A Public Event with the participation of the Director
of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies
December 8, 2018, Giannitsa, Greece
On December 8, 2018 a public event / discussion on the topic “Contribution to the Dialogue on State-Church Relationship” was successfully held at the Labor Center of Giannitsa (Pella). The event was organized by the Movement “Citizens of Giannitsa” and the Hellenic Association for Human and Citizen Rights, with the participation of Dr. Stergios Kofinis, Judge at Administrative Court of First Instance in Thessaloniki and Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis, Director of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies and Member of the Executive Committee of the European Academy of Religion.
In his prsentation Dr. Kalaitzidis discussed the dialectic relationship of Church and Power, God and Caesar. He then commented on specific aspects of the complex relationship between State and Church in Greece, criticizing both the statism and nationalization of the Orthodox Church and the ensuing lack of prophetic spirit, as well as the persistent efforts by intellectuals and politicians of the secular side to apply models and patterns of State and Church relations in Greece, irrelevant to the particular context. Dr. Kofinis, on his part, criticized the interdependence between the State and the Church in Greece and presented the proposals by the Hellenic Asociation for Human and Citizen Rights, towards a separation of the two institutions.
Without concealing or neglecting the differences in the approach to this controversial issue which, at every occasion, comes to the foreground, the two speakers held high the level of the discussion, pointing out where the secular/liberal as well as the dominant theological/ecclesiastical approach to the subject contradict, while they have also sought points of convergence between these two approaches.
Recently, the Director of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies wrote two articles in daily newspapers on issues relevant to this discussion ( https://www.efsyn.gr/arthro/oi-apopseis-ton-theologon-gia-ti-symfonia/ and https://www.tanea.gr/print/2018/11/20/opinions/oi-megaloi-xamenoi-apo-ti-symfonia/?fbclid=IwAR2Rd9X9u4vwsThDIAnJJbgUwiWIt-5L0K0NsnsKpx771bAMgJhHdNvPS88 / while next Monday, December 17, 2018 he will take part in a roundtable discussion organized by the Hellenic Association for Human and Citizens Rights at the Athens Bar Association http://www.hlhr.gr/%CE%B5%CF%83%CE%B7%CE%B5%CE%B1-%CE%B4%CE%B5%CF%85%CF%84%CE%AD%CF%81%CE%B1-17-%CE%B4%CE%B5%CE%BA%CE%B5%CE%BC%CE%B2%CF%81%CE%AF%CE%BF%CF%85-2018/?fbclid=IwAR2lJ2bUbu_baDwRdhvFWomJ0-2r_Ooc6S-C1c2SAI8sCZ32uYd2Azn_G5I ).
