Metropolitan Kallistos will visit Poland
Szymon Krzyszczuk
31.10.2011
Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) on 11-21 November will stay in Poland. He accepted the invitation made by the employees of the University of Wrocław and November 14-15 he will be the guest of honor at the international conference Academic Forum for Peace organized by the university.
During his stay in Poland, Metropolitan Kallistos will also meet with Metropolitan Savva and other members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church. He will also deliver lectures in Warsaw, Białystok and Lublin.
A visit to Poland will also be an opportunity to visit Kraków, the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau , Iconographic School in Bielsk Podlaski and the monasteries of St. Demetrios in Saki, of Saints Martha and Mary in Grabarka, and the ones in Supraśl and Zwierki.
Metropolitan Kallistos will also meet with Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Apostolic Nuncio in Poland, Ambassador of the Republic of Greece in Poland Gabriel Coptsidis, and also will participate in the promotion of the book containing a collection of his lectures For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (translated by Krzysztof Leśniewski and Fr. Włodzimierz Misijuk, Lublin 2011).
Metropolitan Kallistos (Timothy Ware) was born on 11 September 1934. He is a bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In the years 1966-2001 he worked as a lecturer in Orthodox theology at the Oxford University. At age 24, adopted Orthodoxy (previously was an Anglican), and then spent much time in Greece, especially in the monastery of St. John the Theologian on the island of Patmos. In 1966 he was ordained to priesthood and joined the aforementioned monastery. For many years he was vicar bishop of the diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Great Britain, later he was raised to the rank of Metropolitan of Diokleia – Archbishop of the Throne of Constantinople.
He certainly is the most recognizable contemporary Orthodox theologian. He wrote “The Orthodox Church” – (first edition in 1963), “The Orthodox Way” (first edition in 1979) and “The Inner Kingdom, collected works” (2000). All these books have been translated to Polish. English-speaking Orthodox Christians also owe him a translation of the Philokalia and many liturgical texts. His visit in Poland, during which he will held many meetings with the readers of his books, certainly will confirm that he is one of the most prominent Orthodox theologians in the world.
