Source: Orthodox Christianity [Athens] As they have already done several times, the hierarchs of the Greek Church have again postponed discussion of the Ukrainian ecclesiastical issue, according to sources within the Greek Orthodox Church. Yesterday, the Telegram channel of the Moscow Patriarchal press service, “Church Today,” reported, citing its own sources within the Greek Church, that the hierarchs would not discuss Ukraine at the upcoming session of the Bishops’ Council, which will open on October 8. This report comes after the Permanent Holy Synod of the Greek Church met in Athens on October 1, and, according to Greek sources, was “seeking…
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Source: Orthodox Synaxis The Greek original with the list of signatories can be found here. Your Beatitude, Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, Most Reverend Metropolitans of the Church of Greece, Your Beatitude, Your Eminences, As members of the Orthodox Church and, in spirit, children of Your episcopal-fatherly responsibility, we feel the need to address You as our spiritual and ecclesiastical Fathers and to express our unease and distress over the uncanonical granting of Ukrainian autocephaly. We share Your anguish and serious ecclesiological and canonical hesitations and reservations as they have been stated expressly or even silently according to the…
Source: Orthodox Christianity KIEV – The Greek Orthodox Church does not want to enter into a direct confrontation with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, but clearly understands that for any Local Church to recognize the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU) would be to divide the Orthodox world into two parts, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, Deputy Head of the canonical Ukrainian Church’s Department for External Church Relations, commented in an interview with First Cossack, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists. “The text of the Synod’s decision became the basis for some news agencies to say that the Greek Church recognized the means of…
The Greek-American Community banned the corrupt politicians of Greece from participating in this year’s Greek Independence Day parades across the U.S., accusing them as “traitors”. But Elpidophoros invited every one of them to his “enthronement”! by Nick Stamatakis Elpidophoros is languishing in Athens, supposedly preparing his tenure in New York. The harsh reality, however, is that he is lacking the legitimacy of a regular Archbishop, as his election violated the Archdiocese’s Charter by ignoring the governing bodies of our Church. None of our Metropolitans showed any warmth – even the one or two of them who bothered to issue an…
Source: Veterans Today By VT Editors Submitted to Veterans Today by Sophia Ilaidi Originally published on August 8, 2018 As Greek journalists found out, the Metropolitan of Bursa Elpidophoros (Lambriniadis) has close ties with Turkish intelligence. According to the information obtained by my counterparts from their sources, Ankara’s main goal is to weaken the Church of Greece and expand the influence of Constantinople. And one of the main roles in this process belongs to the Metropolitan of Bursa. The career of the hierarch is developing very rapidly. Elpidophoros (Lambriniadis) was born in 1967 in Istanbul. After graduation from the Aristotle…
Source: Greek Reporter By Tasos Kokkinidis A Greek Orthodox nun in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India has become a symbol of the eternal fight against poverty, illiteracy, child trafficking and prostitution in the city. Sister Nectaria Paridisi, by most accounts the only Greek individual left in Kolkata, through the schools and orphanages she built with the help of donors has become a “mother” for thousands of children, offering them the prospect of a new and better life. She works in Bakeswar on the southern reaches of the city, where she is in charge of two orphanages which are owned by the…
Source: Orthodox Christianity Ormylia, Greece, May 9, 2019 A revered Athonite elder, Archimandrite Aimiliianos (Vafides), who long served as the abbot of Simonopetra Monastery, one of the 20 ruling monasteries on Mt. Athos, reposed in the Lord today, May 9, reports Romfea. The funeral will be held tomorrow at the Annunciation Monastery in Ormylia, Chalkidiki, where the nuns had cared for the sick and elderly Fr. Aimilianos for many years. Elder Aimilianos was a monk of Meteora before moving with his brotherhood to Simonopetra on Mt. Athos in 1973. He was elected and enthroned as abbot of the monastery that same…
Source: Critical Research on Religion by Stratis Psaltou National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece This paper considers the emergence of Mount Athos’ monk elders in Greek society in recent decades until the current economic crisis. Their social influence has grown over these decades, especially after some of them were recognized as charismatic and gerontismos (elderism) became one of the most important forms of religious discourse in contemporary Greek society. These elders were presented as a kind of cultural resistance in the service of an alternative economy of desire. This analysis suggests that they have ultimately worked in the service of a…
Source: Orthodox Christianity Athens, March 14, 2019 Though cremation was legalized in Greece nearly 13 years ago, the traditionally-Orthodox nation has yet to see its first crematorium, as the movement has faced considerable opposition from the influential Orthodox Church which forbids cremation. However, another significant step in the process towards cremation was taken recently as Greece’s Environment and Energy Minister Giorgios Stathakis signed a decision to allow the construction of the nation’s first crematorium in Athens, reports Keep Talking Greece. Athens Mayor Giorgios Kaminis, who has been committed to building a crematorium in his city since 2014, tweeted that now the…
The cross in front of the Greek Parliament in Athens. File photo Senior members of the Greek Orthodox Church expressed their opposition to the historic agreement between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos to remove some 10,000 priests and auxiliary staff from the state payroll. The agreement, reached on Tuesday, foresees the setup of a special fund to handle church assets, and changes in the salaries of clerics, who will no longer be civil servants but will be paid by the church through an annual state subsidy. Archbishop Ieronymos was forced to backtrack on Wednesday, stating…
Source: The National Herald By Theodore Kalmoukos MOUNT ATHOS, GREECE – Elder Ephraim, Abbot of the Great Vatopaidi Monastery of Mt. Athos gave an extensive interview to The National Herald, which follows. TNH: Elder Ephraim, is this your first visit to America? What is the aim of this forthcoming visit? EE: This will be my second visit. I went to Arizona in 2011, to St. Anthony’s Monastery, to meet Elder Ephraim, now of Arizona, formerly of Filotheou, who is a spiritual brotherof my late Elder, Iosif. Both of them had the blessed Elder Iosif the Hesychast as their spiritual father. It…
Source: Orthodox Christianity Recently, there has appeared in the media as well as in social networks information that the Greek consulate in Moscow is refusing to issue visas to Russian priests or is offering not three-year visas, as they do to tourists, but visas for only one month or even only for a few days. The first to write about the visa problem on his Facebook page was the rector of the Moscow State University Church of St. Tatiana, Fr. Vladimir Vigilyansky. At the end of May, he received a Greek visa: His wife was given a three-year visa but…