VCC President 2025-2027
Reverend Father Panagiotis Zoumboulis
Fr Panagiotis serves as the presiding priest of The Holy Archangels Greek Orthodox Church in Parkdale, within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia of the Diocese of Melbourne. He has been a Priest for over 18 years now serving the Community at large. He holds a Bachelor of Theology with Honours and a Graduate Diploma in Education. Prior to his ordination, he served as an educator and Religious Coordinator at Oakleigh Grammar, where he guided young minds in both academic formation and Christian values. In recent years, Fr. Panagiotis has been entrusted with the portfolio of Ecumenical Relations and Inter-Orthodox Affairs, serving as advisor and representative to His Grace Bishop Kyriakos of Melbourne at various inter Christian gatherings. Fr Panagiotis is a member of the Victorian Multicultural Commission – Multifaith Advisory Group.
Immediate Past President
Rev Dr Deacon Joseph (Joe) Leach
Joseph (Joe) is a permanent Deacon in the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne. He studied science at university, gaining a PhD in planetary geology and worked in a variety of fields, including as a lecturer at the University of Melbourne for 21 years, finally retiring in 2015. He continued to study, gaining a MA(Theol) from the Australian Catholic University and was accepted into the diaconal formation program at the Melbourne College of Divinity, leading to a Bachelor of Theology degree. He was ordained in 2012 as a Deacon, and has served in two parishes. He has co-authored two books on the theology of the eastern church. Read more here.
VCC Deputy President
MsSieneke Martin (Religious Society of Friends)
Sieneke Martin is an experienced program manager in international development work, with emergency experience with Oxfam Australia and as East Timor Country Director for Caritas Australia. She is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia and has served as Clerk (leader of church) of the Victoria Regional Meeting. She served as Executive Officer of Quaker Service Australia 1988-1998 and was a Friend in Residence at Woodbrooke Quaker College in Birmingham, UK, in 1998-99. She was a member and chair of the Act for Peace Commission, National Council of Churches Australia, 2008–2016, and a member of the Quaker United Nations Office, New York, Committee 2009-2015
VCC Deputy President
Fr Dr Jacob Joseph (Malankara Syrian Orthodox)
Fr Dr Jacob Joseph is the Deputy President of the VCC (2022-23). He is an ordained priest of the Syrian Orthodox Church. Before joining his theological teaching, he served the church both in India and abroad in various capacities as a National Youth Director (the USA and Australia), Director of the Holy Cross College of Management and Technology, Editor of Vision Journal, and Mission Director. After completing his theological degrees, he joined St Athanasius College as a lecturer in 2020. Currently, he teaches Patristic Theology and Orthodox Mission Theology at Agora University and at Malankara Syrian Orthodox Theological Seminary, Ernakulam, India, in Ecumenical and Mission Theology. His doctoral thesis is titled The Christ Who Embraces: An Orthodox Theology of Margins in India.
Rev Dr Avril Hannah-Jones (Uniting Church in Australia)
Avril is currently the minister at North Balwyn Uniting Church. She has previously ministered at the Lancefield, Mount Macedon, Riddell’s Creek, Romsey and Williamstown – Electra Street Uniting churches. Avril has a PhD in history from the University of Melbourne, was the residential Pastoral Care Coordinator for four years at Janet Clarke Hall, and lived for six months as part of the World Council of Churches’ International, ecumenical community at the Chateau de Bossey, outside Geneva. Avril is also a member of the Council of the University of Divinity.
Rev’d Dr Satvasheela Pandhare (Anglican Diocese of Melbourne)
Rev Dr Satvasheela Pandhare is presently ministering in a multicultural church with two worship centres, namely, St. Peter’s Church, Craigieburn and St. John’s Church, Wandong. She has previously served as the Associate Chaplain at Hume Anglican Grammar School. She was ordained a Presbyter in the Church of North India in 2000. She holds a Doctorate of Theology (2020) exploring B. R. Ambedkar’s Ideology for Social Change and its relevance in the present Hindūtva context of India. She is author of many papers and academic presentations, and has a particular engagement with multicultural and interfaith relations.
Fr Dr Shenouda Boutros
Fr Dr Shenouda served as President of VCC (2019-2021). He is a lecturer in Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics in the Orthodox tradition at St Athanasius College (SAC). He is also SAC’s chaplain who provides spiritual and general support to students and staff. Fr Shenouda serves at the parish of St James Coptic Orthodox Church.
Mr Ashok Jacob (Mar Thoma)
Ashok is a member of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar. He has completed a Masters in Engineering (Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur), a Masters in Computing (Monash University), an M.B.A. (Deakin University), and B.D. (Melbourne College of Divinity). He has worked in the private sector in India, USA and Europe and in the Victorian State Public sector in different roles. He has served on the VCC Executive for more than 15 years including 2 years as the Deputy President and 2 years as the President and several years asTreasurer. He has served as a Board member of the Jewish, Christian, Muslim Association (JCMA) of Victoria. For the past 25 years, he has been teaching the senior students in his parish Sunday School and prepared the youth for taking their first communion.
Captain Manikya Mera (The Salvation Army)
Captain Manikya Mera is currently serving as the Intercultural Officer for the Intercultural Ministries in Melbourne, part of the Victorian Division of the Salvation Army. She served previously as the Project Coordinator at Salvation Army International Development (SAID). Captain Manikya is also a council member of the National Moral and Social Issues Council (MASIC), which focuses on navigating complex challenges that impact both the Church and society at large. Additionally, she is also a member of the International Social Justice Commission on Women (ISJC), which collaborates with the United Nations NGO Commission on the Status of Women to address critical women’s issues as highlighted in various UN Commissions and Forums. Manikya Studied Master’s in Business Administration and holds qualifications in Ministry and Theology, a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce, and a Master’s degree in International and Community Development
Heiko Koenig (German Lutheran Trinity Church)
Treasurer
Heiko is a member of the German Lutheran Trinity Church in East Melbourne, serving the church as Praedikant, as well as a member of the Elders committee. A current casual role as ship visiting Locum Assistant Chaplain for the Mission to Seafarers fascinates him as it fits both of his worlds, his career in engineering as well as his passion for welfare and empathy. As founding director of REETA Pty. Ltd. he is deeply involved with all sorts of renewable energy and still finds time for voluntary activities, i.e. as President of the School Council of Bayside P-12 or a side gig as facilitator for the Western Bulldogs Community Foundation, delivering workshops in the areas of health and wellbeing, youth leadership, cultural diversity or gender equity.
Fr. Demetrius Catrinei (Greek Orthodox Church)
Father Demetrius Catrinei is the parish priest of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos in North Altona, having previously served as priest of the Greek Orthodox church of Saint Basil in Brunswick (2011 – 2015) and the Greek Orthodox Monastery “Axion Estin” in Northcote (2015 – 2020). Prior to arriving in Australia in 2011, he served as a priest in Greece (2001-2011) and Romania (1993 – 2001). Born in Romania, Father Demetrius graduated from the Theological School “Dumitru Staniloae” in Iasi in 1996. In 1998, having received a scholarship from the “Artos Zois” Foundation in Athens, he studied Modern Greek at the Athens School of Philosophy and in 2005 he received a Master’s degree in Theology from the Kapodistrias University of Athens with the dissertation “The Organisation of Ecclesiastical Education in Romania under the Communist Regime”. Currently, father Demetrius is a member of the Archdiocesan Council of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and of the Ecclesiastical Court of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Melbourne.
Fr Denis Stanley (Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne)
Fr Denis is currently serving as Parish Priest at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, Sunbury. Sunbury has a committed Combined Churches Group and good relationships between the community’s ministers. He has served as the Episcopal Vicar for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations for the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and has previously been a member of the VCC’s Standing Commitee and Faith and Order Group and of the National Council of Churches of Australia.
Co-options
Graeme Blackman AO (VCC President 2021-2023)
(Co-option 2025-2027)
Graeme has had an exemplary career in both business and voluntary sectors. In 2011 Graeme was appointed as the inaugural Chancellor of the University of Divinity. In 2017 he was honoured as an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the pharmaceutical industry, to scientific research and development, to theological education and the Anglican Church of Australia, and to aged care. Graeme is an alumnus of the University of Divinity, having graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Theology (Research) which have enabled him to combine his considerable experience in financial management and governance with theological insight. More about Graeme here. Graeme has been co-opted on to the 2025-2027 VCC Standing Committee.
Professor Nasir Butrous (Chaldean Catholic Church of Australia, New Zealand and Oceania) Co-option
Nasir is a Chaldean Catholic and a native of the city of Mosul (Biblical Nineveh) in Iraq. Recently retired, he was the Associate Professor of Management at the Australian Catholic University (Faculty of Law and Business) in Melbourne, and affiliated with the Peter Faber Business School – ACU. Nasir was previously a member of the Commission for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relationships in the Archdiocese of Brisbane.
Nasir has been co-opted onto the VCC Standing Committee (2025-2027).
Executive Officer: Rev Sandy Boyce