It’s a pleasure to speak to this bill creating Orthodox Christian Week. I want to congratulate the member from Humber River–Black Creek for putting this bill forward.

These bills are very important. They’re very important because we need to recognize and acknowledge the diversity that’s amongst us. I’m a Roman Catholic. I went to Catholic schools. I didn’t really begin to understand Orthodox Christianity until I became a politician—that shouldn’t be. We live in communities. In my community, there are people from 125 different countries. They speak 90 languages, and there are dozens of faiths. And our children are together—they play together; they go to school together. We all live together. So understanding and knowing the rich traditions and beliefs of the other are really important.

I want to thank everyone who is here today for coming here to support the member from Humber River–Black Creek, but most importantly for giving your children the gift of faith. That’s something that’s really very important in this world. To uphold that, to celebrate that, and to be proud of your heritage and your faith is something very special, and I want to congratulate you for that.

I’m from Ottawa South, and I only have one Orthodox cathedral in my riding: St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral. It’s a place that I’ve been going to for years for a whole bunch of different reasons, but the one that really sticks out is—and it happens at many Orthodox communities and Orthodox churches—they have a festival every year, the Lebanese festival in Ottawa. It’s a massive festival. Actually, I put forward a bill very similar to celebrate Lebanese heritage month, because I believed that was important. I always say, with these festivals, they combine the five Fs, and I hope I can remember them: Faith, food, friends, family, and fun—not necessarily in that order, but faith always comes first. I’d just like to give them a shout-out right now, because it’s in my riding.

Father Nektarios and the Very Reverend Ghattas Hajal, thank you for the work that you’ve done in our community to support things like the children’s hospital and the heart institute, and having a festival every year that brings people together.

My mom passed away last year. She would go to every festival. She would go to the Ukrainian Orthodox festival. she would go to the Greek Orthodox festival. We’d have to take her out all the time, and then when she couldn’t get out of the house, we had to get the food and then bring it back. It was something really central to her. She was a person of deep faith.

Again, we’re Catholics; I was going to say we prefer bingo—but not as much anymore.

So here’s the thing, and this is why it’s important for us to celebrate and recognize Orthodox churches and all religions: We live in a country—and when I say 125 countries, 90 languages, dozens of faiths, we just accept that; we embrace it. We don’t always know as much as we should know. But people can practise their faith. There are a lot of places in the world where people have to hide their faith because they fear for their lives. I think it’s important that our children know and understand that, because they don’t know anything different. Go into our schools, and everybody is there. That just doesn’t happen everywhere.

So creating an Orthodox Christian Week, recognizing the rich traditions and the role that these faith communities play in our community, and the struggles that they have and had that made them come here, that made them immigrate here—I think that’s why it’s important, too. I don’t think we can forget the struggle that happened, or the struggles that are happening right now in too many places in the world.

I want to thank you for your time, Speaker.

Again, thank you so much for being here and for supporting the member from Humber River–Black Creek.

Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill 167, the Orthodox Christian Week Act, and I would like to recognize and thank the sponsoring member from Humber River–Black Creek for introducing it.

I also want to thank my colleagues from Brampton North and Scarborough–Agincourt for their great remarks.

As a member of the Greek Orthodox faith, this bill is important to me, as it means this Legislature is recognizing the important place of Orthodox Ontarians in our province and its history. Orthodox Christians have lived in our province since before Confederation, coming from countries such as Ukraine, Armenia, Serbia, Russia, Egypt and, of course, my own home country of Greece, along with many others.

Orthodoxy dates back to the earliest times of Christianity in the Roman Empire, clearly separating from the Roman Catholic Christianity of western Europe in the Great Schism of 1054. Who knows about the Great Schism of 1054? You would have to be a history buff. It was centred at that time in the Greek world, in Constantinople, but has spread throughout the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. Four of the five great episcopal sees of the early church joined the Orthodox faith, including Alexandria, founded by St. Mark.

Today, the Orthodox Christian Church worldwide has 220 million followers. Many have immigrated to countries around the world. And the 2021 census reported about 623,000 members of Orthodox churches in Canada.

Here in Toronto, the oldest Greek Orthodox church is St. George’s, known as the mother church of the Greek diaspora in Canada. The church stands today at 115 Bond Street. Founded in 1909, it remained the only Greek Orthodox church in the city until 1961, providing a place of faith and comfort for the many early Greek immigrants to Ontario, including my own family.

Throughout their history, Orthodox churches have provided their parishioners a place to share their faith, often in times of great threat, persecution and oppression. This was true for Greece under the Ottoman rule, for the people of eastern Europe under Nazi and Soviet rule, and t's true for Ukrainians under attack today.

We are truly blessed to live, work and raise a family in a province and country that safeguards our religious freedoms.

I am proud to support this bill and to recognize the struggles and accomplishments of Orthodox Christians to our communities, and how their contributions have made Ontario a stronger, safer and more prosperous place.

It’s an incredible honour to be able to stand in the Legislature today and speak on the bill brought forward by the member for Humber River–Black Creek, Orthodox Christian Week Act.

Welcome to all the people in the galleries.

I’m not of the Orthodox faith, but two summers ago, one of the greatest experiences in my life happened in a Greek Orthodox church: My grandson was baptized in a Greek Orthodox church in Lebanon, and I was there. I often think about that day—how our family was welcomed, how my grandson was welcomed into your faith, and how it truly is a world faith. It’s high time that it’s recognized here in Ontario for the contributions you have made.