Archdiocese

On Friday, 29th October, clergy of the Deanery convened for their Presbytery meeting under the presidency of His Eminence, Archbishop Nikitas, at a London hotel. His Grace, Bishop Maximos, was also present. There were useful discussions and advice on a range of matters.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

First of all, allow me to greet each and every one of you fraternally by using the customary paschal greeting of our Church: Christ is risen!

Please see below the Paschal Messages of His All-holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholemew and of His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas.

thyateira.org.uk/patriarch-encyclical-for-holy-pascha/

thyateira.org.uk/easter-message-of-his-eminence-archbishop-nikitas/

Please download the attached statement (PDF).

During the past six weeks, the nine remaining parishes and larger communities comprising the Deanery have held general meetings and voted (mostly with large majorities or unanimously) to remain in the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and therefore to come under the omophorion of Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain. He had made it clear that parishes must go through due processes before being received into the Archdiocese.

A pastoral assembly convened by his Eminence Archbishop Jean de Charioupolis in his pastoral letter of April 22, 2019 was held on May 11, 2019 in the premises of the St. Sergius Institute of Theology with the assistance of the parish St Sergius.

This initiative follows the disarray caused by the decision of 27 November 2018 of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to close down the Exarchate and by the spontaneous debate that has developed regarding the future of our Archdiocese.

A delegation, composed of Archpriest Alexander Fostiropoulos (London), Archdeacon Vsevolod Borzakovsky (Rome) and Professor Cyrille Sollogoub (Paris) was warmly received by His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, in the presence of Metropolitan Emmanuel of France.

The delegation handed over to H.H. the Ecumenical Patriarch the letter written by the Council of the Archdiocese, following the Extraordinary General Assembly of 23 February 2019, which refused to acccept the dissolution of the Archdiocese by nearly 93% of the votes.

The Extraordinary General Assembly (EGA) of the Archdiocese, made up of all members of the clergy and lay parish delegates, met in Paris on 23 February, 2019, to deliberate on the Ecumenical Patriarchate's decision to “reorganise the status of the exarchate”, published in the Communiqué of 29 November, 2018 of the Holy Synod.

This is a reminder that the Extraordinary General Assembly has been convened in response to the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to change the status of the Archdiocese, that is to say, to withdraw its title of Patriarchal Exarchate. It is certainly the responsibility of the Patriarchate to grant or not the status of Exarchate to our Archdiocese; on the other hand, it is the responsibility of the Archdiocese and, in this case, of its sovereign statutory body, the EGA, to decide on its dissolution.

This act revokes the Patriarchal and Synodal Tomos of 1999, and arranges the illegal plundering of the parishes and of all the institutions of the Archdiocese by the Greek Metropolitans of Western Europe.

Our parishes, forming part of the GOVERNING UNION OF RUSSIAN ORTHODOX ASSOCIATIONS in Western Europe, have a duty themselves following the meeting of the General Assembly on 23 February 2019 to determine according to the statutes the canonical continuity to provide for the future of the Archdiocese.