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Services for Great Lent

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Services for Great Lent

The forty days of Great Lent is a time of expectant preparation heading towards that moment when we meet our Resurrected God and King. Services during these weeks energise the faithful in their journey toward Pascha.

Visitors are most welcome at any service.

 

Week of the Triumph of Orthodoxy

Great Lent commences with the most penitential service of the entire year, the Great Canon of St. Andrew & Great Compline. The Triumph of Orthodoxy is a memorial and celebration of the Church's reception of the Seventh and final Ecumenical Council.

7.30 pm

Mon, 26 Feb 2023

Great Compline & Canon of St. Andrew

 

7:30 pm

Wed, 1 Mar 2023

  Presanctified Liturgy

 

7:30 pm

Fri, 3 Mar 2023

    Akathist of Thanksgiving to the Theotokos

 

10:00 am

Sun, 5 Mar 2023

 Divine Liturgy

 

 

Learn More

Learn about the services for Holy Week and Pascha.

Learn about the Liturgical feasts of the year.

 

Details

The Good Shepherd Orthodox Church, located in Clayton, Melbourne, is a living witness to the power of the Gospel and the fullness of the Christian Faith in modern, secular Australia.

We are a vibrant Australian Christian community under the direction of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand & the Philippines, within the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East.

The Church of Antioch is the continuation of the Christian community founded in Antioch by the Apostles Peter (who served as its first bishop) and Paul. The Patriarchate of Antioch is the oldest of the ancient Patriarchates constituting the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ.

All services are in the English language and are held in the Main Chapel of the Religious Centre at Monash University, Clayton Campus, conveniently located in the centre of Melbourne’s residential population.

Parking in the University car parks is free after 7:00 pm, but please take note of all signs regarding Loading Zones, No Standing and Disabled Parking, these restrictions apply and are enforced.

For directions to the Religious Centre click here 

 

Blog

Take Up Your Cross: Giving Without Calculation
Daniel McInnes
Daniel McInnes
September 20, 2026 10:00 AM
On the Sunday after the Elevation of the Cross, Daniel McInnes asks what it actually means to take up your cross and follow Christ. Our whole life — not just the Sunday part of it — is the cross we are given to bear, and bearing it well means giving to the people around us without calculating the cost or the return. Drawing on his work as a mathematician and on his days at the Defence Academy, he shows how the modern instinct to optimise everything fails in the places that matter most, and how even involuntary suffering trains us to give with our whole heart.
The Tree of Life: Why We Glory in the Cross
Fr. Nicholas Frazer
Fr. Nicholas Frazer
September 13, 2026 10:00 AM
Ahead of the feast of the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, Fr. Nicholas Frazer preaches on why the cross stands at the very centre of the Orthodox faith. Drawing on Christ's words to Nicodemus and on Ss. John Chrysostom, Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria, he traces the pattern of salvation history: death came through a tree in paradise, and life comes through the tree of the cross. The cross is shown as the revelation of God's love, the throne of the King and the defeat of death — and each of us is called to take it up daily in forgiveness, humility and repentance.
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