FORMER SURREY COMMUNITY PRIEST RETIRES
Protopresbyter Rev. John Contoravdis has retired effectively as of June 27th, 2010. Many people in the Vancouver and surrounding areas will remember that he was the first priest to serve the then fledgling Greek Orthodox Community of Surrey and Fraser Valley (St. Constantine and Helen Church). He served the first liturgy there in June, 1992 and served that community for over five years, helping to establish it as a viable church community. He then went on to serve at his final church, St. Sophia in Bellingham, Washington USA for thirteen years.
Fr. John was born in Greece in 1940. After finishing high school he served two and a half years in the Greek Air Force before going on to work in the Ministry of Commerce for five years. He immigrated to Toronto, Canada in 1965 and married Elefteria Antonopoulos. Three years later they moved to the USA, to Brookline, Massachusetts where Fr. John attended Holy Cross Academy. In July of 1970 he was ordained as a priest, carrying on the family tradition, as his grandfather, uncle and cousin also were Greek Orthodox priests. Fr. John served at St. Constantine and Helen church in Cheyenne, Wyoming for six years, then sixteen years at St. Demetrios Church in Fort Worth, Texas before taking up his post in Surrey, Canada.
Fr. John and Presbytera Elefteria have two sons and a daughter and are proud grandparents of five boys and five girls, all of whom reside in the Seattle, Washington area. Now he will have the time to spend with his family. Of course he will still be seen at various church events not only in Washington State but also here in British Columbia. Patrides wishes him well in his retirement.
SURREY COMMUNITY HAS NEW HOME
St. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Community of Surrey and Fraser Valley finally has its new home. On May 20th and 21st, His Eminence Metropolitan Archbishop Sotirios presided at the official opening vespers and liturgy services at the new location on the corner of 96 Avenue and 132 Street in Surrey. According to His Eminence this move was a step in the right direction for the community. It now has a church with a basement hall but it should not be the final step. The community should plan on finding property that would allow for future expansion to service all the Greeks of Surrey and Fraser Valley.
Not only was it the official opening of the new church but it was also the celebration of its Saints Day, Constantine and Helen. Therefore people came from far and wide for the occasion.
The community had made a deal to purchase the property at the end of 2009 and sold their previous property in February, 2010. It expected to move to the new premises by the end of March but for various reasons the purchase did not go through as scheduled. Therefore the official opening had to be postponed several times. On April 25th Rev. Konstantine Tsiolas, the priest at St. Constantine and Helen, announced at the end of the service that the “papers could not be found” and if the sale was not finalized soon legal action would be launched. Patrides also reported about the “lost papers” in the April issue. Soon after that the keys to the church were turned over. When Patrides investigated further we discovered that the transfer documents were not filed at the land registry until April 30th. The church property was finally officially transferred to the Greek Orthodox Community of Surrey and Fraser Valley on May 10th but the adjoining property was still registered to the Cedar Club. Further investigation on May 21st uncovered that the documents for the adjoining property were held up at the land registry due to clerical errors. Because of the error the society registry had difficulty verifying the existence of the society. With Patrides help this was straightened out and the transfer for the property finally was completed on May 21st.
As was predicted by Patrides in the earlier article, the parking situation at the new premises left much to be desired. People came from Vancouver, Victoria, Abbotsford, Chilliwack and other areas for the first services. Those people who arrived extra early for the services were able to get a parking spot. However those who arrived later were not so lucky. They had to try to find a place many blocks away. Those that ignored the no parking signs along 96th Avenue and 132nd Street and tried to park there were met with constant honking horns by passing motorists as well as the arrival of tow trucks. A number of people just gave up in frustration when they were unable to find parking close by and just turned around and went back home.
The old house on the adjoining property will have to be torn down quickly and the property turned into a parking lot. Even then parking will still be a problem as the combined total will be only about sixty parking spaces. If people keep having a difficult time finding a place to park they will not make much effort to attend the church in the future. Then how will the community meet its financial commitments?
The purchase of this particular property was a step in the right direction as it was time to have a proper church. The previous building tried to be both church and hall in the same room but the set-up did not work well. The choice of this property though does emphasis the lack of a vision for the future. The community leaders and members will need soon to go on to the next step, either buying out the neighbouring property or being bought out by them in order to purchase a larger property that would allow for expansion to serve the needs of all the Greeks of the Fraser Valley. There have been a number of public school properties that have been purchased by other church groups so why could the Surrey community not do the same? Did anyone seriously look into the property that was practically under their noses, only a few blocks away, the old Fleetwood Elementary school that was closed last year? It would have been a much better location. It has a gymnasium and some of the classrooms could have been converted for the church and others used for community purposes such as library, Greek lessons and dance lessons, etc. It has a large property that would have allowed for plenty of parking and room for future church building. The large playing fields would have been ideal to hold the festivals.
The community has taken twenty years to get to this point and too much sweat and tears have been poured into it to see it go stagnant due to lack of future planning. It is now up to all the Greeks of the Fraser Valley to band together to support the church community to make sure that the community is able to take the next large step into a future that we can all be proud of.
GREEK
FESTIVAL IN SURREY
St.
Constantine and Helen –Greek Orthodox Community of Surrey and Fraser
Valley held its annual Greek fest from June 5th – June 13th.
Although the community moved to its new location in May it still was
renting the previous premises at the corner of 84th Avenue and
160th Street in order to hold its festival there.
The
whole parking lot at that location was covered in giant tents so that the
festival could go ahead rain or shine. Of course as usual it did rain
through a portion of the festival but those who braved the cool weather at
least were nice and dry. When the sun did come out and the temperature
rose the attendance also increased.
The
attendance was not as good as it could have been, partially due to the
weather but mainly because of a lack of advertising and the lack of
entertainment. The advertising budget could have been spent more
productively. The main advertisement was a menu flyer (lumped in with ads
from other businesses) in a large envelope inserted in the local community
newspapers. This is not very effective as a large number of people don’t
even open those newspaper inserts, let alone the newspapers before tossing
them into the recycling bin. The Greeks of Vancouver were also not very
aware that the festival in Surrey was taking place.
At
the festival there was not much to draw the passerby’s attention. There
were no flags waving in the breeze and the posters were so miniscule that
one had to be two feet away to even notice them. Entertainment was sparse,
with dance performances and live music only on the weekends. The dance
group of the Surrey community provided some of the entertainment, as did
the Dimitrios Dance Group from Vancouver. As well John Sahamis from
Chilliwack and friends provided live bouzouki music and song. People did
enjoy the entertainment when it was available but during the other times
there was not much to hold them there after they bought and ate their
food. With more entertainment people would have been more inclined to
linger longer, which in turn would have resulted in higher food and
alcohol sales.
Unless
the community does something to rectify the parking problem it faces at
the new location the future of similar Greek days is in doubt. At the old
location the whole parking lot could be utilized for the festival as there
is plenty of parking available across the street at the Fleetwood
Community Hall and Library complex. At the new location what good would it
do to set up tents on the sparse parking lot when there is nowhere for the
attendees to park? Perhaps an
LAUNCH OF GREEK MONTH-VANCOUVER
The Greek Heritage Month was officially launched in Vancouver. The month of June consists of a series of free lectures or other events leading up to the main event at the end of June, the Greek Day on Broadway. The Hellenic Canadian Congress is the main organizer of this revised annual event and for the launch this year it sponsored a lecture on Monday, June 7th by Dr. Dimitri Krallis of Hellenic Studies (Simon Fraser University). The lecture took place at 7:30pm in the upper hall of the Hellenic Community-Vancouver Centre on Arbutus Street. The topic was “Tireless Itinerants: The Sacred Byzantine Diplomacy of Cyril and Methodios”
Dr. Dimitri Krallis holds a doctorate in History from the University of Michigan. In 2006 he joined the History Department and the Hellenic Studies program at Simon Fraser University as Assistant Professor. His specialty is Byzantine History.
Dr. Krallis wove an interesting tale of the movement of goods and people during the Byzantine period. Even in those days there was experience and exchange of different cultures between the Mediterranean, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. His talk centered on how the two brothers, who are revered as Saints by the Orthodox Church as well as by the Roman Catholic Church, rose within the Hierarchy of the church and how their many travels were used for diplomatic missions to influence the politics of the region for the benefit of Byzantine..
As part of the Greek Heritage Month another lecture was scheduled for Wednesday, June 23rd, again at the Hellenic Community of Vancouver Centre in the upper hall at 7:30 pm. Dr. Chris Ioannides’ topic is “Greece, Cyprus, the EU and Challenges to Turkey”
A Greek Day Kick Off Party was scheduled for Thursday June 24th from noon to 2pm, a mini street festival right on the 700 block of Granville with Greek music and lamb barbeque. The twist to this event is that those attending the party do not get to eat all that lamb being barbequed. The lamb roasted on the spit will the donated to a local charity, the Union Gospel Mission, to feed the less fortunate.
Saturday, June 26th at 3:30 pm at the Kitsilano Library novelist and poet Manolis Aligizakis will hold a poetry reading and book discussion of “Greeks on the Fraser”
The final event Greek Day 2010 takes place on Sunday, June 27th. This street festival will take place on West Broadway between MacDonald and Blenheim Streets from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm. The main sponsor for this event is Krinos Foods. As well as all the food and display kiosks there will be plenty of free entertainment for the whole family all day long.
