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4. On Synodical Bodies

He has been a member of the Standing Holy Synod five times, during the Archiepiscopate of all three of the most recent Archbishops: Seraphim (1996-1997), Christodoulos (2002-2003) and Hieronymus (2009-2010 2015-2016 and 2024-2025).

He accompanied the late Archbishop Christodoulos on his peaceful visits to the Holy Monastery of Sinai (December 2002) and to Romania (May 2003).

He has repeatedly acted as Press Spokesman of the Standing Holy Synod and the Synod of the Hierarchy of the Church of Greece, and also as the Representative of the Church during the period of the Covid-19 Pandemic (April 2020).

As Metropolitan he has taken part in various Synodical Committees (nine):

Permanent Synodical Committees:

  • President of the Primary Synodical Court  (2024-2025)
  • President of the Supreme Service Council of Ecclesiastical Employees
  • Deputy member of the Committee on the Monastic Life (1995-1999)
  • Synodical liaison for the Committee of Ecclesiastical Art and Music (1996-1997)
  • Full member of the Synodical Management Committee of the Financial Service of the Church of Greece (1996-1998)
  • Full member of the Committee for Christian Education and Youth (1999-2003)
  • Synodical liaison for the Committee for Dogmatic and Canonical Matters (2000-2003)
  • Full member of the Committee for Dogmatic and Canonical Matters (2003-2006, 2011-2015)
  • Full member of the Synodal Committee for Press, Public Relations and Information (2009, 2011-2015, 2016-2020, 2022)
  • Chairman of the Committee for Monastic Life (2010 to date)
  • Deputy member of the Synodical Committee for Finance (2011-2015)

Special and Extraordinary Synodical Committees:

  • Member of the Supervisory Committee for the newsletter Ekklisia (1996-1997)
  • Member of the Joint Church-State Committee on issues of bilateral interest for Church and State (1997)
  • Advisor to the Special Synodical Committee on Ethics (1998, 2009-2010)
  • Member of the Committee on the issue of commemorating the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece (October 1998)
  • Member of the Committee dealing with the problem of child-abuse (1999)
  • Chairman of the Committee on the subject of the new type of identity cards, the voluntary or compulsory recording of religious affiliation on these, and other connected issues (1999)
  • Chairman of the Special Synodical Committee study the emerging trend of ancient Greek religion/neo-paganism, and dealing with the resulting pastoral problem (February 1999)
  • Chairman of the Committee for the Preparation for the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 (1999-2004)
  • Member of the re-organised Committee for Studying Ancient Greek Religion/Neo-Paganism (2002)
  • Full member of the Institute of Byzantine Musicology of the Church of Greece (2002-2005)
  • Chairman of the Special Synodical Committee for Special Pastoral Issues and Situations (2008)
  • Committee to study the preconditions for the viability of the N.G.O. ‘Solidarity’ (2009)
  • Special Synodical Committee to Study Ancient Greek Religion/Neo-Paganism (2010-2012)
  • Committee for defining the relations between Church and State (2010)
  • Chairman of the Supervisory Committee of the Ecclesiastical Library (2015)
  • Chairman of the Special Committee to Study Issues of Common Interest to Church and State (2018)

As Metropolitan, at the proposal of the Holy Synod, he was:

  • Member of the National Welfare Organisation of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (1996)
  • Representative of the Church of Greece as Member of the National Council of Medical Ethics and Deontology of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (2002)
  • Member of the Committee on the Code of Bioethics and Deontology of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which drew up the Code for the Medical Profession and Deontology (2003)

In the Synod of the Hierarchy of the Church of Greece has made presentations thirteen times to date on the topics:

  1. ‘Transplants from the point of view of the Orthodox Church’ (1999)
  2. ‘Historical development of the issue of recording religious affiliation on police identity cards of Greek citizens’ (June 2000)
  3. ‘Update on the issue of identity cards’ (Oct. 2000)
  4. ‘Update on the issue of identity cards’ (Oct. 2001)
  5. ‘The contribution of the Church to the successful organisation of the 2004 Olympic Games’ (Oct. 2002)
  6. ‘Medical assistance in human reproduction (Assisted reproduction - new law)’ (Oct. 2005)
  7. ‘Operating Procedure for the Special Synodical Committee on Sport’ (Oct. 2006)
  8. ‘The operation of the synodical system in the Church of Greece’ (Oct. 2009)
  9. ‘On the recognition of the Council convened in 879-880 in Constantinople as the Eighth Ecumenical Council’ (Oct. 2011, discussion postponed, but recorded in the minutes)
  10. ‘The theological crisis and its impact on the everyday life of the Church’ (Oct. 2015)
  11. ‘The Religious Studies Course in Education’ (March 2016)
  12. ‘Dialogue between Church and State on issues of common interest, in accordance with the decision of 16 November by the Hierarchy of the Church of Greece’ (2019)
  13. ‘Representing the Church of Greece in the media during the period of the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic’ (2020)

In addition he made presentations on twenty-eight subjects in the Standing Holy Synod and thirteen subjects in Synodical Committees.

He was Bishop in Charge during the interregnum in three Holy Metropolises: the Holy Metropolis of Phokis (2014), the Holy Metropolis of Karpenision (2016) and the Holy Metropolis of Aitolia and Akarnania (2023).

He participated as a member of the Delegation of the Church of Greece in the ‘Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church’ that took place in Kolymbari, Crete (June 2016), and wrote a substantial book presenting what happened before the Council, what happened during the Council, and what happened afterwards, particularly with regard to the theology of the Church.

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