Michalis Mitsos

The prevailing sense, as it emerged from the statements made by its head, was that the Church would downplay the issue, would not add fuel to the fire, and, at some point join the entire civilized world in accepting that there is nothing untoward about same-sex marriages or the baptism of children from such unions. But the Church's decision to make a fight of it, and its unprecedented snubbing of the President of the Hellenic Republic, have now placed the need for the separation of State and Church firmly center stage.

His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America was once considered a model hierarch: mild-mannered, cosmopolitan, progressive, open-minded, the spiritual descendant of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. But then shadows began to appear, certain reservations and an inexplicable climate of distrust. On the occasion of his visit to Athens, I asked if we could meet to get some answers to my questions.