The story of the Greek community of Goulburn, and the church its families built together.
Agios Panteleimon Greek Orthodox Church has served the Greek community of Goulburn and the surrounding Southern Tablelands for over fifty years. Like many Greek parishes across regional Australia, it was established by migrant families who arrived in the decades following the Second World War, settling in Goulburn to work and raise their children, and who wanted a place of their own to worship, to baptise, to marry and to farewell their loved ones in the Orthodox faith.
The church was not built from surplus. It was raised through the generosity and sacrifice of families who had little money and few resources, but who gave what they could so their community could have a home of faith. According to the parish's own knowledge, the land on which the church stands was donated by the Toparis family, one of Goulburn's long-standing Greek families. This has not been independently verified through outside records, but it is part of how our parish remembers its own founding, and we are glad to honour that generosity here.
From the earliest years of the parish, our church has been the heart of Greek community life in Goulburn. Families gathered here not only for Sunday Liturgy, but for baptisms, weddings, name days, and the celebrations that kept our culture and language alive far from home.
Greek Independence Day was always one of the highlights of the year, with the community coming together for parties, dancing and food that brought generations together. Many of our older parishioners remember these celebrations from the 1980s with great fondness, and we hope to share photographs from those years here as they come to light.
Photographs from past community celebrations, including Greek Independence Day gatherings from the 1980s, will be added here as they are found.
← Swipe or scroll for more →
Today, Agios Panteleimon Greek Orthodox Church continues to serve the Greek community of Goulburn, now joined by the children and grandchildren of those founding families, as well as newer arrivals and friends from across the Southern Tablelands. We gather each Sunday for Divine Liturgy, and come together as a wider community each year for our feast day on 27 July.
We are presently raising funds to restore our church roof, so that the building our founders worked so hard to give us can be preserved for the generations who will come after us. We warmly welcome anyone who would like to learn more about our parish, attend a service, or support our roof restoration appeal.
"This church was not built from surplus. It was raised by families who gave what they had, so their community could have a place to call its own."
THE STORY OF OUR PARISH