Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos

(Oct.2013) http://parembasis.gr/index.php/en/mitropolitis-4/biography

The Most Reverend Hierotheos, Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and St. Vlassios, nee Georgios Vlachos, was born in Ioannina in 1945.

He received his elementary education in his hometown and completed his high-school studies in Agrinio. He entered the School of Philosophy of Ioannina but transferred to the Theological School of Thessaloniki (1964-1968), where he graduated with “excellent”.

During his college years he studied Patrology intensively and participated with a group of students in the recording of manuscripts surviving in the Libraries of the Holy

After receiving his Bachelor Degree, he had proposals to continue his studies abroad and follow an academic career, but decided to go to the Diocese of Edessa, Pella and Almopia, based in Edessa, under the then Metropolitan Kallinikos (Poulos), where he served as lay preacher of the “Apostoliki Diakonia” (1969-1971).Mountain Monasteries. He assisted in the critical edition of the works of St. Gregory Palamas under the guidance of Professor Panagiotis Christou.

In 1971 (October 10) he was ordained Deacon and was appointed as Preacher of ODDEP (Organization of the Management of Church Property). In 1972 (June 25) he was ordained Priest and tonsured as Archimadrite in the same Diocese.

As a Preacher he travelled throughout the border province and organized lectures, sermons, and Sunday Schools in the town of Edessa. He organized the summer camps of the Diocese of Edessa, directed and taught in fast-track tutorials for priests, lectured in conferences for priests and directed the church life of Edessa and its region.

For three years he served the Liturgical needs of the officers and soldiers of the 2nd Army Division.

He ministered Edessa for a full 18 years.

He founded and still guides as a Spiritual Father a Monastic Sisterhood, which started at the Diocese of Edessa, Pella and Almopia and is now in the Holy Monastery of the Birth of the Theotokos (Pelagia) in the Diocese of Thebes and Levadia.

In 1987 he served as Preacher in the Diocese of Thebes and Levadia for six months, under the guidance of its Bishop Hieronymos, the present Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.

In 1987-1995 he served as Preacher of the Archbishopric of Athens, under Archbishop Seraphim.

In the Archbishopric of Athens, in parallel to the work of Preacher, he was appointed Director for the Youth and member of the Board of the Institute for the Youth of the Archbishopric. In this capacity he organized and directed the Sunday Schools of the Church, organized Conferences and workshops for those in charge of Catechism, operated Tutorials for catechists, and supervised the Spiritual Centers of the Parishes.

In 1988-1990, after an invitation by Patriarch Ignatios of Antioch, a decision of the Holy Synod and the approval of the Directorate for Church Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, he taught intermittently courses of the Greek language (ancient and modern) and of Christian Ethics in the Balamond Theological School “St. John of Damascus” of the Patriarchate of Antioch in Northern Lebanon, close to Tripolis, during the war in that area. His Beatitude the Patriarch Ignatios of Antioch and the Ambassador of Greece in Damascus proposed him as a Principal of the Balamond Theological School, but his duties in the Archbishopric of Athens did not allow him to assume this very honorary, as attested by the Foreign Ministry of Greece, proposal of the Patriarch of Antioch. Several years later (2001), as a Metropolitan, he taught Bioethics in the same TheologicalSchool of the Patriarchate of Antioch.

He represented the Church of Greece as regular or substitute member in the Governing Boards of: the “National Council for Radio-Television”, the “National Committee for AIDS”, the “Control Center for Infectious Diseases”, the “Organization against Drugs”, and other Committees.

He presented the views of the Church of Greece in the bipartisan Parliamentary Committee on the demographic problem (1992).

He spoke, as a Preacher, in priestly, theological and scientific Conferences organized by the Holy Synod, Holy Dioceses, the Panhellenic Association of Theologians, etc.

As a Preacher of the Archbishopric of Athens he was one of the leaders of the foundation and operation of the Radio Station of the Church of Greece, a member of the Programming Committee of the Radio Station and producer of the program titled “The Fathers in the modern world” for six years (1989-1995). Since 2010, as a Metropolitan, he has a weekly program in the same Radio Station.

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He was elected Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and St. Vlassios on July 19th, 1995, and ordained on July 20th, 1995, in the Cathedral of Athens, in a rite officiated by Metropolitan Theoklitos of Ioannina and concelebrated by the Metropolitans Christodoulos of Demetrias (later Archbishop of Athens and All Greece), Kallinikos of Piraeus, Hieronymos of Thebes and Levadia (presently Archbishop of Athens and All Greece), Maximos of Serres and Nigrita, Alexandros of Mantineia and Kynouria, Agathonikos of Kitros, Ioannis of Pergamos, Ignatios of Arta and Panteleimon of Verroia. He was enthroned in Nafpaktos on September 10th of the same year.

As Metropolitan of Nafpaktos he organized his Diocese; every summer he tours the villages of mountainous Nafpaktia and St. Vlassios; he founded the Associations of Love in the Parishes of the town which undertake an important social work; he is interested in the youth and in catechism; he visits schools and talks to the students; he re-operated the summer camps – “Communication Center” of the Diocese in St. Panteleimon Antirrio; he founded a School of Byzantine Music which operates in Nafpaktos and the Cultutral and Research Center in Hosios David; he organizes and lectures in Conferences, Meetings for priests, teachers, university students, professionals, doctors, lawyers, mechanics, etc.

In his capacity as Metropolitan of Nafpaktos he presides over ten Foundations and Bequests of the Province, namely the Foundations: “Demetrios and Vassiliki Papacharalampous”, “Georgios Kapordelis-Ioannis Xykis”, “Georgios and Maria Athanassiadi-Nova”, “Andreas Tsaras”, “Gabriel Oikonomou”, “Antonios and Panagiota Anastasopoulou” (legal and bureaucratic procedures are going on for its establishment), and the Bequests: “Dem. Asimakopoulos”, “A. Kozonis”, “Dem. Ploumis”, “Ioannis Vardakoulas”, which award scholarships to high-school and university students. He is also President of the Supervisory Council of the Public Papacharalampios Library of Nafpaktos.

He has been thrice a member of the Permanent Holy Synod during the Archbishopric of the all three most recent Archbishops, namely Seraphim, Christodoulos and Hieronymos.

He accompanied the blessed Archbishop Christodoulos in his eirinic visits to the Holy Monastery of Sinai and to Romania.

He has served repeatedly as Press Representative of the Permanent Holy Synod and the Synod of the Hierarchy of the Church of Greece.

As a Metropolitan he has participated in various Synodical Committees, namely: member of the Synodical Committee for monastic life, the Synodical Committee on Church Finances, the Synodical Committee for the Youth, the Synodical Committee for Doctrinal and Canonical Affairs. He has also participated in Ad-hoc Synodical Committees, namely: Chairman of the Ad-hoc Synodical Committee on the identification cards, Chairman of the Ad-hoc Synodical Committee for the preparation of the 2004 Olympic Games, member of the Ad-hoc Synodical Committee for child-abuse. At present he participates in the following Synodical Committees: Chairman of the Synodical Committee on the Press, Public Relations and Information, Chairman of the Ad-hoc Synodical Committee on Special Pastoral Issues, and scientific advisor to the Ad-hoc Synodical Committee on Bioethics.

As a Metropolitan, by proposal of the Holy Synod, he was a member of the National Organization of Social Welfare, and of the National Council of Medical Ethics and Deontology.

He has been appointed by the Hierarchy of the Church of Greece nine times so far to present the following subjects: “On transplants” (Oct.1999). “Historical development of the issue of recording the religious creed on police identity cards of Greek citizens” (June 2000). “Update on the issue of identity cards” (Oct.2000). “Update on the issue of identity cards” (Oct.2001). “The contribution of the Church to the successful organization of the 2004 Olympic Games” (Oct.2002). “Medical assistance in human reproduction (Assisted reproduction- New Law)” (Oct.2005). “Regulations of the Ad-hoc Synodical Committee on Sports” (Oct. 2006). “The functioning of the synodical system in the Church of Greece” (Oct. 2009). “On the recognition of the 879-880 AD Council of Constantinople as the Eighth Ecumenical Council” (Oct. 2011, but postponed to a later Meeting).

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He is distinguished for his writing volume, having written 83 multipage books with theological, ecclesiological and social content, based on the teaching of the holy Fathers. Sixty-four (64) of these books have been translated, by the translators’ initiative, in 21 foreign languages, namely, English, Arabic, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Serbian, Hungarian, Romanian, Swahili, Chinese, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Czech, Dutch, Albanian, Italian, Finnish, Georgian, Urdu-Pakistan and Korean. More translations are being prepared. The total number of books, off prints and publications, excluding various articles, reaches two hundred and seventy four (274).

It should be pointed out that most books published in foreign languages were published by the translators’ initiative, and his Eminence offers his copyright for free.

The books deal with theological, ecclesiological and patristic issues and interpret modern spirituality through the Orthodox ecclesiastic perspective.

His book titled “The Person in the Orthodox Tradition” was awarded the top prize of the Academy of Athens for the best theological book of 1991-1995, after a wholehearted recommendation by the members of the Academy Messrs. Evangelos Mitsopoulos, Markos Siotis and the Most Reverend Ioannis Metropolitan of Pergamos. The award took place in 1996 in an official ceremony of the plenary session of the Academy of Athens.

Books by the Metropolitan are used as teaching texts in Theological Schools abroad and in Greece and are the subject of Ph.D. dissertations in Universities abroad and of presentations in conferences.

In addition to writing books he has also published articles in daily and weekly newspapers. He has written in Athenian newspapers (“To Vema”, “Eleftherotypia”, “Kathimerini”, “Ta Nea”, “Eleftheros Typos”, “Apogevmatini”, “Kosmos tou Ependyti”), in the local Pres of Nafpaktos, in the internet, as well as in the newspaper of the Diocese of Nafpaktos and St. Vlassios “Ekklisiastiki Parembasi” (www.parembasis.gr) which he started as a Metropolitan. His articles are reproduced in many other newspapers, magazines and websites. They constitute interventions in contemporary socio-political and church developments and offer the orthodox theological interpretation of events. They are also an expression and testimony of our Romaic Tradition, which contains limitless dynamism and transformative power.

Since becoming Metropolitan (1995) until presently (2013), he has presented topics in three hundred and fifty one (351) international and domestic conferences and has taught in Seminars in America (Atlanta, Boston, Seattle, Chicago), in Canada (Vancouver), in Syria (Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia, Holy Monastery of St. George in the Valley of Christians), in Lebanon, (Balamond, Koura), in Germany, Ukraine, Simferopol of Crimea, in Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sergeev Posad), in Romania (Bucharest, Iasi, Craiova, Alba Julia), in Bulgaria (Sofia, Varna), in Venice, Constantinople, Cyprus (Nicosia, Limassol), England, etc.

In America he presented two topics in the TheologicalSchool of the Holy Cross of the Archbishopric of America in Boston in 1999. He made three presentations in a Seminar of the Orthodox Church of America (OCA) in Vancouver, Canada, in 1995 and in Atlanta, USA, in 1997. He spoke in the central hall of the University of Seattle (1999) invited by the University Senate, and he taught a Seminar in Tacoma, Washington State (1999 and 2007). He lectured in the Lutheran University of Tacoma (Pacific Lutheran University, 2007). He was a speaker in conferences and lectures organized by the Greek Orthodox Community of St. Demetrios in Seattle, United States, (1995, 1997, 1999 and 2007) and in an international conference in the Holy Monastery of St. John Chrysostom in Chicago (2007).

The Department of Social Theology of the Theological School of the National Capodistrian University of Athens, appreciating his contribution to theological letters, awarded him an Honorary Doctorate on September 25th, 2008.