Saint Panteleimon's is an Orthodox Christian parish of East Slavic tradition serving the New South Wales Central Coast and the northern suburbs of Sydney. Our parish includes Orthodox Christians of Russian, Ukrainian, Belarussian, and other backgrounds. We are a parish of the Australian and New Zealand Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church, is completely independent in pastoral, educational, administrative, management, property, and civil matters. Our parish is doctrinally Orthodox, liturgically traditional, and welcoming to all. In our services we use English, the language of this country, together with Church Slavonic, the liturgical language of the Slavic peoples. Established in 2000, our parish is one of the newest in our Diocese.
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We have services on the first and third Sundays of each month and on the preceding Saturday evenings. We also have services on some major feast-days during the week. Our current Schedule of Services can be viewed here. Our church is generally only open when we have services. Visitors are always welcome! If you would like to contact us before visiting, it is best to send an email. We check this inbox regularly and will respond to messages within 24 hours. You can also contact us in the same way to arrange baptisms and memorial services. Please don't hesitate to reach out!
Our parish priest, Archpriest James Carles, serves here in a voluntary capacity. He has part-time secular employment during the week and is presently undertaking full-time tertiary study. In addition to our parish, he has responsibility for Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Newcastle and Saint Symeon of Verkhoturye Orthodox Mission on the New South Wales Mid North Coast. During study periods (in 2025, 17 February-12 July and 21 July-15 November) his pastoral availability is strictly limited to scheduled services in the three communities; individual “needs” that arise in connection with these scheduled services (e.g. confessions, molebens, and memorial services); essential parish administrative tasks; and end-of-life care and funerals. Father James is available to talk after Divine Liturgy on the Sundays when we have a service. He can also be contacted by email.
Our parish is a small one that relies on community support and the voluntary service of our clergy to make ends meet. If you find this website to be of interest or of assistance, please consider helping us. Donations may be made directly to our bank account:
St Panteleimon Russian Orthodox Community of Gosford
BSB: 032-596 Account number: 140923
May the Lord bless you!
On Saturday 21 June and Sunday 22 June we will have services for the Second Sunday after Pentecost, the Sunday of All Saints of Russia. All-night Vigil will be served at 6.00pm on Saturday and the Hours and Divine Liturgy will be served at 9.00am on Sunday. God willing, our parish rector will be joined for the services this weekend by Archpriest Alexander Morozow, a senior clergyman of our Diocese and the rector of Saint John the Baptist Cathedral in Canberra.
On Saturday 31 May and Sunday 1 June we had services for the Seventh Sunday of Pascha, the Sunday of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council. All-night Vigil was served on Saturday evening and the Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Sunday morning. On Sunday morning, prayers were offered for Orthodox unity, peace in Ukraine, and peace in the Holy Land. In his sermon, the parish rector, noting that it was the seventeen-hundredth anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council, spoke about the work and significance of the Council.
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On Wednesday 28 May and Thursday 29 May we had services for the Great Feast of the Ascension of the Lord. All-night Vigil with the blessing of wheat, wine, oil and five loaves was served on Wednesday evening and the Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Thursday morning. On Thursday morning, prayers were offered for Orthodox unity and peace in Ukraine. As it was on this feast-day in 2007 that canonical communion was re-established within the Russian Orthodox Church, the Prayer for the Prosperity of the Russian Church was also read.
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Our Winter 2025 Schedule of Services - covering June, July and August - is now available. Services of note during this period include those for the Apostles Peter and Paul on 11-12 July; for our patronal feast of Saint Panteleimon on Friday-Saturday 8-9 August; and for the Great Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Monday-Tuesday 18-19 August. A copy of the English-language Winter 2025 Schedule of Services is available here, and a copy of the Russian-language Winter 2025 Schedule of Services is available here. Printed copies in both languages are also available in church.
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On Saturday 17 May and Sunday 18 May we had services for the Fifth Sunday of Pascha, the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman. All-night vigil was served on Saturday evening and the Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Sunday morning. On Sunday morning, prayers were offered for Orthodox unity, peace in Ukraine, and peace in the Holy Land. At the end of Divine Liturgy prayers of blessing were read over a set of beautiful new white covers for the Holy Table, Table of Oblation, and icon stands. The new covers, the work of the sisters of Saint Elizabeth Convent in Minsk, Belarus, will be used for the first time on the Great Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord in August this year.
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Our parishioners and friends will be saddened to learn that as of 29 April 2025, long-serving parish cleric Protodeacon Martin Naef has been formally transferred to Saints Peter and Paul Diocesan Cathedral in Strathfield. Father Martin was ordained to the diaconate in January 2008 and, apart from a two-year period from 2012-2014 during which he and his family lived in Europe, he has served in our parish ever since. As he will now be travelling abroad until August 2025, a formal farewell is being planned for September 2025.
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On Saturday 3 May and Sunday 4 May we had services for the Third Sunday of Pascha, the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers. All-night vigil was served on Saturday evening and the Hours and Divine Liturgy were served on Sunday morning. At both services the parish rector served alone, and at Divine Liturgy prayers were offered for Orthodox unity, peace in Ukraine, and peace in the Holy Land.
The April 2025 issue of “Word of the Church” (“Церковное Слово”), the official journal of the Australian-New Zealand Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, is now available in our parishes. This is the first issue for 2025. Content includes the 2025 Paschal Epistle of Archbishop George in Russian and English; articles in Russian and English concerning the March 2025 Pastoral Conference of our Diocese convened at the Holy Protection Cathedral in Brunswick (Melbourne), Victoria, during Great Lent; the text in Russian and English of a paper presented at that conference by Archpriest Nicholas Karipoff, ‘The Image of the Pastor: The Bible, Vitae of the Saints and Pastoral Theology’; announcements concerning various awards bestowed on Diocesan clergy by the Synod of Bishops and by Archbishop George; articles in Russian marking the centenary of the repose of Patriarch Tikhon; articles in Russian and English about the December 2024 Diocesan Youth Conference (“Syezd”); a colour supplement of photographs from Chersonesus (near Sevastopol, Crimea); and more. Copies are $5.00.
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“The history of the Church is not only academic studies of the events of the past and narratives about the affairs of bygone days, the legends of ancient times, which are like the pages of a dusty book darkened by time. In the history of the Church, the Holy Spirit lives and acts, guiding us into all truth (John 16:13). That is why the study of Church history – to which I urge all of you – helps us to better understand many phenomena in contemporary religious life, teaches us to separate the main from the secondary and to distinguish spirits (1 Cor. 12:10), comprehending the all-wise Providence of God for the Church.” Patriarch Kirill’s Epistle is available in full in Russian here. A complete English-language translation will be shared as soon as it becomes available.
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"The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia finds it necessary to raise its voice out of bitter necessity, for we find that in a time of crisis and growing confrontation amongst nations, aspects of the Russian state and society are wandering onto an extremely dangerous path: instead of the promulgation of Christian repentance and purification, we observe in certain circles a return to a false, God-opposing ideology that prevailed in the last century. This return is fraught with harmful consequences. Should it continue, we fear that modern Russia risks being considered a dark stain amongst the nations, marked by a revival of spiritual corruption, instead of her being a radiant beacon of Orthodox Truth, which is surely the calling to which her long history of Christian piety directs her." The full text of this important statement, released by the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia on Thursday 5 June 2025, can be read in English here and in Russian here.
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The Twenty-First Diocesan Assembly of our Australian-New Zealand Diocese is to be held at Saints Peter and Paul Diocesan Cathedral in Strathfield, NSW, from the evening of Thursday 23 October until the afternoon of Sunday 26 October 2025. As all Diocesan clergy will be participating in the Assembly, the only services in our Diocese on Saturday-Sunday 25-26 October will be at the Strathfield Cathedral. A news article about the Twentieth Diocesan Assembly may be read here. A delegate from amongst the laity to join the parish rector in representing our parish at the Assembly will be chosen at a parish meeting to be convened on Sunday 17 August 2025. Further information about the parish meeting and the Twenty-First Diocesan Assembly will be made available in due course.
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This year, 2025, is the centenary of the repose of two great hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church: Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (31 January 1865 - 7 April 1925, canonised 1981) and Saint Jonah, Bishop of Hankow (17 April 1888- 20 October 1925, canonised 1996). In recognition of this significant anniversary, the Synod of Bishops of our Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia has called upon the bishops and clergy to make a particular effort to remember these two holy bishops. To this end, they are to be commemorated at the dismissal of each Divine Liturgy up until the Great Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple (4 December, the day of the Patriarchal enthronement of Saint Tikhon in 1918) and to remember Saint Tikhon in a sermon and with a moleben on Sunday 6 April, the Fifth Sunday in Great Lent and the eve of the anniversary of his repose. We will also serve a moleben to Saint Jonah on Sunday 19 October, the Ninenteenth Sunday after Pentecost and the eve of the anniversary of his repose. Holy Hierarchs Tikhon and Jonah, pray to God for us!
