Archbishop Elpidophoros is leading American Orthodoxy to prosperity. But not all at the Phanar are pleased with it.
It’s been more than a year since Elpidophoros Lambriniadis was elected the Archbishop of America. As expected, that decision of the Holy Synod turned out to be one of the most effective within decades – it took just several months for the new leader of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOARCH) to proceed greatly in clearing out the Augean stables after former Archbishop Demetrios and his followers. Elpidophoros came to the GOARCH clearly understanding that his tenure wouldn’t be a walk in the park – the Archdiocese suffered from constant scandals, shortage of funds and personnel crisis, the situation seemed to be desperate. However, the new Archbishop promptly dealt with the main issues: the construction of St. Nicholas Church at Ground Zero was resumed and money for it collected, the Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology was saved from losing its accreditation, conflicts ceased tearing the GOARCH apart, and ways to resolve the financial crisis were found.
However, Archbishop Elpidophoros doesn’t confine himself to his own domain’s issues only. During the pandemic, he raised an extremely important problem – changing the practice of receiving the Holy Communion for the sake of protecting health and saving lives of laity and clergy. The GOARCH Primate proposed using multiple spoons instead of one during the service, which could decrease the risk of infection.
Elpidophoros is a profound theologian who knows the ropes in dogmatics and Canons. There is no doubt that his proposal was based on weighty arguments from the point of view of history, theology, pastorship and ecclesiology. Amid the WHO recommendations, it seemed quite reasonable. It’s no secret that there are many hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate who support changes in the Communion practice including Archbishop Sotirios of Canada, Makarios of Australia and some of metropolitans in Western Europe who proposed such ideas.
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