[InTime News]
Archimandrite Symeon Papadopoulos, who was elected new abbot and archbishop of the historic Monastery of St Catherine in Sinai, will be consecrated on October 19 in Jerusalem by Patriarch Theophilos III.
The official enthronement of the new abbot will take place in Sinai later on, and will also be attended by the patriarch, who has the relevant ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis, who worked diligently to find a solution to the months-long tensions between former archbishop Damianos and a group of monks who were accusing him of mismanagement, will attend the ceremony at the Church of the Resurrection.
The question is whether Gerapetritis will find some time for a discussion with the patriarch of Jerusalem, who visited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a few weeks ago, raising reasonable questions about the role he plays in the Holy Land.
Although the visit was attributed at the time to intra-ecclesiastical frictions – between the patriarchates of Constantinople and Jerusalem – many people connect his initiative with the enormous influence that the Russians have in the Holy Land, who – as is known – are not at all happy with the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.