THE FOUNDING AND EARLY YEARS
OF THE GREEK COMMUNITY IN CARDIFF, SOUTH WALES
A
talk given by Fr. Anastasios D. Salapatas
at
a Conference of the Centre for Greek Diaspora Studies
London,
14-15 October 2016
First of all I would like to thank and
congratulate the organisers, and more especially Dr. George Vassiadis, for such
a unique opportunity we have to get together and study the history of the
Presence of Greeks and Cypriots in Britain, over the last two centuries.
My topic is the Greek Community in South
Wales. It is really interesting to see how a Greek Community was born in an
isolated area of Britain. My personal interest on this subject comes from the
fact that I lived in Cardiff for six years (1987-1993) and served there at St.
Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.
A). THE FOUNDING OF THE COMMUNITY IN THE 19TH
CENTURY
Cardiff is a nice city by the sea in South
Wales, in the west part of the British Isles. It had been an important port for
many decades, serving the British industrial machine of coal exporting, from
mid-19th century right up to the end of 1960s. It is interesting to
note that the southern part of Wales is quite famous for its excellent quality
of coal, the gold of the Celtic soil.
The Greek sailors, very experienced in all
matters related to ships and sea transporting from the ancient times, came in
support of this process of transporting the valuable material. By coming
frequently to Cardiff and the other South Wales ports (especially Newport and
Barry) they got to know the area well and they liked it. Thus, they decided to establish
their own business offices in these towns and they also founded their family
homes there.
The first official meeting of Greeks in
Cardiff had taken place on 18th December 1873. At that meeting the
seamen Greeks had decided to build a Greek Church, near the port, and dedicate
it to Saint Nicholas, the Patron Saint of the sailors. That meeting was
organised by an Englishman, called Timothy Hatherly, who was based at the time
in Wolverhampton; he had been ordained an Orthodox Priest at Constantinople by
Metropolitan Vassileios of Smyrna and had returned to his native land to serve
the Greek Orthodox congregations. He was also “a musician of considerable attainments, and wrote a book entitled
Byzantine Music, which is regarded as the standard work in English on this
subject”!
On the 20th December 1873 a
local paper, called “The Cardiff Times”, gives a detailed account of the Divine
Liturgy that was celebrated the previous day, in honour of St. Nicholas (19th
December is St. Nicholas Feast Day, according to Julian calendar).
St. Nicholas was from the beginning (from the very first day) and still is
today the Patron Saint of the Greek Community in South Wales.
The article is quite long. Some of the most
interesting elements in it are as follows:
·
Its
title is: “The opening of a Greek Church
at Cardiff”.
·
There
is a specific reference to the venue of the liturgical meeting, “a room in Patrick Street for Divine Worship
in accordance with the rubric of the Greek Church”.
·
Also
to the Greek sailors in Cardiff, “there
are always a large number of Greek sailors in the port”.
·
There
is a specific mention to “the few Greek
residents of the town”, which obviously refers to the fact that by that year
some Greeks had settled already in the city.
·
The
article is concluded by the phrase: “A
number of the Greek residents and captains, and others in the port, with the
priest, dined together at the Windsor Hotel afterwards, in commemoration of the
opening of the Church”.
Three years later, on 20th
February 1876, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece had issued an encyclical
letter, addressed to all Bishops of the Hellenic Kingdom, by which they were
asked to recommend to all of their monasteries to offer their generous
contributions towards the construction as well as the maintenance of a Greek
Church in Cardiff. We are not aware of any responses to this request.
B). THE dawn OF THE 20TH CENTURY
A famous Greek journalist and historian, called
Vasos Tsimbidaros, in his book “Hellenes
in England” (p. 218), refers to the Greek Community in Cardiff, where “there was a Greek Consulate before 1900, as
many Greeks lived there and numerous Greek ships came into the port. They used
to import cereals and they were loaded with coal which was exported to the
Mediterranean and South America. After 1900, the comings and goings of the
ships were so frequent, that many Greek sailors left the sea and remained in
the ports in order to work in various business”, like hotels, cafes etc.,
that were serving mainly the seamen, both Greeks and others.
It is worth noting that some of the greater
Greek Shipping Companies had started their maritime businesses from Cardiff and
from the other South Wales ports, or at least they had passed through there and
had been busy there for a period of time. Among those belonged to the first
category is the Kollakis family (one of the richest seafaring families in
Europe), and the most well known ones of the second category are the Embirikos
and the Fafalios families and obviously Aristotle Onassis himself.
1903 was quite an important year for the
Cardiffian Greeks. The local paper “Evening Express” reports on the 8th April
1903:
“It is
the eighty-second anniversary of the Greek independence, and the occasion was
celebrated by the opening of a new Greek Church, for the purpose of which a shop,
near the canal bridge in Bute Street, has been converted. The Greek Consul (Mr.
J. Stangala) and most of the leading Greek ladies and gentlemen of the town
were present. The offices of Greek firms and the Greek shipping in the port
were decorated with flags. It is twenty-five years since there was a Greek
Orthodox Church at Cardiff. The Greek priest, who has been in charge of the
Orthodox mission here for some three months, is a dignitary of the Patriarchal
(technically called the Great) Church at Constantinople. He is a man of solid
learning, and earnest to a degree in his desire to benefit his co-religionists.
The premises at 51, Bute Street, have been rented, and will be known henceforth
as "The Orthodox Eastern Church." The place is being adapted for
Divine worship in accordance with the primitive rite of the unchanging East. It
was here, as early as 8.30 am that a congregation comprising some 300 people
met together, when the religious service was performed by the Very Rev. Father
Georgiades, Grand Economos. Prayers were offered for the health and prosperity
of the Royal families of Greece and Great Britain, whilst a solemn
commemoration was made of those who fought, bled, and died for liberty and
fatherland in the terrible struggle for the emancipation of Greece from Turkish
thraldom”.
The Community appears to be quite strong.
In a little while the Priest and its lay leaders came in contact with the Ecumenical
Patriarchate. The Community was then recognised officially by a special grand
letter, written on parchment, the original of which is today kept at the central
offices of the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain in central
London.
The letter, issued in June 1903, signed by
the Ecumenical Patriarch Joachim ΙΙΙ and twelve
Metropolitans, states that St. Nicholas Church is under the canonical
jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, from which it receives the Holy
Myrrh and its Parish Priests. According to the Minutes’ Book of the Community
(p. 29), the Ecumenical Patriarch Joachim had sent to his Church in Cardiff a personal
present; and that was a large icon of St. Nicholas, which was placed on a
special icon stand, specifically made and offered by Demetrios Logothetis,
Vice-Concul in Cardiff at the time.
C). THE construction of the church
In 1905, after many efforts and
negotiations with the local authorities, the Community signed a lease agreement
(lasting for 99 years) with the Marquise of Bute. The freehold was eventually
purchased by the Community, during my time as Parish Priest, in 1989.
According to the initial agreement, the
plot of land was given to the Greek Community in order to build a place of
worship and another building, which was to roof the Greek School (ground floor)
and the Priest’s accommodation (first floor). That plan was eventually
realised.
The foundation stone of Saint Nicholas’
Church was laid on in August 1906, by the Greek Consul in Cardiff, Mr.
Miltiades Raphael.
The paper “Evening Express” reported on 28th
August 1906: “The resident Greek
population of Cardiff is about 400 and the floating population nearly 200. This
will be only the fourth Greek Church in this country; the other being in
London, Manchester and Liverpool”.
When the Church was eventually built a
special plaque placed on the outside front wall, which read that the construction
of the Church was made possible by the financial contributions of “Greek Orthodox Ship-owners, Ship-captains
and sailors living in Cardiff, Barry and Newport”.
D). the rules of community
In 18th March 1908 the Greek
Orthodox Communities in Europe & America where placed -by Patriarchal
Degree- under the spiritual and pastoral care of the Holy Synod of the Church
of Greece.
That was the reason why when the Greek
Community in Cardiff had written down the Rules of the Community asked the King
of the Hellenes through the Government of Greece to approve those Rules. King
George I had eventually approved the Rules by Royal Degree, signed in Corfu on
17th April 1910. The Rules were amended in February 1914 and were
published in Athens later that year.
It is certainly worth looking into those
Rules, as they are not just a legalistic document but a significant source of
the Community’s history. Each article of those Rules presents another aspect of
the life and the progress of the Community, as well as of the way that the
members were looking into certain elements of their Community life in South
Wales at the time.
Article 1: The Community’s base is in Cardiff
and includes those Greeks living in Barry, Penarth and Newport.
Article 2: It states that the Greek Church in
Cardiff is subjected to the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod of the Church of
Greece and it will always remain a Greek Church.
Article 3: This is quite an interesting
article, which states that the assets of the Community are acknowledged and
proclaimed as real property of the Hellenic State. There are references to
certain conditions
and obligations, but
it is very clear that the Community assets will be in the name of the Hellenic
State through the Greek Consulate in Cardiff. That obviously, apart from
anything else, showed the patriotic feelings of the members of the Community.
Article 6: The crews of the Greek ships arriving
at the ports of South Wales and at the ports of the Bristol
Channel, when they offer financial contributions to the Community, they are
entitled to take part in the Community Assemblies and also they get the right
to vote and to participate in the decision making process.
It is obvious that the financial needs of
the newly founded Community necessitated the insertion of
this article into the Rules.
Article 8: This article introduces the
leaders of the Community, the so-called Community Council. This Council consists
of 6 members. Permanent Chairman is the Consul of His Majesty the King of
Hellenes in Cardiff. A permanent member is the current Parish Priest. The other
four places are filled with people from the regular members of the Community, voted
at the General Assembly every four years.
Article 22: This article
emphasises how important it is to keep strictly the aims of the Community, as
described in article 1, and also to preserve unchanged the articles 2, 3 and 6.
Strictness and perseverance,
in keeping the cultural and religious elements of our nation,
is the legacy of the founders of the Greek Community in
Cardiff.
They seem to have had forgotten though that
proverbial saying of our forefather Heraclitus, who said: “τά πάντα ρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει” (“everything flows and nothing stands
still”). In regard to the Community Rules, the Greek
Omogeneia in Britain had introduced a new Constitution in the 1960’s and is at
the moment in the process of adopting a new one. The Greek Community in Cardiff
has adopted and follows the new Constitution, while the old Rules of 1914 have
only today an historical significance, but not a legal authority.
E). erection of the community building
The works for the erection of the Community
building, which is situated next to the Church, had started in 1915. The
foundation stone was laid on 25th March 1915, by Antonios Momferratos,
who was a Greek diplomat, serving at the time as Consul General of Greece in
Cardiff.
The Parish Priest at the time was
Archimandrite Isaiah Vergopoulos, who was born in Kalamata, in Southern
Peloponnese. He served the Community from 23rd December 1909 up
until 31st August 1917. These were very difficult times for the
Greeks of the mainland, as they had been divided -for political reasons- into
royalists on the one side and followers of the Prime Minister Eleftherios
Venizelos on the other.
This unfortunate ethnic schism had been
brought into the Cardiffian Greek Community as well. Fr. Vergopoulos had been
described as the leader of the royalist group and that had troubled and wounded
the Community. He was eventually removed from St. Nicholas Church and returned
back to Greece.
f). consecration of st. Nicholas church
The next important milestone in the history
of the Greek Community in South Wales was the official opening and the
Consecration of St. Nicholas Church.
As it is well known the Sacred Archdiocese
of Thyateira and Great Britain was founded in 1922. Before that, there was no
Greek Orthodox Hierarch residing in Britain.
When the Archbishop Cyrill III of Cyprus
came to London accompanied by a number of Greek-Cypriot dignitaries, in order
to discuss the matter of the much desired Union of
Cyprus with the
motherland Greece, he was asked to visit Cardiff and to preside over the
special ceremony of the Consecration of St. Nicholas Church. So he did.
This ceremony had taken place on 24th
/ 6th April 1919. The Minutes’ Book of the
Community Council (on page 120) reports the event in detail as well as the best
wishes of His Beatitude towards the Community. The Minutes were signed by the
Archbishop of Cyprus, the members of Clergy and the lay leaders of the
Community.
The Archimandrite Fr. Gennadios Themelis,
originally from the island of Kalymnos, was the Parish Priest of St. Nicholas
Church at the time. He served the Greek Community in Cardiff from 1917 up to
1928. He had studied psychology at Brussels University; he was very well
equipped in the Byzantine Church Music and had written and published a number of
books and articles. In South Wales he organised the Greek Education and
established Schools in Cardiff and Barry. He was very well respected by his
congregation. In 12th December 1928 Fr. Gennadios had fallen asleep.
He is the only Greek Orthodox Priest who had died and was buried in Cardiff.
g). HISTORY CONTINUES…
That was the founding and the early years
of the Greek Community in South Wales.
But the Community as a living organisation
continued to exist, carried on its development over the next period, presenting
always a living witness of real Eastern Orthodox spirit and Hellenic
civilisation to the hospitable country of Great Britain and in particular to
the Principality of Wales where it was based.
The present Priest in Charge is The Very
Rev’d. Archimandrite Iakovos Savva (appointed in 2000 AD).
In regard to present time population, the
Greek Community of St. Nicholas numbers about 2000 souls, the Greek students in
the South Wales area should be about 3000, while the Roman-Catholic Corfiots
are estimated at around 500 people.
The two most important elements that bring
all Greeks together in Cardiff and in South Wales are St. Nicholas Church and
the Hellenic School. These are the two most dynamic elements of Orthodox faith
and Greek culture that the Greeks in the area trying hard to preserve and to
develop even further.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dawling T.E. and Fletcher E.W., Hellenism in England, Faith Press,
London 1915
Salapatas, A.D., Hellenism in South Wales (1873-1993), Diaspora books’ Publications,
Cardiff 1993 [in Greek]
Tsimbidaros, Vasos, Hellenes in England, Alkaios Publications, Athens 1974 [in Greek]
