The Very Reverend [[Exarch]] '''Nicholas Shehadie''' was the first [[priest]] of the [[Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand, and All Oceania|Antiochian Orthodox]] [[parish]]es in Australia and New Zealand. He served in Australia and New Zealand from 1913 until his repose in 1934.

In 1898 the Greek-speaking Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East was deposed for prohibiting church services in Arabic. His Arabic-speaking successor elected in 1899 was not recognised by the Patriarchate of Constantinople who agitated against all Arabic-speaking Orthodox. This resulted in a world-wide fracture between the Greek-speaking and the Arabic-speaking Orthodox.

In 1908 Constantinople removed the Orthodox churches in Australia from the jurisdiction of neutral Jerusalem, and gave them to the [[Church of Greece]] with the stipulation that all services were to be in Church Greek only. This deprived the Arabic-speaking Orthodox and the Russian-speaking Orthodox of effective spiritual comfort.

Born in 1862, Father Nicholas Shehadie was sent to Australia in 1913 as Patriarchal Exarch for Australia and New Zealand to determine the extent of the deprivation and to find possible solutions. While this was intended to be temporary, World War I intervened, preventing Father Nicholas from returning to Lebanon and his family. After the war his stay became permanent and he exported his wife and children from Lebanon to Australia.