“All this Unites us More and Drives us to make our Fraternity Grow and Expand,”- HB Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece

 

OCP News Service – 16/03/2023

Athens- Greece: “All this Unites us More and Drives us to make our Fraternity Grow and Expand,”  said HB Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece while receiving His Holiness Aram I Catholicos of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church at Archbishop’s Palace in Athens on 14th March 2023.

The meeting was part of the apostolic visit of H.H Aram I Catholicos of Cilicia to Greece. The meeting was in a cordial atmosphere. In his speech, His Holiness addressed the centuries-old close relationship and cooperation between the Armenian Orthodox and the Orthodox Church of Greece. He said that in the course of history, due to the conditions, different theological approaches and interpretations divided our churches, but we adopted the same approaches on the main issues. Continuing his speech, Catholicos said that today we cooperate in line with our collective values ​​and our lawsuit related to the Genocide. Our close cooperation is not limited to the borders of Greece but exists where there are Armenian and Greek colonies. The Catholicos ended his address by, remembering the train crash that happened in the past weeks, expressing his deep condolences to Archbishop.

HB Ieronymos II spoke about the close ties with Armenia from ancient times to the present, speaking of good communication, and recalled the role of the Catholicos in the development of theological dialogues within the inter-church councils. Archbishop referred to the exhibition that was inaugurated recently in the Metropolis of Neapolis and Stavroupolis with historical relics brought by the refugees from Asia Minor, which, as he underlined, are a testimony of the Christians that they left everything they had there, but took with them fruits of faith and mentioned that similar situations have been experienced by the people of Armenia. “All this unites us more and pushes us to make our fraternity grow and expand,” His Beatitude pointed out.   The archbishop also referred to the difficulties faced by the Christian communities of the Middle East and expressed his support for the churches of the region. By concluding his speech archbishop also expressed his appreciation for the positive participation of Greek Armenians in the development and progress of Greece.

After the official speeches of the two spiritual heads, they exchanged souvenirs.

In the afternoon, in honor of His Holiness the Catholicos, the head of the Church of Greece prepared a dinner, which was attended by the leader of the Armenian Diocese of Greece, Gersh. T. Gegham Ark. Khacherian, vicar priest and pastor of Gomotin region Gerp. T. Yovhannes Ts. Rev. Saghtjian, Head of Inter-Church Relations for the Middle East of the Catholicosan Hogsh. T. Rev. Sargis Abrahamian, pastor of Thessaloniki Hogsh. T. Elijah Abh. Malkhasian and other clergymen.

Source:
OCP News Service