Prime Minister Mitsotakis has reportedly asked Patriarch Bartholomew to remove Archbishop Elpidophoros from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. This is both good and bad.
It is good because the Archbishop is a destructive force within the Greek Archdiocese and in Orthodoxy generally. His removal is undeniably good. It is bad because Mitsotakis does not appear to respect the spiritual role of the Archbishop. The Mitsotakis government has been the most aggressively anti Church government in Athens since that of Costas Simitis.
On the matter of national issues, the Greek government is in the right. The Archbishop in 2021 was present at the opening of Turkish cultural center with Turkish President Erdogan and the leader of the Turkish occupation of Cyprus Ersin Tatar. This outrageous appearance with the Turks alone justifies his removal.
Previous to becoming Archbishop, then Metropolitan Elpidophoros wrote a notorious article comparing the position of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Orthodoxy to the person of the father in the holy trinity. He also denied that the Ecumenical Patriarch is “first among equals” as all Orthodox believe. Instead, he asserted that the Ecumenical Patriarch is “first without equals”.
The Archbishop became a propagandist for Patriarch Bartholomew’s efforts to redefine the role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and was a player in the Schism with Moscow. This is when the Greek government should have interceded in the affairs of the Church of Constantinople. They should have stopped Patriarch Bartholomew from interfering in Ukraine and stopped the election of Elpidophoros as Archbishop in 2019. The Archbishop gave a speech some time ago against the Russians before various officials of American intelligence agencies.
The Archbishop created chaos within the Church of Greece by baptizing the children of a gay couple. He has also received into the Patriarchate’s Slavic Vicariate a defrocked Russian priest, a move all Orthodox Churches in America protested.
He has held for three years in row, divine services at an Episcopal church that celebrates the LGBT agenda and displays the rainbow flag. The Archbishop must go, but there is still a lot of cleaning up to do. The Churches of Greece and Cyprus for example.
The US government has interceded to get the Churches of Greece and Cyprus to recognize the pseudo church in Ukraine. Athens must defend its own sovereignty and the Greek Churches by demanding Washington stop trying to influence the Greek Churches. The Churches of Constantinople and Greece should not be under American influence.
The Archbishop’s removal must be a beginning, not an end to the housecleaning in the Greek Churches.
2 replies on “The Archbishop”
Interesting, I hadn’t heard about this. What was Mitsotakis’ reasons for asking Patriarch Bartholomew to remove Elpidophoros? Mitsotakis rarely attempts actions which deviate from US interests.
In October 2021, the Archbishop went to the opening of a Turkish cultural center with Erdogan and the leader of the Turkish occupation in Cyprus. There are probably other reasons, but this is the main one.