The President of the Hellenic Parliament, Nikolaos Voutsis, received today Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, who is currently visiting Athens.
Nikolaos Voutsis welcomed the new Archbishop of America, and referred to the excellent cooperation they had in Halki when, in November 2017, as the Metropolitan of Bursa and Abbot of the Halki School, Archbishop Elpidophoros contributed to the conclusion of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the Library of the Halki seminary and the Library of the Hellenic Parliament.
On his part, the Archbishop of America thanked the Hellenic Parliament and, in particular, the Library of the Hellenic Parliament, which he described as exemplary and excellent, “for its unstinting support for the work carried out at the Halki seminary, that is the recording and rescue of the treasure of the Greek nation as well as of Orthodoxy,” noting that “it is very important that the Hellenic Parliament should be by the side of the Halki seminary and support this effort “.
“It is very important that the Greek diaspora should keep the umbilical cord with Greece”. Moreover, the Archbishop assured the President “that the Archdiocese of America, as appropriate to the role of a Church which has the duty to foster peace, love and cooperation among peoples, is always available to you for the dissemination of the ideals, that is peace, reconciliation, cooperation and the common cause of all people for a peaceful and common future.”
Nikolaos Voutsis replied: “I am glad to hear these words from you and I believe that your role will crucial in disseminating this view to the Greek community so that it can have access to ongoing information on what is going on in Greece and Europe, in which the situation is different from the US. That is also important for the people in USA to be inspired by your social and religious work.”
Source: ANA-MPA
