Members of the permanent Holy Synod of the Autocephalous Church of Greece met on Wednesday for a second straight day, with the session punctuated by a brief ceremony, where Greece’s health minister, Vassilis Kikilias, received medical equipment on behalf of the Greek state, donated by the Church and totaling 100,000 euros in value.
The equipment comes after previous donations by the Church to Greece’s health care system, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The state-of-the-art monitoring equipment is destined for intensive care units.
In a brief statement, the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, noted that “…we owe thanks to the government for the timely measures taken…Today, we symbolically offer this aid, which we pray will be useful in physicians’ work. It does not correspond to the magnitude of the need, but rather it is symbolic”.
In a related development, as previously cited this week, Church of Greece hierarchs also discussed an epistle sent by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, regarding a common course and coordination by Orthodox Churches in the face of continued attacks, often bordering on the blasphemous, against the Church and the sacrament of Holy Communion.
Finally, Holy Synod members were briefed on a further easing of coronavirus-related restrictions, as of Saturday, regarding public assembly – a development that also affects places of worship.