Theodore Angelopoulos made an archon of the Patriarchate
The spotlight was on the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Phanar district of Istanbul last week on the feast day of Aghios Andreas – firstly, in the Church of Aghios Georgios for the enthronement festival of St Andrew the Apostle, who founded the Church in Constantinople. At the liturgy presided over by Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios, Pope John Paul was represented by Cardinal Walter Caspar, within the framework of the dialogue between the churches that began in Patmos and Rhodes. Then there was the ceremony in which Patriarch Vartholomaios declared Theodore Angelopoulos an archon of the Patriarchate. Angelopoulos’s late father Panayiotis was awarded this title at the opening of the patriarchal residence in December 1989. It was then, as parliamentary deputy for Athens, that Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, now the Athens 2004 Organization president, met Theodoros, whom she subsequently married and had two sons with, Panayiotis and Dimitris. The youngest was in fact baptized at the Patriarchate and the party that followed at the Ciragan Palace has become a legend. This time, guests were the associates of the Athens 2004 president, relatives and friends. The government was represented by the minister for education and religious affairs, Petros Efthymiou, the New Democracy party by parliamentary spokesman Professor Prokopis Pavlopoulos, deputy Vyron Polydoras, Stelios Papathemelis, Theodore Angelopoulos’s aunt Maria Angelopoulou, the rector of Athens University Giorgos Babiniotis, shipowner Nikos Soutos with his wife Maria. Gianna’s mother and sister, her two sons and her daughter Carolina Daskalaki, were all at the ceremony. The official dinner at the Ciragan Palace was attended by the patriarch. After his departure, the dancing began in earnest!
