His Grace Ezekiel was born in Akrita Kilkis, Macedonia, in 1938. After his graduation from Constantinople's Theological School of Halki, he was ordained to the diaconate in July and went to Sydney to serve the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia around 1960. He was ordained to the priesthood and assigned to the Greek Orthodox Church in Dubbo, NSW, and soon after to All Saints Church in Belmore, Sydney (~1962).