Source: Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation
Archon Hon. B. Theodore Bozonelis
The Nicholas J. and Anna K. Bouras Foundation, one of the premier philanthropic organizations providing much-needed aid to Greek Orthodox agencies, churches and to human service organizations, has completed its one-million-dollar matching grant to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation.
Through the efforts of Archon Hon. B. Theodore Bozonelis, a Trustee of the Nicholas J. and Anna K. Bouras Foundation and National Vice Commander of the Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Bouras Foundation pledged to match the FOUNDER donation of each Metropolis of the Archdiocese of America, up to $1 Million. That pledge has now been fulfilled.
All of the eight Metropolises have now pledged $100,000 and become FOUNDERS of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation. As a result, the Bouras Foundation contributed an additional $200,000, so as to make the matching grant total amount $1,000,000.
Archon Judge Bozonelis stated: “The speedy completion of the Nicholas J. and Anna K. Bouras Foundation’s million-dollar pledge to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation is a vivid demonstration of how seriously the Bouras Foundation takes its matching grant and its awareness of the urgent need that the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation addresses: the ability of our Holy Mother Church to continue to fulfill its global sacred mission.”
Dr. Anthony J. Limberakis, National Commander of the Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and Chair of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation, said: “We are delighted, and grateful to our loving God, that the Nicholas J. and Anna K. Bouras Foundation has so swiftly completed its extraordinarily generous and selfless pledge to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation. The Bouras Foundation’s diakonia has done and continues to do a great deal to secure that the life-giving spiritual treasures of our Ecumenical Patriarchate will continue to enlighten the world.”
The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation, a watershed initiative of the Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, is dedicated to achieving economic independence for the Ecumenical Patriarchate, so that it may fulfill its apostolic mission in perpetuity.
FOUNDERS of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation have committed to ensuring the financial foundation of the Holy Mother Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, by pledging $100,000 over 10 years.
For further information about the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation, see bartholomew.foundation.
1 Comment
Wonderful news!
Now that the economic independence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate has been achieved and it can fulfill its apostolic mission in perpetuity, the proposed new charter of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America must provide for the unification of all of the Orthodox jurisdictions in America under a single synod of canonical bishops.
A single, autocephalous American Orthodox Church is what is required by the canons.
Any argument that uniting and granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in America will weaken the Ecumenical Patriarchate is pure sophistry.
It is time for the clergy and laity in the US to speak and act.
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak! Not to act is to act! God will not hold us guiltless.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Every Orthodox Christian is called upon to speak by signing A Declaration for Orthodox Christian Unity in America.
Every Bishop in the Assembly of Canonical Bishops of the United States of America should act by coming together as a synod, elect its own presiding hierarch, proclaim the church in North America to be an autocephalous, canonical church, and seek recognition of this autocephaly from the fifteen Autocephalous Orthodox Churches which created the Assembly for this precise purpose.