The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, on Thursday morning expressed his condolences and solidarity to the families of the six victims, including two children, that died late Wednesday evening in northern Greece’s Halkidiki prefecture amid an extreme storm front that passed through the area.
“At this dire moment for the residents of Halkidiki, and northern Greece, in general, the Mother Church of Constantinople prays for and is spiritually next to the families of the victims and the injured,” the Ecumenical Patriarch said in a statement.
In a related development, the weather damage in northern Greece caused new Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis to cancel his visit to the education and religious affairs ministry on Thursday morning, as emergency relief coordination took precedence.
Mitsotakis had chosen the ministry as the first he would visit as the new premier, a highly symbolic move. Church-state relations are high on the agenda of the new ministry’s leadership, which is led by Niki Kerameos.