The synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate has unanimously elected Florida native Metropolitan Nikitas (Loulias) as the new Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain.

Nikitas succeeds Archbishop Gregorios who retired due to advanced age and will take over a large diocese with more than 100 churches and monasteries in England, Scotland, Wales, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. 

Metropolitan Nikitas, who has served in numerous capacities in the Orthodox Church worldwide, was the Director of Athenagoras Patriarchal Institute of Orthodox Theology in Berkeley, California.

Prior to this appointment he was appointed Metropolitan of Hong Kong in 1996, a Metropolis that was created by the Ecumenical Patriachate a year earlier to help expand the Orthodox presence in Asia.

The move by the Ecumenical Patriarchate completes what many in Church circles were calling the “shake up” of the three As, all large and powerful regions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate who had hierarchs that were advanced in age and whose respective Metropolises or archdioceses were stagnant or mired in controversy, as was the case in the United States.

The three As (in the Greek language) refers to England (Αγγλια), America and Australia.

Metropolitan Makarios was elected Archbishop of Australia last month, as was Metropolitan Elpidophoros, who will be enthroned Archbishop of America on June 22 in New York City.

All three jurisdictions have new hierarchs who were appointed unanimously by the synod of bishops at the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and are part of a new, global wave of hierarchs who are vehemently loyal to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.