The Cretan hierarchs are anxiously awaiting developments regarding the filling of the two vacant positions in the Metropolises of Kydonia and Sfakia, as well as the state of their broader relations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Yesterday’s informal meeting of the Metropolitans of the Church of Crete produced news. The 81-year-old Metropolitan Irinaios of Sfakia resigned at the start of the session.
The meeting also decided that a three-member delegation consisting of Archbishop Eugenios of Crete, Metropolitan Kyrillos of Ierapytni and Sitia, and Archon Protekdikos Dimitris Milathianakis will travel to the Phanar on Friday, December 12.
According to Cretan media reports, a striking detail emerged at yesterday’s meeting: the recently resigned Metropolitan Irinaios of Lampi, Syvritos, and Sfakia, indicated who he wants to succeed him.
Specifically, a newshub.gr report states that Irinaios wants the Archimandrite Athanasios Karachalios to take his seat. Karachalios has served as protosyncellus of the former metropolis for almost two decades.
At the start of yesterday’s informal meeting, the former Metropolitan of Lampi—who was recently elected Metropolitan of Moschonisia—announced his resignation.
He made this move to facilitate the process of electing a new metropolitan for his former metropolis of Lampi, a process that will also entail electing a new metropolitan in Chania.
He submitted his resignation along with an expression of regret over the Patriarch’s decision to elect him Metropolitan of Moschonisia, a position he declined.
However, until now, no one knew that Irinaios’s wish—which he expressed to the members of the Synod and will certainly convey on Friday to the Ecumenical Patriarch during the Cretan Church delegation’s meeting with him at the Phanar—was for Athanasios Karhalios to succeed him.
This development naturally changes the landscape regarding the figures previously considered likely candidates for this position.
Translated by Ioanna Georgakopoulou
