On Monday, 2 March 2026, Metropolitan Athenagoras of Belgium and Exarch of the Netherlands and Luxembourg, head of the Orthodox Church in Belgium, attended the funeral service of the late Father Guy Fontaine, a clergyman of the Archdiocese of Orthodox Traditions in Western Europe, who fell asleep in the Lord on February 26, 2026, at the age of 80.
The funeral service was held at the Church of Saint Alexander Nevsky and Saint Seraphim of Sarov in Liège, a parish he had served for many years with exemplary dedication. The service was led by Archpriest Alexander Galakas, Episcopal Vicar of the Orthodox Parishes of the Benelux, accompanied by four priests and a deacon, in the presence of a large congregation.
At the conclusion of the service, Metropolitan Athenagoras expressed his heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased and to the entire parish community. In a brief but moving address, he said: “I have come here to unite my humble prayer with yours for the eternal rest of the beloved soul of Father Guy. He dedicated a great part of his life to the service of our Church and to you, the faithful of this historic parish in Liège. We pray that God will forgive his sins—because none of us is without sin—and grant him eternal rest.”
Father Guy Fontaine (1945–2026) was Belgian and a former journalist with the public broadcaster RTBF. A teacher by profession, he initially drifted away from the Church before experiencing a profound spiritual transformation during an Easter Vigil at the Chevetogne Monastery, celebrated according to the Byzantine rite.
Moved by the beauty and mystery of the divine worship, he began theological studies by correspondence at the Orthodox Theological Institute of Saint Sergius in Paris. He was tonsured a reader in 1988, ordained a deacon in 1999, and finally a priest in June 2000.
As pastor of the Saint Alexander Nevsky parish in Liège, he also served as Episcopal Vicar for Belgium and northern France within the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe, initially under the Ecumenical Patriarchate and, in recent years, under the Moscow Patriarchate.
