By Marcelle Mansour OAM
Memory Eternal to His Eminence Metropolitan Archbishop Paul Saliba of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines (1939 – 2017). After he was consecrated in Damascus, Syria he arrived in Australia in 1999. Since his arrival to Australia, he doubled the number of Eastern Byzantine churches in Sydney, and around the states of Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. He founded and opened the monastery of St. Michael (Centre of the Antiochian Village Australia) in Goulburn that provides Christian hospitality in a spiritual Orthodox environment.
The late Archbishop Paul Saliba dedicated his entire life serving God, to education, to church, and to the community where he focused on youth and the younger generation.
One of these photos reminds me with a very short conversation with him during the Annual dinner of Sts Michael and Gabriel 2015, when I told him about one of my artworks was selected and exhibited at the Louvre Museum in the Fifth Award Exposure in Paris 2015, and the artwork was about the Holy Bread that I obtained from my local church in Ryde, he raised his hand pointing to Heaven and said: “It is God’s work”. His concise comment made me thrilled to realized and visualise in depth the mystery of our Christian faith.
May his soul rest in peace with Heavenly Father and may his memory be eternal.