Theology & Life

On Thursday 17 September, His Eminence Archbishop Makarios, the College’s Dean, together with Dr Philip Kariatlis, were invited to be two of the three keynote speakers at the annual FOCUS UNSW Forum (the Fellowship of Orthodox Christian University Students of the University of New South Wales). The general theme of the Forum was, ‘Ethics, Morality and the Orthodox Church’. The title of the presentation by His Eminence Archbishop Makarios was: “Christian Ethics: A Movement from the Self to the Other”. His Eminence emphasised the importance of the true Orthodox Ethos—namely, the need to move from the self to the other—and the importance of selfless Christian love towards our neighbour. He further stressed the importance of living a virtuous life to the formation of the ethical person and the significance of God's transformative love for us in this formation. Following this, Dr Philip Kariatlis presented on “The Church and the Freedom of Morality”, delving into the seemingly paradoxical and yet inextricable link between freedom and morality within the context of our Orthodox Church. The event was well attended, with over 100 young people present—which was a capacity crowd, due to COVID-19 restrictions—with many following the event, on-line. The evening provided an opportunity for all those present to become a little better acquainted with the richness of their faith; and for the College to have engaged more broadly with the community.