09/04/2026
Oommen Varghese Uncle
- A man small of stature but a giant in the Indian Orthodox community in Sydney.
Oommen Varghese Uncle was one of the initial members of the Indian Orthodox diaspora to migrate to Sydney, Australia, and was very invested in growing the orthodox church.
Whenever the opportunity arose of any Indian Malankara Orthodox priest visiting Australia or Sydney, he would arrange a hall in the Uniting Church in Brighton-le-Sands to have an Orthodox Qurbana.
Oomen Uncle was always interested in teaching our children about our church and faith.
He taught whenever he could be it during prayer meetings or to the whole congregation after Qurbana. He also held the very first unofficial Sunday school group sessions in Sydney.
Later he became the very first Sunday School principal when we started to have services every Sunday, once we had our own priest in Sydney.
It wasn’t just imparting knowledge; Oommen Uncle was also a keen student of Orthodox Christianity and attended the Coptic seminary for theological studies, where he was awarded a degree in theology.
He continued his work with imparting orthodox knowledge to all, and as part of the SMIOC church he became the co-ordinator for Diviabodhanam, to help people past Sunday school age, to learn about our church and faith, and would take pains to get resource persons to supplement his own talks.
A true soldier for the Orthodox church, he continued to share his knowledge every time he was given the opportunity.
Many of us, some even in our sixties have been blessed to have had the opportunity to learn so much about our faith and church from Uncle. In fact, his talk about Parumala Thirumeni a few years ago is still one of the best talks some of us have ever heard.
Not only SMIOC Sydney but the broader orthodox and Christian congregations will dearly miss him.
May his soul rest in peace.
