The new general secretary of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO), in which Orthodox MPs from 25 countries participate, was elected the member of the Greek Parliament, Maximos Charakopoulos.
Charakopoulos underlined that “the current situation is peculiar with many serious challenges, such as the retreat of Christian values from the advanced world, the so-called “elimination of Christianity”, the danger of the disappearance of the Christian presence in the cradle of Christianity, the Middle East, the desecration of Hagia Sophia, the ecumenical symbol of Orthodoxy, with its conversion into an Islamic mosque, but also the occasional issues that arise between the individual churches”.
According to the same statement, on the occasion of what happened to Hagia Sophia, he adopted the proposal of the Russian MP Ivan Sukharev regarding the issue of “highlighting the historical relationship of the Orthodox with the temples of Hagia Sophia and our doxological relationship with God’s Wisdom and the temples built in Ηer honor” with the publication of a relevant volume.
Charakopoulos made a special reference to the completion of 200 years since 1821, noting that “this slavery was not only felt by the Greeks but also by many other Orthodox from the Balkans to the Middle East. It was lived by Mount Athos and the Orthodox monks from all over the world who take refuge in the Orchard of the Virgin Mary”.
Also in the position of chairman of the General Assembly of the IAO was re-elected Sergei Gavrilov.
Messages to the General Assembly of the IAO sent the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and the Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.
