Athens, 5 October 2022

Meeting of IAO International Secretariat meeting with participation of Secretary General Maximos Charakopoulos

The International Secretariat of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO) convened online today, in an expanded composition, with the participation of representatives from 19 Parliaments. Dr Maximos Charakopoulos, member of the Hellenic Parliament and IAO Secretary General opened the meeting.

Presenting an overview of the organisation’s recent activities, Dr Charakopoulos made special reference to IAO international public awareness campaign through the publication of the Volume on Hagia Sophia temples around the world. From March until today, the IAO has organised and held a series of presentations, both domestic and international, e.g. in Milan, at the Theological School of Florence, at Didymoteicho, Samarina, at the International Conference of Byzantine Studies in Venice, at the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Karlsruhe and on Chios. So far, the Volume has been translated into 12 languages: English, Arabic, Armenian, Bulgarian, French, German, Greek, Italian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Russian and Serbian.

At the level of international contacts, he specially referred to the IAO delegation visit to Fener and its meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew, on the occasion of the patriarchal service held with the assistance of Archbishop Stefan of Ohrid, on Pentecost Sunday, at St George patriarchal church, in the presence of North Macedonia Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski,  who also met with the delegation.

Dr Charakopoulos also referred to the following activities planned:

Forthcoming presentations of the Volume on Hagia Sophia temples in Alexandria, in collaboration with the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa, at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris – also including a meeting with high-rank officials -, as well as in Bucharest, Warsaw, etc. .

The promotion of joint events on the occasion of the 2025 Common Easter celebration by Orthodox and Catholics, as coinciding with the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nice.

The organisation will lay emphasis on the establishment of regular contacts between national parliaments of the countries participating in the Organisation.

The next IAO International Secretariat meeting will be held in March 2023 in Cyprus.

The meeting was conducted online due to problems arising from the ongoing war in Ukraine, was attended by parliamentary delegations from Greece, Egypt, Armenia, North Macedonia, Georgia, Estonia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Belarus, Lebanon , Moldova, Uganda, Palestine, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Sudan and the IAO advisors Dr Kostas Mygdalis and Dr Alexander Fomenko.

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