Melbourne’s Greek precinct
Friday, May 18th, 2007
Melbourne (Australia, where we live) has a Greek precinct on Lonsdale Street between Swanston and Russell Streets. There are Greek restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops, travel agents and a baptism/wedding clothes shop.
The food is great, both the main meals and the cakes. And the coffee can be either cappucino, latte or “Greek” coffee (like a short black - originally from Turkey?).
Over the years the strip has shrunken a great deal. It’s been whittled away by the older shop owners gradually moving out and an increasingly Asian demographic in the area. Chinatown is only one block away.
Is this bad? How can it be a bad thing if most Greek young people themselves aren’t even interested in reviving the area? I can’t help feeling, however, that Greek Orthodox culture has some links to my own Evangelical Christian culture, however remote that may be, and I’d rather the strip wasn’t shrunken any further.
I might add that there are quite a few Greeks at my Church. These aren’t Greek Orthodox, but are Evangelicals. Maybe it’s ironic in the light of my yearning for the Greek precinct to stay as it is for religious reasons, but I’ve known of Evangelical Greeks going back to Greece to share the Gospel with Orthodox.
Now if THAT’S necessary (which it is, because Greek Orthodox have no idea of the Gospel at all) then I’d have mixed feelings about the value of the strip on the basis of any remaining Christian heritage.
