Today’s session of the Church of Greece’s standing Holy Synod is particularly important, given the proposals for changes in Church-state relations being promoted by the government. The session also comes in the wake of recent inflammatory statements by Greek education minister Kostas Gavroglu, who criticized the stance of the association representing Orthodox clerics in the country.
Speaking to the Orthodoxia news agency, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos II, noted that members of the Holy Synod discussed various matters, including the issue of the payroll regime for clerics in the country. He merely noted that a clearer picture will emerge after the session is concluded.
The next Holy Synod session is scheduled for March 19, whereby Church hierarchs will elect three new Metropolitans, and specifically for the Holy Metropolises of Sisanion & Siatista, in northern Greece; Glyfada-Helliniko-Voula-
According to information learned by the Orthodoxia news agency, four assistant bishops will also be elected.
Finally, the issue of autocephaly for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will, by all accounts, also be on the Holy Synod agenda for March 19. The Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece has not, as yet, taken an official stance over the issue.