Metropolitan Ieronymos of Thebes elected State Archbishop

[Christophoros]

Greek Orthodox bishops elect leader

Story Highlights:

• Greek Orthodox bishops elect Bishop Ieronymos of Thebes as leader
• He is successor to Archbishop Christodoulos, who died last week.
• Election very secretive, with only one outsider allowed to monitor the process
• Church represents 98 percent of Greek population: 15M adherents worldwide

From journalist Anthee Carassava

ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- Greek Orthodox bishops Thursday elected Bishop Ieronymos of Thebes as church's successor to Archbishop Christodoulos, who died last week.

The bishops met behind closed doors at the main cathedral in Athens, where 45 of the 74 bishops cast their secret ballots for Bishop Ieronymos as the 20th leader of the country's powerful Orthodox church. The church represents 98 percent of the population.

Bishop Ieronymos needed at least 38 votes, or 50 percent, to get the post.

He and Bishop Efstathios of Sparta had emerged as favorites out of a total of four bishops who had expressed interest in the position.

Following his election, church bells will ring at the cathedral and a lantern there will flash three times.

The election is a very secretive event, with only one outsider allowed inside to monitor the process: the Greek education minister.

Born Ioannis Liapis, Bishop Ieronymos, 70, was a philosophy professor and an archeologist by training before he became a priest in 1967.

He became the bishop of Thebes in 1981 and gained notoriety for his charity work in his diocese. Like his predecessor, Bishop Ieronymos is considered a reformer, but he is not as outspoken and shuns media appearances.

Christodoulos died on January 28 after a battle with cancer, at the age of 69.

He was the spiritual leader of roughly 15 million Greek Orthodox Christians worldwide, including about 10 million in Greece. He led the church for 10 years, boosting membership after a period of declining attendance and internal turmoil.

The archbishop also addressed centuries-old grievances with the Roman Catholic Church. He received the late Pope John Paul II in Athens in 2001 on the first papal visit to Greece in nearly 1,300 years.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europ ... .orthodox/

[Christophoros]

Ieronymos of Thebes elected Archbishop

http://www.ana.gr/anaweb/user/showplain ... &service=6

Metropolitan Ieronymos of Thebes and Livadia was elected on Thursday as the new Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, succeeding Christodoulos, who died last week after a seven-month battle with cancer.

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Ieronymos was elected to the helm of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece by the Holy Synod in the second round of voting, with 45 votes out of a total of 74 Metropolitans (bishops) present.

Church bells at the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral, where the Holy Synod convened early Thursday morning to elect the new Archbishop, began ringing joyously as a lamp outside the Cathedral lit up to announce that a new Archbishop has been elected.

Alternate government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros, in a statement, conveyed the government's best wishes to the new Archbishop in the very important task he is undertaking for the Church and the country.

New Archbishop's biography

Ieronymos, born Ioannis Liapis in 1938 in the town of Oinofyta, Viotia prefecture, is a graduate of the School of Philosophy (archaeology department) and the School of Theology of the University of Athens, followed by Byzantine studies via a state scholarship, as well as post-graduate studies in Austria and Germany.

He was academic assistant to Anastasios Orlandos, a subsequent president of the University of Athens, at the Archaeological Society of Athens, while he also worked as an instructor of literature at the Leontios High School in the Nea Smyrni suburb of Athens and at other high schools in Athens and Avlona.

He discontinued his teaching career after entering the clergy.

Ieronymos served as Coadjutor Metropolitan of Thebes & Livadia from 1967-78, where he was unanimously elected Metropolitan in 1981, after serving as abbot of two monasteries (1971-1981) and as secretary and later chief secretary of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece (1978-81). He has served on the committees on ecclesiastical education, church property, Church-state relations, and Church scholarships, and as vice-chairman of the Church of Greece's radio station, as well as on joint Church-state committees regarding monastery property and ecclesiastical education, and as chairman of the Church-society dialogue committee.

The overwhelming majority (82 of the 110) priests in his bishopric are degree-holders in theology with a second degree (in literature, architecture, medicine, computer science, education, economics etc.).

Under his term as Metropolitan and his guidance, six monasteries (with a total of 45 monks) and 17 convents (with a total of 110 nuns) were renovated and staffed, while he has also written numerous articles, studies and books on theological, social and historical topics, while his book "Medieval Monuments of Evia (Euboea)" received the Athens Academy's top award in 1970.

His social work also includes the founding of boarding schools, orphanages and introduction of the institution of foster families, shelters for the elderly, rehabilitation centres for the mentally retarded, a training centre for the creative occupation of children with special needs in cooperation with prefectural agencies, a drug prevention centre, food pantries for the needy, including foreign guest workers, consulting centres, and a Centre of Historical and Archaeological Studies, while, as a former academic, he developed a special relationship with the teaching community in Viotia.

Other accomplishments in his bishopric include the establishment and operation of parish cultural centres, youth centres, and a model camping facility on Mt. Parnassos, while at his initiative the Viotia History and Culture Research Centre was founded, which collaborates with the universities of Durham and Cambridge.

Ieronymos was a protagonist in the creation, in his home town of Oinofyta, of a Population Awareness Centre on environmental and economic migrants' issues.

He has also been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Craiova in Romania for his charitable work in the Metropolis on health issues, and is also president of the Hellenic Heart Foundation (ELIKAR), a public benefit foundation.

[jckstraw72]

so ignoring the fact that the new Archbishop is in the State Church of Greece, what do ya'll think of him (things he has said, done, etc)?