Mediators on ‘peace’ mission to patriarch
Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios met yesterday with two groups of mediators from Greece in what was seen as an effort to end the impasse between the Patriarchate and the Church of Greece over who would name new bishops for Thessaloniki and Eleftheroupolis. Archbishop Christodoulos of Greece said he was aware of the two missions to Istanbul. One comprised the bishop of Piraeus, Kallinikos, and the bishop of Demetrias, Ignatios, and the other Stavros Psycharis, publisher and editor of Athens’s To Vima newspaper, and Aristides Kasmiroglou, the secular governor of the Mount Athos monastic peninsula. At Vartholomaios’s invitation, all four visitors held talks with him at the same time, NET state television reported. «Every serious effort aimed at achieving a peaceful solution is welcome,» Christodoulos said. «I am aware of both (missions) and approve of them.»
