St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church suspends Sunday service amid Darwin lockout

The church which saw dramatic scenes involving the Opposition Leader and Darwin Lord Mayor won’t open for Sunday services this week, it has been revealed.

ST NICHOLAS Greek Orthodox Church will not provide its regular Sunday service this weekend.

The NT News understands the church’s priest, Father Joel Xanthos, has been told not to provide his service by Bishop Silouan of Sinope due to the current Darwin lockout.

The lockout means unvaccinated people are unable to leave their home to do anything other than the five essential reasons.

Father Xanthos has previously received criticism from leading Greek figures and health authorities for describing vaccines as “experimental biological agents”.

It came on the same afternoon that the Greek Orthodox Community of North Australia (GOCNA) issued a statement apologising for dramatic scenes at last Sunday’s OXI Day commemorations at St Nicholas.

Father Joel Xanthos will not be able to provide his Sunday mass.

Among those caught up in the “confronting” behaviour and “verbal abuse” were Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro and Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis.

The GOCNA management committee said the scenes were disrespectful to Oxi Day.

“The indifference shown on the 31st of October disrespects the ethos of this most solemn of Greek National days and the people who feel strongly enough to commemorate it,” a letter from GOCNA said.

“We must be mindful in the future to remain civil and respectful to each other to accord the proper due respect to days such as Oxi Day.”

Police were called to St Nicholas after a small number of churchgoers began heckling Mr Vatskalis, Ms Finocchiaro and others.

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