Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to welcome the bishop for the newly created Diocese of Victoria and New Zealand for the Assyrian Christians, His Grace Mar Benyamin Elya of the Assyrian Church of the East. I want to congratulate my local Assyrian community on the official consecration of their bishop, which was held at St Abdisho's church in Coolaroo on Sunday, 16 July and followed by a dinner reception at Taylors Lakes in my electorate of Calwell, which was attended by my colleague the shadow Treasurer and member for McMahon, the Hon. Chris Bowen. I want to thank him for coming to Calwell on this very special occasion, and I want to acknowledge that he shares with me a very large Assyrian community in his own seat of McMahon, and he has been a dynamic advocate for the rights of the Assyrian Christian community.

The guest of honour at this testimonial dinner was His Holiness Mar Gewargis III, the Patriarch of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East. The dinner was attended by clergy from the Assyrian Church of the East and their sister churches in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Iran, places in the world where the Assyrian communities live and have thrived.

The Assyrian church of the east is one of the world's most ancient Christian communions. Its liturgy employs the Syriac dialect of Eastern Aramaic, and historically it has been centred in Iraq, eastern Syria, south-eastern Turkey and north-western Iran, areas which today correspond to the geographical area of ancient Assyria. The church exists in greatest numbers today in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Lebanon but also in Europe, America, Australia and India.

Assyrians are one of the world's most persecuted indigenous minority communities. Persecution has been their plight for centuries, and sadly it continues today. Since 2003, they have been victims of persecution in Iraq and Syria at the hands of ISIS and other terrorist groups. Along with other Christian minorities, they have borne the brunt of the ongoing persecution of Christians in the Middle East. The United States government has designated them to have been victims of a modern-day genocide. Assyrians have been the largest intake group under Australia's refugee resettlement program.

The appointment of a bishop, therefore, to lead them in Victoria is the result of the massive growth in this community. For the Assyrian Christian community, in my electorate of Calwell especially, this is a very important achievement. During my time as the member for Calwell, I have seen my local Assyrian community develop, integrate and grow from strength to strength. As one of Australia's fastest growing refugee communities, they are the electorate of Calwell's strongest migrant community. They have integrated into our community successfully, and the more established members of the community are now helping the more recently arrived integrate and find their way through our local community.

Assyrian community members, particularly refugees who have recently arrived in Calwell from Iraq and Syria, have noted that their new bishop is a symbol of hope for the maintenance of the distinct history, language, culture and faith of the indigenous Assyrians in their newfound home, Australia. His Grace's appointment will also build on the establishment of the Assyrian Church of the East in Victoria, which began in the mid 1970s. The Assyrian community has worked actively in pursuit of religious, cultural and social initiatives. Now, of course, with the consecration of a new bishop, the community is hopeful that His Grace will give leadership to new projects and initiatives that continue to build on the progress made by the Assyrian Church of the East in Victoria.

At this point, I want to congratulate all of the organisers involved in this event. In particular, I want to pay tribute Councillor Joseph Haweil, who is one of my local councillors at the Hume City Council, who was in fact elected just under a year ago as the first local government councillor of Assyrian background in Victoria. I want to thank Joseph for the amount of work that he does in our local community to assist the Assyrian community. I want to finish by quoting what Joseph had to say about the new bishop. He said: 'I feel a sense of great pride that the community in which I was raised has matured, grown and continues to progress. For the community, I feel that having such a leader here brings gravitas and prominence.'