His Eminence Metropolitan Apostolos of New Jersey has been elected the new Archbishop of Canada by decision of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which commenced its deliberations today, Wednesday, 22 July, at the Phanar, under the presidency of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Biography of the New Archbishop of Canada
His Eminence Archbishop-elect Apostolos of Canada, born Evangelos Koufalakis, was born in Rhodes in 1969. He completed his secondary education at the Patmiada Ecclesiastical School, and in 1993 he was tonsured a monk at the Holy Monastery of Panagia Paramythia in Rhodes, receiving the monastic name Apostolos.
That same year, he was ordained to the diaconate by the late Metropolitan Apostolos of Rhodes, of blessed memory, while in 1996 he was ordained to the priesthood by the same Hierarch.
He studied sacred theology at the School of Theology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, graduating in 2000. The following year, with the permission and blessing of his spiritual elder, he travelled to the United States to undertake further theological studies, while also serving communities of the Holy Metropolis of Boston.
In 2004, he received a Master of Sacred Theology degree from the Boston University School of Theology and was appointed by the then Archbishop Demetrios of America as Dean of the prominent Community of the Cathedral Church of Saints Demetrios and Catherine in Astoria. There, he served with dedication and carried out extensive spiritual and pastoral work.
In 2009, he assumed the directorship of the Cultural Centre of the Holy Archdiocese in Astoria. In 2011, he was appointed Chancellor of the Holy Metropolis of San Francisco by Metropolitan Gerasimos.
In 2014, the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate unanimously elected him Bishop of Medeia, to serve as an auxiliary bishop to the then Archbishop Demetrios of America. He was ordained to the episcopacy by Archbishop Demetrios on 20 December of that same year.
In 2018, he was appointed Chief Secretary of the Holy Eparchial Synod of the Holy Archdiocese of America. In 2021, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America appointed him Patriarchal Vicar of the then-vacant Holy Metropolis of New Jersey, entrusting him with responsibility for its liturgical and pastoral needs.
Following the favourable recommendation of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, he was unanimously elected Metropolitan of New Jersey by the Holy and Sacred Synod on 24 July 2023.