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Church of Greece

Autocephalous church of Eastern Orthodox Christianity

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History

Autocephaly

Christianity was first brought to the geographical area corresponding to modern Greece by the Apostle Paul, although the church's apostolicity also rests upon St. Andrew who preached the gospel in Greece and suffered martyrdom in Patras; Titus, Paul's companion who preached the gospel in Crete where he became bishop; Philip who, according to the tradition, visited and preached in Athens; Luke the Evangelist who was martyred in Thebes; Lazarus of Bethany, Bishop of Kition in Cyprus; and John the Theologian who was exiled on the island of Patmos where he received the Revelation recorded in the last book of the New Testament. Thus Greece became the first European area to accept the gospel of Christ. Towards the end of the 2nd century the early apostolic bishoprics had developed into metropolitan sees in the most important cities. Such were the sees of Thessaloniki, Corinth, Nicopolis, Philippi and Athens.

Before 1833, the Church of Greece was under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. During the Greek War of Independence, the First National Assembly in 1821 and the Third at Troizina in 1827 established provisional arrangements for ecclesiastical governance in the emerging Greek state. In 1828, Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias appointed an ecclesiastical committee, and the Fourth National Assembly at Argos established the Secretariat of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Public Education. These measures reflected the increasing tendency toward the formation of a national church aligned with the institutions of the new state.

In 1833, the Regency council, led by Georg Ludwig von Maurer and including clerics such as Theoklitos Farmakidis, prepared plans for the organization of a national church. In the same year, the Church of Greece was declared autocephalous by the Bavarian Regents acting on behalf of King Otto, who was a minor at the time. This act reflected both political considerations and the broader context of state formation, as the Greek authorities sought to establish an ecclesiastical structure independent of a Patriarchate situated outside the boundaries of the new state.

On 25 July 1833, King Otto ratified the royal decree entitled "Declaration on the Independence of the Church of Greece", which established the first Permanent Synod of Hierarchs and served as the constitutional framework of the church until 1852. Relations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate were initially strained, leading to a temporary rupture of communion, until the Patriarchate issued a Tomos in 1850 formally recognizing the autocephaly of the Church of Greece.

The political union of the Ionian Islands with Greece in 1864 was followed by their ecclesiastical incorporation into the Church of Greece under terms agreed with the Patriarchate. Likewise, the Metropolises of Thessaly and parts of Epirus were incorporated following their annexation to Greece in 1882.

Period 1930–1974

On 31 August 1936, the Apostolic Diaconate of the Church of Greece was established. Organizational adjustments were subsequently implemented through A.N. 2169/1940, 976/1946, Legislative Decree 126/1969 (Article 36), and Regulation 3/1969. According to the Statutory Charter of the Church of Greece (Law 590/1977, Article 40), "the Apostolic Diaconate of the Church of Greece, under the supervision and control of the Holy Synod, is responsible for planning, organizing, and executing all missionary and educational work of the Church."

During the Metaxas dictatorship, following the death of Archbishop Chrysostomos on 23 April 1938, Chrysanthus of Athens was installed as Archbishop of Athens through the intervention of the dictatorial regime, despite Damaskinos of Athens having received the majority of votes in the archiepiscopal election. Chrysanthus was Metaxas preferred candidate. Metaxas sought to exert control over the Church of Greece through the archiepiscopal election. As a result, Damaskinos was placed under restriction, guarded by the Gendarmerie, at the Monastery of Faneromeni in Salamina, where he remained throughout the Metaxas regime and the Greco-Italian War.

Damaskinos of Athens was re‑elected Archbishop in 1941. His actions during the Occupation were characterized by bold initiatives and deep pastoral concern for the suffering Greek population. Facing the threat of famine, he sought to implement two unfulfilled contracts negotiated by the Metaxas government: the purchase of 370,000 tons of wheat from Australia and a loan to Turkey of 600,000 Turkish lira for food procurement. However, these efforts were obstructed by Britain, which refused to allow supplies to occupied Greece due to wartime restrictions, while the contract with Turkey yielded only a small contribution to the national food supply.

Subsequently, Damaskinos organized the National Organization for Christian Solidarity (E.O.X.A.), establishing branches throughout Greece to facilitate food distribution. He also drafted a new Statutory Charter of the Church of Greece, which was published as Law 671/1943 on 25 September 1943 and ratified post‑Occupation by Ministerial Council Act 184/26‑3‑1946. This Charter remained in effect, with minor amendments, until 1977.

His efforts to save Greek Jews and Roma, who began to be sent to extermination camps in 1943, are among his most notable achievements. Baptism certificates were issued to Jews to present them as Christians and thereby avoid arrest or deportation. Damaskinos repeatedly protested to German senior officials against the ongoing persecution of Jews. One of his letters states:

In our national consciousness, all the children of Mother Greece are an inseparable unity: they are equal members of the national body irrespective of religion... Our holy religion does not recognize superior or inferior qualities based on race or religion, as it is stated: 'There is neither Jew nor Greek' and thus condemns any attempt to discriminate or create racial or religious differences. Our common fate both in days of glory and in periods of national misfortune forged inseparable bonds between all Greek citizens, without exemption, irrespective of race.

For his role in saving hundreds of Greek Jews, he was honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.

During the National Resistance, Metropolitan Ioakeim of Kozani served as a national advisor to the EAM. In mainland Greece, several metropolitans collaborated with the Resistance, including Metropolitans Gregorios of Chalkida, Iakovos of Attica, Ioakeim of Dimitriada, Dimitrios of Dryinoupolis and Konitsa, and Kallinikos of Larissa and Elassona. In the Eastern Aegean islands, Ioakeim Stroubis of Chios, Eirenaios of Samos and Ikaria (later President of the Provisional Government Committee after Italy’s surrender in September 1943), and Dionysios of Mythymna also participated.

During the seven‑year dictatorship of 1967–1974, the church experienced significant disruption due to numerous interventions by the regime in its internal affairs. Most interventions were in clear violation of Canon Law and ecclesiastical order. These irregular interventions were often accepted or even facilitated by the church administration, which had emerged after orchestrated legislative changes imposed by the dictatorship. Examples include the forced resignation of the lawful Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Chrysostomos II of Athens, and the appointment of the palace priest Hieronymos Kotsonis as Archbishop of Athens and All Greece by an eight‑member "Aristindyn" Synod. The dictatorship sought to exploit the church’s societal influence and, in cooperation with the ecclesiastical leadership, appropriated the values of "Greek‑Christian culture" to legitimize the regime — not out of concern for Hellenism or Christianity, but to achieve social and political validation.

Zoë movement

The 20th-century religious revival in Greece included the Zoë (Zoe) movement, a Greek Orthodox semimonastic association founded in 1907 by Eusebius Matthopoulos. Named after the Greek word for "life", the movement operated largely independently of the institutional Greek Orthodox Church and developed a strong, decentralized organizational structure centered primarily in Athens. Zoë brought together both laypeople and clergy; its core consisted of highly disciplined, unmarried members bound by vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, approximately half of whom were ordained priests.

Zoë was actively engaged in teaching, preaching, publishing, and the administration of schools, youth organizations, and professional associations throughout Greece. It sponsored a nationwide Sunday School program operating in approximately 7,800 churches and provided religious education to an estimated 150,000 students. The movement also established affiliated organizations for youth, parents, professionals, and young women nurses, and promoted the widespread distribution of Bibles, religious literature, and pamphlets. Its publications reached hundreds of thousands of copies annually in the period following World War II. Zoë encouraged greater lay participation in liturgical and sacramental life and contributed to a broader revival of religious practice in Greece.

The movement was initially viewed with suspicion by the Orthodox episcopate, which objected to its strong independent organization. Its influence was later weakened by internal divisions, including the departure of several members who formed a rival association, Soter, as well as by its close associations with the military dictatorship established in Greece in 1967. By the late 20th century, Zoë’s prominence had significantly declined.

In a 2019 interview with Norman Russell, the Greek philosopher Christos Yannaras stated that although he had participated in the Zoë movement in his youth, he later came to regard it as crypto-Protestant in character.

Canonization of Asia Minor New Martyrs

On 4 November 1992, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece unanimously declared the martyr Chrysostomos of Smyrna a saint of the Orthodox Church, to be commemorated on the Sunday after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, together with the Asia Minor hierarchs and martyrs Prokopios Lazaridis, Ambrosios of Moschonisia, Euthymios Agritellis, Gregory of Kydonies, and all Orthodox Christians who were killed during the Asia Minor Catastrophe.

The canonization recognized Chrysostomos of Smyrna's death as a martyrdom suffered during the final phase of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), when the Greek population of Smyrna (modern-day İzmir) experienced widespread violence and displacement during the Asia Minor Catastrophe. Chrysostomos, who had served as the Metropolitan of Smyrna since 1910, remained in the city during the Turkish capture of Smyrna in September 1922 and was killed by a mob shortly after the withdrawal of Greek forces.

The decision of the Holy Synod placed Chrysostomos among the most prominent modern Orthodox martyrs associated with the events of 1922. His canonization was also connected with the broader ecclesiastical recognition of the clergy and laity who died during the destruction of the Greek Orthodox communities of Asia Minor. The Church of Greece emphasized that the commemoration was intended to honor the faith and witness of those who suffered during the Asia Minor Catastrophe rather than to serve as a political statement.

Their inclusion in the liturgical calendar was formally announced in Circular 2556 of 5 July 1993 by the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. The commemoration of "Saint Chrysostomos of Smyrna and his fellow hierarchs Gregory of Kydonies, Ambrosios of Moschonisia, Prokopios Lazaridis, Euthymios Agritellis, as well as the clergy and laity who were killed during the Asia Minor Catastrophe" is observed annually on the Sunday following the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in September.

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