Changes

The first wave of Lebanese, then called Syrian, immigration was in the 1880-1890s, where work was found in hawking and peddling goods in the country areas of the eastern states of Australiaand in Dunedin. The first place of worship was usually in the state capital cities of Sydney and Melbourne, with a Greek speaking priest who also spoke Arabic and sometimes Russian too. The Antiochian Orthodox faithful in Australia took part in the construction of a community church dedicated to the Holy Trinity in Surry Hills, Sydney, and to the Holy Annunciation, East Melbourne, with the Greek and Russian Orthodox faithful. A priest was Priests able to speak Greek and Arabic and, sometimes, Russian, were later provided by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. By the early twentieth century, a significant number of Lebanese had settled in Melbourne. These families kept Services were done in contact with each otherdifferent old-world languages, working as hawkers, shopkeepers, or wholesalers, during the week, and using the weekend for social activities including meeting in the Exhibition Gardens on Sundays. The first Orthodox church in Melbourne, Holy Annunciation, was established in East Melbourne as a result servers of the joint effort by Greek-speaking, Arabic-speaking, and Russian speaking Orthodox. The services parishes were in both Greek and Arabicfrom various immigrant backgrounds, The altar servers were of Greek and Lebanese/Syrian descent, some of the icons were donated by Lebanese/Syrians, and the first warden was Lebanesepeople from all Orthodox ethnicities.