Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-02-07

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Ieronymos of Thebes elected Archbishop

[02] President Papoulias receives FM

[03] FM at Forest of Sculptures

[01] Ieronymos of Thebes elected Archbishop

Ieronymos was elected to the helm of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece by the Holy Synod in the second round of voting, with 45 votes out of a total of 74 Metropolitans present.

Church bells at the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral, where the Holy Synod convened early Thursday morning to elect the new Archbishop began ringing joyously as the lamp outside the Cathedral lit up to announce that a new Archbishop has been elected.

Alternate government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros, in a statement, conveyed the government's best wishes to the new Archbishop in the very important task he is undertaking for the Church and the country.

New Archbishop's biography

Ieronymos, born Ioannis Liapis in 1938 in Oinofyta, Viotia prefecture, is a graduate of the School of Philosophy (Archaeology Department) and the School of Theology of the University of Athens, followed by Byzantine studies on a nationwide state scholarship, and post-graduate studies in Austria and Germany.

He was academic assistant to Anastasios Orlandos, founding member and later president of the University of Athens, at the Archaeological Society of Athens, and as a teacher of literature at the Leontios School in the Nea Smyrni suburb of Athens, as well as at high schools in Athens and Avlona.

He abandoned his academic career after entering the clergy.

Ieronymos served as Coadjutor Metropolitan of Thebes & Livadia from 1967-78, where he was unanimously elected Metropolitan in 1981, after serving as Abbott of two monasteries (1971-1981) and as secretary and later chief secretary of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece (1978-81). He has served on the committees on ecclesiastical education, church property, Church-State relations, and Church scholarships, and as vice-chairman of the Church of Greece's radio station, as well as on joint Church-State committees on monastery property and ecclesiastical education, and as chairman of the Church-Society Dialogue committee.

The overwhelming majority (82 of the 110) priests in his Metropolis are degree-holders in Theology with a second degree (in literature, architecture, medicine, informatics teachers, teachers, economic sciences, etc.) making it the first Metropolis of the Church of Greece to have a clergy of such a high level of education.

Under his term as Metropolitan and his guidance, six monasteries (with a total of 45 monks) and 17 convents (with a total of 110 nuns) were renovated and staffed, while he has also written numerous articles, studies and books on theological, social and historical topics, while his book "Medieval Monuments of Evia" received the Athens Academy's top award in 1970.

His social work also includes the founding of boarding schools, orphanages and introduction of the institution of foster families, shelters for the elderly, rehabilitation centres for the mentally challenged, a training centre for the creative occupation of children with special needs in cooperation with prefectural agencies, a drug prevention centre, food kitchens for the poor, including economic immigrants, consulting centres, and a Centre of Historical and Archaeological Studies, while, as a former academic, he had developed a special relationship with the teaching community in Viotia.

Other accomplishments in his Metropolis include the establishment and operation of parish cultural centres, youth centres, and a model camping facility on Mt. Parnassos, while at his initiative the Viotia History and Culture Research Centre was founded, which collaborates with the universities of Durham and Cambridge.

Ieronymos was also a protagonist in the creation, in his home town of Oinofyta, of a Population Awareness Centre on environmental and economic immigrants' issues.

He has also been awarded an honorary PhD from the University of Craiova, in Romania, for his philanthropic work at the Metropolis on health issues, and is also president of the Hellenic Heart Foundation (ELIKAR), a public benefit foundation.

[02] President Papoulias receives FM

Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of President of Greek Republic Karolos Papoulias and Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyiannis

[03] FM at Forest of Sculptures

The famed Forest of Sculptures collection was a gift from the late collector Simon Spierer to the Hessisches Landesmuseum (Hesse State Museum) in Darmstadt, Germany, comprising forty sculptures by such artists as Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti and Max Ernst, tracing 20th century sculpture from late art deco to postmodernism.

In its first showing showing outside of Darmstadt, the collection will be on exhibition in Athens through April 14, after which it will travel to other capitals throughout Europe.

Speaking at the opening, Bakoyannis said that the exhibition's showing in Athens comprised strong proof that the Greek capital was capable of attracting international interest.

The exhibition opens with a portrait of Spierer by Andy Warhol, and contains impessive sculptures by Armitage, Arp, Bill, Bourgeois, Brancusi, Cardenas, Caro, Cesar, Cragg, Croissant, Ernst, Fernagu, Fontana, Giacometti, Gonzalez, Herworth, Kito, Lobo, Masson, Melotti, Moore, Noguchi, Pan, Penalba, Perrot, Petters, Pomodoro, De Pury, Reggiani, Richier, Rohm, Romeda, Spoerri, Stankiewicz, Trubbiani, Turnbull, Uecker, Williams, and Greek artists Takis and Avramidis.

While many of the works have human form, such as Moore's "Three Quarter Figure", others like Lucio Fontana's "Torso of a Horse" and Graham Williams' "Folded Steel Leaves" follow other lines.

Caption: Anthony Cragg's "Manipulations", one of the works at the Forests of Sculptures exhibition that opened in Athens on Wednesday in it's first foreign showing. EPA/Frank May

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