Greek community celebrates name day
Over 1 000 Greek community members from around the province gathered at the St Anthanasios Greek Orthodox Church, in Woburn Avenue, to celebrate its annual name day.
The event took place on Sunday, January 18, and saw a number of dignitaries, including the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria and all Africa, Theodoris II, attend the festivities.
The Patriarch is considered the Pope of the Greek Orthodox Church.
The name day celebrates the naming of the church in honour of St Anthanasius (Anthanasios), meaning immortal, who was a bishop of Alexandria.
He was also a major theological writer in the fourth century, who fought against Arianism.
The day is usually acknowledged close to January 18 each year.
In the morning, a church service was held at the church and was followed by the fête.
Members of the church cooked traditional Greek food, such as loukoumades, Greek cakes and sourla lamb and chicken.
More than 1 200 plates of food were served at the fête.
“We had donations of 26 full lambs, 700kg of lamb and 300kg of chicken from various members of the community,” said Margeret Pappas, Greek Orthodox Church committee member.
Brakpan Greek Church members kept the crowd entertained with traditional Greek music.
Pappas pointed out that the Greek community is very close.
“Greek community members from the East Rand and surrounding areas provided support for this event.
Everybody knows each other and we are like a family,” she said.
Chairman of the Greek committee Philip Philippou thanked everybody who was involved in the event.
St Anthanasios Church will be celebrating 40 years of existence in July and this will see church members compiling a magazine.
“We request all Greek families to contact us and share their stories about their involvement with the church,” said Pappas. She can be contacted on 079 516 6790.
