The Ecumenical Patriarchate will have a formal presence at this year’s Clergy-Laity Congress in Cleveland, Ohio, following an announcement from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has appointed three representatives of the Mother Church to attend.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has appointed Metropolitan Arsenios of Austria, Metropolitan Filotheos of Thessaloniki, and Grand Archimandrite Iakovos (Krochak) to represent the Patriarchate at the Congress, which convenes under the theme “Rise and Build,” drawing from Nehemiah 2:18.
The participation of the three representatives “stands as a visible and meaningful expression of the enduring spiritual bond between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America,” the Archdiocese stated in the announcement.
With clergy and lay delegates set to gather in Cleveland on June 30 to July 2, the Patriarchal delegation underscores what the Archdiocese described as “the unity, continuity, and shared mission of the Orthodox Church throughout the world.”
