The Department of Canonical Theology was founded in 2014 and it aims to investigate, study and highlight issues such as the genesis and origins of the Canons, the Canonical tradition, and the Canonical Hermeneutic. Specifically, this three-fold research project will cover the following areas from the perspective of the study, research and life of the Church:
a) the wide range of the two millennia, with a clear focus on the Canonical Sources which emerged in the first millennium, the millennium of the Canons’ genesis, with introductory and historical prolegomena, as well as textual issues and critical issues of the canonical texts, in order then to study the canonical extensions and its implications contained in the following two general research aspects.
b) Issues of Canonical Tradition of the Church as (for instance):
1. The history of the printed editions of the Holy Canons (16th-20th centuries)
2. The Canonical Collections: The Rudder and the Rallis-Potlis Constitution (19th cent.) of the Orthodox Church and the post-Byzantine Hermeneutic
3. The ecclesiology and administrative nature of the Holy Canons
c) Issues of Canonical Hermeneutic in modern times such as (for instance):
1. Modern Church-canonical issues
2. State, Orthodox Church and Religious Affairs in Greece / Europe / Ecumene
3. Canon Law and International Politics
Metropolitan of Peristeri Gregorios (Papathomas) was appointed as the Director of the Department of Canonical Theology, by the Board of Directors of Volos Academy. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Volos Academy, Professor of Theology in the University of Athens and in the Institute of Orthodox Theology “St. Sergius” in Paris, President of the European Forum of Orthodox Theological Schools (EFOST), Dean of the Theological Seminary “St. Plato Tallinn” (Estonia), Member of the Editorial Board of the French Orthodox theological journals Contacts and Le Messager Orthodoxe (Paris) and the Estonian Orthodox journal Usk Ja Elu (Tallinn), Member of the Synodal Committee of the Inter-Orthodox and inter-Christian Relations, and Member of the Board of the Directors of The Inter-Orthodox Center of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece (Penteli).