STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Ms LAWRENCE (Hasluck) (13:37): Alongside the Speaker, members and senators, I had the honour of welcoming His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia to this place. His Holiness is the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church and spiritual leader of Serbian Orthodox Christians worldwide. Accompanied by the metropolitan of Australia and New Zealand, Mr Siluan, and metropolitans and bishops from around the world, his visit is a momentous occasion for the Christian Orthodox community and particularly for the wider Serbian Australian community, as evidenced by the joyous welcome of dancers and children bearing flowers on his arrival in Canberra.

Now, our churches are more than places of worship. They are places of connection, knowledge and opportunity, as well as ways for families to hold on to language and tradition. But, in a time of uncertainty and flux, the patriarch and his retinue provide hope.

My own experience of the Orthodox faith, from lighting a candle at the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade to Father Milorad ordaining my marriage to Nenad and the personal blessing I received this week from His Holiness, affirms my belief in our national values of freedom of religion. I thank the Speaker, in his first official event after his election as President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and I thank the Serbian ambassador, His Excellency Rade Stefanovic, for bringing His Holiness and the clergy to our parliament.