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Fr Demetrianos Melekis was born in London, England
in 1969 to his parents Andreas from Komi Kebir and
Tsikkina Melekis (maiden name Stavrou) from Sha in
Cyprus and was named Christakis.
Four years later, his sister Lambrou was born.
He married his wife, Androulla Evangelou, in 1995
and has two children Andreas and Chrystiana.
He finished Secondary School at The School of St
David and St Katherine in Hornsey N8 in 1987 and
went on to study for a BTEC National Diploma in
Computer Studies at Southgate Technical College in
Southgate N14 for 2 years.
The initial jobs he did were in the Direct
Marketing and Marketing industries serving the
programming departments of three well-known
companies in these fields from 1990 to 2005.
As a young child from the age of 9 until 15, he
served as an altar boy at the churches of the
Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God
(Wood Green N22) and St John the Baptist (Wightman
Road N8).
The late Archimandrite of the Oecumenical Throne Fr
Leontios Aristotelous invited him to join the choir
of St John the Baptist’s church in 1985 when he was
16 years old under the direction of Holy Cantor
Christos Tsangarides and was taught the order of the
Orthodox Christian service by the late Michael
Philippou. He was first taught to chant using
European Music notation and then Mr Tsangarides in
1991 taught him the basics of Byzantine Music. Then
he went to the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Gt.
Britain’s School of Byzantine Music under the
direction of Father Joseph Paliouras, our parish
priest, where they first met in 1992. He finished
the Byzantine Music School in 1994 with Holy Cantor
Ignatios Papanastasiou and Father Joseph teaching
him Byzantine Music and Mr Tony Violaris teaching
him European Music.
Father Joseph invited Christakis Melekis to help the
newly established community of the Twelve Apostles
worshipping at St Andrew’s Anglican Church in
Cuffley, Hertfordshire as a Cantor in 1993. He
continued as a Cantor for our church when we moved
to Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire in 1999.
Eventually, he was called to serve the community as
a sub-Deacon from July to November 2005 and was
ordained by His Eminence Archbishop Gregorios of
Thyateira and Gt. Britain on 6th November
2005 as a Deacon and was named Demetrianos after the
ninth century bishop of Chitron (Kythrea) Cyprus,
who is commemorated on that day. Then, Archbishop
Gregorios ordained him a priest on 26th
December 2006. |
