Greece’s education and religious affairs ministry on Wednesday evening issued an angry response to the decision by members of the Church of Greece’s permanent Holy Synod to decline any discussion over changes in clerics’ payroll regime.
The Tsipras government has tried over the past few months to achieve the Church’s acquiescence to a plan altering the payroll regime for clergymen in the country, essentially excluding them from the civil service payroll, and instead shifting them to a state-financed fund.
Many Church hierarchs have expressed opposition to the proposed change, whereas the influential association representing Orthodox clerics in the predominately Christian Orthodox nation is categorically opposed.
A prickly response by the ministry includes, among others, the phrase “… in a democracy dialogue between the state and Church cannot be held with ‘red lines’ and a barren refusal.”