Holy Spirit Church of the Syriac Catholic Community

1 August, 2024

Iwan WALTERS (Greenvale) (11:02): I rise today to acknowledge the extraordinary leadership of Reverend Monsignor Fadhel Alqass Ashaq; His Grace Bishop Georges Casmoussa, the Apostolic Visitor of the Syriac Catholic Church in Australia; and all members of the Syriac Catholic community of Melbourne who have contributed to building the beautiful new Holy Spirit Church. Earlier this month I was overjoyed to join many hundreds from across my community for the blessing, consecration and formal opening of this wonderful new home for the Syriac Catholic community by His Beatitude Mor Ignatius Joseph III Yonan, Patriarch of Antioch and all the East.

This proud community, with ancient roots in Mesopotamia as the indigenous people of Iraq, has grown so rapidly in Australia in recent years, with hundreds of families now calling Melbourne home. It is a community who have endured so much hardship and persecution but who remain strong and deeply committed to their faith and to our community. The Holy Spirit Church will be a safe, permanent home for the Syriac Catholic community in Melbourne’s north, one that has been built by the hands and the hearts and through the generosity of the community itself.

I particularly thank Monsignor Fadhel for his steadfast leadership of the community since 2011, for his pastoral ministry and for his leadership of a community that has suffered so greatly and arrived in Australia after often deeply traumatic and violent experiences. It has been so profoundly inspirational to see the impact of the community’s hard work in fundraising and building their new church. I thank and acknowledge all the Syriac community members, the tradies and all of those who have donated their time, their expertise and their skills and material to make this Holy Spirit Church a reality.