The synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has elected Metropolitan Elpidoforos of Bursa as the new Archbishop of America.
Elpidophoros (Lambriniadis) was born in 1967 in Bakirköy, Istanbul. He studied at the Department of Pastoral Theology, Thelogical School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, from which he graduated in 1991.
In 1993, he finished his postgraduate studies at the Philosophical School of the University of Bonn, Germany submitting a dissertation entitled, “The Brothers Nicholas and John Mesarites”. He was ordained a Deacon in 1994 at the Patriarchal Cathedral and was appointed as the Codecographer of the Holy and Sacred Synod.
In 1995, he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Holy and Sacred Synod. From 1996-1997 he studied at the Theological School of St. John the Damascene in Balamand, Lebanon, where he improved his knowledge of the Arabic language.
In 2001, he presented a doctoral dissertation at the Theological School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki under the title: “Severus of Antioch and the Council of Chalcedon” proclaiming him a Doctor of Theology. In 2004, he was invited to Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston, where he taught as a visiting professor for one semester.
In March 2005, at the proposal of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, he was promoted by the Holy and Sacred Synod to the position of Chief Secretary and was ordained to the priesthood by the Ecumenical Patriarch in the Patriarchal Cathedral.
In 2009, he submitted two dissertations to the Theological School of Thessaloniki and was unanimously elected Assistant Professor of Symbolics, Inter-Orthodox Relations and the Ecumenical Movement.
The dissertations are entitled: “The Synaxis’s of the Hierarchy of the Ecumenical Throne (1951-2004)” and “Luther’s Ninety-five Thesis. Historical and Theological aspects. Text – Translation – Commentary”.
In March 2011, he was elected Metropolitan of Bursa and in August of the same year was appointed Abbot of the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegial Monastery of the Holy Trinity on the island of Chalki.
He has served as the Orthodox Secretary of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Lutheran World Federation and as a member of the Patriarchal delegations to the General Assemblies of the Conference of European Churches and the World Council of Churches.
He was the Secretary of the Pan-Orthodox Synods in Sofia (1998), Istanbul (2005), Geneva (2006), and Istanbul (2008). He has been a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches since 1996.
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4 comments
Not impressed, because he has this vast education does not make him pastoral or a man of vision for the American church in this most difficult time in America, God help us, typical acion from above, perhaps they should all resign, I pray the faithful stop sending money to the GOC and they wake up to reality.
Sounds like more of the same……… and when I hear Istanbul…..I hear Turks. You need Greek Born American to not only keep the current church members but attract more…. Too many of the young Greek Born Americans cant relate and are leaving… I personally am half Greek and not Orthodox and see it from outside….perhaps too many cant see it from the inside?
Epic catastrophe. Elpidoforos is not what the United States needs. How does the Patriarch appoint a bishop who has never spent a day of his career in the US? And I don’t count a semester (i.e. 3 months) as a visiting professor at Hellenic College spent in an academic environment as US experience. I predict this will lead to fracture with Constantinople and the establishment of an autocephalus church in North America, which is what was needed, just not this way. The Patriarchate will not survive this.
Its typical of the AMERIKANAKIA to complain about someone that will bring the Hellenic language and all of the other things that the previous person tried to do with. ITS ABOUT TIME TO RETURN TO THE ORIGINAL SPIRIT OF THE ELLINIKI ORHODOXY EKKLISIA .