Metropolitan Emmanuel of France speaks about interreligious dialogue

Jul 18, 2019

PARIS: Metropolitan Emmanuel of France attended and spoke at the graduation ceremony of a special programme of the Paris Institute of Political Studies which aims to train religious officials for participating in interreligious dialogue.

The Metropolitan of France is one of the founding members of this programme, now in its third year of operation under the auspices of the French State.

Protopresbyter Fr Andriy Svynarov and the orthodox theologian and hagiographer Maciej Leszczynski graduated this year from the programme which is attended by students from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy.

During his service to the Church, His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel (Adamakis) has become an advocate for peace and dialogue. Born December 19, 1958 in Crete, his advanced studies in Philosophy and Theology were at the Faculty of Humanities of the Catholic Institute of Paris and St Sergius Orthodox Institute. He continued his studies in Religious History at the Sorbonne (Paris IV) and the Higher Institute of Ecumenical Studies at the Institute Catholique de Paris, and later matriculated at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston.

He was ordained a deacon and priest in 1985 and in 1987 was appointed as the Chancellor of the Metropolis of Belgium while serving as Dean of the parish of the Taxiarchae in Brussels and teaching Orthodox Religion at the European Schools.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew appointed him to head the Liaison Office of the Orthodox Church to the European Union at its inception in 1995. In 1996 he was elected Bishop of Reggio, and was appointed auxiliary Bishop of the Metropolitan of Belgium. In early 2003 he was unanimously elected by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to be Metropolitan of France. Since 2001 the Ecumenical Patriarchate has entrusted him with responsibilities for the International Interreligious Dialogue with the Monotheistic Religions. He also represents the Ecumenical Patriarchate in theological dialogues with the Vatican, the ancient Oriental Churches, and among the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches.

He continues to direct the representation of the Orthodox Church to the EU. He is Vice President of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and of the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of France, co-president of the Council of Christian Churches of France, as well as co-president of the World Conference of Religions for Peace. He speaks fluent Greek, French, and English. Metropolitan Emmanuel has been named Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in France, among other Church and state distinctions. He also currently sits on the Board of Directors of Kaiciid in Vienna. --The National Herald