Father Christos Vergos | Greek-Australian Archive

State Library of New South Wales

Greek-Australian Archive

A smiling person sitting at table

Speaker Profile Προφίλ ηχείου

Father Christos Vergos

| Language: Greek

A smiling person sitting at table

Speaker background

Occupation: Maintenance worker, priestYear of arrival: 1963

Father Christos Vergos was born in 1939 to a poor farming family in the central Peloponnese. He migrated to Australia in 1963 to join his sister in Wagga Wagga, where she and her husband ran a café. He later took up a role with Qantas in Sydney, working in aircraft maintenance. At the same time, he joined a committee to establish a parish church in Belmore, where he also served as a chanter. After marrying his wife, Sofia, in 1967, he was ordained a priest, and was assigned to set up a new parish church in Liverpool, NSW.

Location in AustraliaLiverpool

Interview summary

Father Christos’ interview is mainly concerned with his path to becoming a priest and the creation of the parish church in Liverpool. However, he also discusses his life before becoming a priest and his family life.

Interview highlights

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Father Christos reflects on how he set out to create a parish in Liverpool and the challenges he encountered.

At a gathering, expatriates would come together and decide to create a parish and a committee, here in Liverpool. They approached the Archbishop. They came to him, and said they wanted to create a parish (enoria) and committee (kinotita). That’s when [Archbishop] Ezekiel decided to assign me here. He tried to send another priest […] but he could not go due to personal reasons. [The Archbishop] said [to the Liverpool committee], ‘I have a young priest. I will send you Father Christos.’ So, I conducted my first liturgy in 1967, on Christmas Eve, 24 December. The first liturgy took place in Liverpool Hospital. That is where we operated for two years. […] It was in a small hall, and in there we would unpack our things [icons, challis etc], then pack our things and go.
Timecode 14:33 - 15:54

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Father Christos sheds light on the difficulty of sourcing Greek foods such as olive oil and cheese. He also discusses the challenges of daily life as a Greek migrant in the suburbs.

Father Christos: Nick, we tried to find Greek shops. At the time, we’d find them in Marrickville and Newtown. There was George Hatziplis in Newtown, and there [at his shop] we used to source our foods. Whatever we needed for the house.
Interviewer: What did you think of Australian foods?
Father Christos: Look here, Nick. A Greek needs his garlic [laughter]. But we tried to adjust to the environment we encountered.
Timecode 17:42 - 18:36

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