GREEK AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL VISITS THE PATRIARCHATE
On the morning of Sunday, the 4th/17th of July 2016, the Ambassador of Greece to Israel, Mr Spyridon Lamprides, accompanied by the Ambassador of Greece to Jerusalem, Mr G. Zacharoudiakis, visited the Patriarchate. The Ambassador was warmly welcomed by H.B. Theophilos, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and Hagiotaphite Fathers.
The visit took place on the occasion of Mr Lamprides’ end of a three-and-a-half year tenure. At the meeting, the Ambassador thanked His Beatitude for their harmonious collaboration on matters of shared interest.
An interesting discussion then unfolded on the role of Greece and the Patriarchate in the current unstable political situation in the South-Eastern Mediterranean and on the position of Christians in the Middle East.
His Beatitude went on to bestow on Mr Lamprides the title of Supreme Taxiarch of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre for his contribution to the Patriarchate.
The Ambassador pledged to go on defending the rights of Greece and of the Patriarchate from his new position in Brussels.
The Patriarch also offered Mr Lamprides, as well as on Mr Zacharoudiakis, icons of the Aedicula of the Holy Sepulchre, now under restoration. Mr Lamprides offered a lithograph of the Aedicula by Roberts, dated to the late 19th c.
From the Secretariat-General
httpv://youtu.be/nqhQRsfCV_Q