The Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, Kostas Gavroglu, met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, at the Grande Bretagne Hotel.
At the end of the meeting, Gavroglu stressed that he had the opportunity to welcome the Ecumenical Patriarch in the country, on behalf of the government and the prime minister.
“I have been informed of various developments in ecclesiastical and educational matters and we informed him about various current developments too,” he noted.
He also said that he once again sent “our congratulations on the very good selections for the Archbishops of America and Australia. We had the pleasure to hear the Ecumenical Patriarch’s thoughts on various issues. As you know, he is a wise man.”
Special mention was made by the Minister of Education at the meeting between Bartholomew and Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece.
As he stressed, “what really fills us with great optimism is the discussions that have taken place with Archbishop Ieronymos. We understand that this is a new phase in the relations of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the Church of Greece, a period of spiritual unity, and we can but applaud it.”