who didnt have seats at all, but
thankfully we could provide just enough food! As much as
we were thrilled at the turnout and loved the whole occasion, it was not without some extra stress and incredibly
hard work from Takis, Dimitri, Richard, Con, Theo,
Ilias,Andreas M. and those ladies in the Kitchen that performed miracles to provide enough for everyone!

CONGRATULATIONS
Karen Osborne ,
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, 16 2009.
Congratulations to Ilias and Karen Pavlidis on the safe arrival of their new daughter , Christina - Sophia, who was born
on 16th of April.

A special mention also must be made to thank those who

cleared and cleaned and stacked and washed all those
dishes. THANK YOU EVERYONE.

THANK YOU
We would like to thank the following people who contributed helped to prepare the Church and the hall
for the Easter celebrations and other things

Panayiotis Goulovangas, who cleaned the Holy

with the help of Costa Evangelidakis, and then
painted it, donating all the materials and his
time.

Litsa Evangeelidaki, Frideriki Goulovangas,

Vaso Stavrianos, Efrosini and Alan Teague,
Soula Tzirtzirlakis and Alexia Vader, who
cleaned the Church and the hall before Easter.

Costa Kritos and Ilias Drakakis, who between

them cleaned the community hall and the
church after the Easter celebrations.

Roula and John Musson, Theano Greenhow,

Alexia Vader, who helped to undress the
Epitafios and do special cleaning in the
church on Saturday the 24th of April.

Tasoula Despotakis, Litsa Evangelidaki,

Frideriki Goulovangas, Alexia Vader, Vaso
Stavrianos who made koulourakia and Easter
eggs.

Special thanks to Soula Lymbery and John

Musson for their genereous donations towards
the cost of providing the Easter Lambs

A SPECIAL THANK YOU, to John and Roula Musson

who very generously donated the new
Kouvouklion (Epitafios).

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Congratulations to Dimitris Antonatos on the arrival of his
granddaughter on January 2009.

WINNERS OF THE NEWSLETTER QUIZ
O
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: peleta@gmail.com,
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The winners of the two quizzes published in the Newsletter
will be presented with their prizes on the night of the Cretan
Commemoration on the 23rd of May. If the winners are not
attending, please contact the newsletter editor on his email
address: peleta@gmail.com, for further arrangements.

GREEK CARTOON OF THE MONTH

Father Nicholas had requested for a new one to be

build in order to replace the old one, which was a little too heavy to carry around. Father Nicholas provided a design, which Joseph Kouratoras used to create the beautiful new Kouvouklion. Thank you to
everyone who contributed towards this.

Please accept our apologies if weve missed anybody

off this list.

From Kathimerini (posted by John Osborne)

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The Greek Educational Centre

and

The Hellenic Consulate of Auckland

INVITE YOU
to an afternoon with:

ANGELOS
SIKELIANOS
(1884-1951)
one of the major modern
Greek poets

...no, its not an illusion for us

to ride a dream
from his poem: Attic (1968)

Date: 5th of July 2009

Time: 15:00
Place: University of Auckland

FIBA - FIBA U19 World Championship takes another major step forward
AUCKLAND (2009 FIBA U19 World Championship) - An event which promises to be one of the sporting
highlights of the year in New Zealand has taken another major step forward with the announcement of
ticket sales for the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship to be held in Auckland 2-12 July.
Sixteen teams from around the world including the basketball strongholds USA, Argentina, Croatia,
Australia, Greece and Spain will take part in 62 matches with up to 300 athletes and more than 60
officials expected to attend, along with numerous official FIBA delegates and around 100 player
scouts.
Ticket prices start at $7 for children and $15 for adults with a variety of packages available as well.
Tickets can be purchased at any Ticketek outlet, at the website www.ticketek.co.nz, at the venues or
by phoning 0800 842 538.
There is also a call out to those wanting to join the event as volunteers. Around 280 volunteers are
required in various positions from drivers to ushers, score bench assistants and many other roles.
Those wanting to volunteer can download the form off the official website.
The 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship is making giant strides and will be an amazing event,
especially in the fact it will be showcasing basketball talent from 16 different nations with many
players set for future NBA contracts. A basketball event of this magnitude has not been held in the
Southern Hemisphere before and it is a great coup that it is being played in the Auckland region.
With tickets now available and a push for volunteers the event is progressing well. The challenge is to
convince Kiwis of just how big an event this is going to be in the context of sport in New Zealand and
around the world. I firmly believe this event will exceed all expectations and leave a lasting legacy for
the sport and the country, says FIBA U19 World Championship Event Director, Dave Mee.
The ninth FIBA U19 World Championship for Men will be held at the North Shore Events Centre and
ASB Stadium, Kohimarama. It is the third largest basketball event in the world - only the FIBA Mens
and Womens World Championships are larger.
Around the globe the event is recognised as the breeding ground for future global basketball stars with
many of todays well known players such as Vince Carter (United States), Luis Scola (Argentina), Pau
Gasol (Spain), Andrei Kirilenko (Russia) and Australian Andrew Bogut having played in previous
tournaments, showing all their skills and passion from an early age.
It is the first time New Zealand has hosted a Basketball World Championship and also the first time it
has been held in the Southern Hemisphere. The Junior Tall Blacks (New Zealand U19 mens team)will
be competing at the FIBA U19 World Championship for the first time
Live television coverage of three matches per day plus all New Zealand games and the quarters, semis
and finals has been scheduled for Sky Television.
Local supporters of the event are Auckland City Council, North Shore City Council, Major Events New
Zealand, SPARC, Tourism Auckland. Sky City Hotels is the official accommodation.

HELLENIC COMMUNITY AND ORTHODOX PARISH OF AUCKLAND

Postal Address: P O Box 52 174, Kingsland-Auckland 10003, Physical Address: 106 Western
Springs Rd, Mt Albert Website: www.greekcommunity.org.nz Email: contact@greekcommunity.org.nz
Object:
To foster the appreciation, understanding and enjoyment of the Greek National heritage, its ideals and culture, including primarily the Greek Orthodox religion, Greek history, Greek customs,
Greek language, Greek music and dance.

- 09-479 4010 0272-311091, - -Hobbs 09-5775959
h 021-548 840, - - 09-523 0530, - - 09-620 0692,
: Bailey 09-489 2444, - 09-625 6823, -09-412 2345.
Executive Committee
President:Andreas Dionysiou, Vice President: Lucy Anastasiadou-Hobbs, Secretary: Michael Phanoulas, Treasurer:
Penelope Williams
Members: Christos Bailey, Elias Drakakis, Con Kritos.

, ,
. For Consular matters, please contact Mr Nikos Petousis, Hon. Consul of Greece in Auckland.
Contact Details: P O Box 26327, Epsom, Tel: (09) 571 0238 Fax: (09) 571 0529 Mob: 021 236 1427
Email: nikosp@xtra.co.nz

.
Those who are interested for the issue or renewal of Greek passports, that they must apply directly
to the General Consulate in Wellington.
Embassy of Greece, 10th Floor, 5-7 Willeston Street, PO Box 24-066, Wellington, Telephone: (04) 473-7775;
(04) 473-7776; Facsimile: (04) 473-7441; Email: info@greece.org.nz

HELLENIC COMMUNITY - MEMBERSHIP

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$50 $30
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The existence and functioning of our Community depends

on membership fees and donations by its members and
friends. The Membership fee for a family is only $50 and for
an individual $30 annually. Most of the funds raised from
membership fees are used for publishing and mailing the
Communitys newsletter to all members.
Membership runs from the 1st July to 30th June the following year and renewal of membership has to be made in advance before the end of June each year.
Whoever wishes to become a member should contact either the
Secretary, Mr Michael Phanoulas, or the President, Mr Andreas Dionysiou for a Membership Application Form. Your
support is appreciated.

CHURCH SERVICES AT THE

CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY

Church services conducted by ft. Nicholas every Sunday from 9am12 pm.

,
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12.

Matins Service (Orthros) 8:45 - 10:00

Divine Liturgy 10:00 - 11:45

8:4510:00
10:0011:45

For additional information and other

enquiries please contact ft. Nicholas on
09521 9442 or 027 485 4815

, :
09521 9442 027 485 4815

Editorial: The photos of this volume came from Andreas Dionysiou and Ilias Pavlidis. Thank you both .
More News and Updates:

www.greekcommunity.org.nz

Editing by: Ilias Pavlidis

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