His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain of the Ecumenical Patriarchate was elected as president of the Conference of European Churches during its General Assembly held in Tallinn on June 19.
Archbishop Nikitas is the coordinator of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Task Force on Human Trafficking and Modern-day Slavery and has served as chairman of the Patriarchate’s Committee on Youth as well as co-chair and steering committee member of the Elijah Inter-faith Foundation. He is currently co-president of the European Catholic-Orthodox Forum.
The Archbishop said he has always believed that being a Christian means entering into dialogue with other people and other Christian communities.
“Yes, of course, we have our differences, but we have so much in common: Jesus Christ,” he said. “We need to know each other; we need to work together.”
For the Archbishop becoming CEC president means becoming a shepherd of a flock. “To be president of an organisation, one deals with facts and figures, but the president of CEC also has to work with people’s souls—and that gives me an opportunity to know about CEC in a different way,” he said. “Most important, I want to build bridges and relationships.”
He added that many times, there is fear of the other. “I want my relationships to be ones of Christian love, ones of truth and honesty,” he said. “I want to help build stability in CEC’s offices, economic structure, and relationship-wise.”
A big priority is hearing more youth voices and bringing them into CEC to let them know what is really happening. “We need to know what young people think and feel, he said. “We hear from so many people that churches and congregations are shrinking.”
The Archbishop wants to rejuvenate those churches and give them hope. “We can’t say young people are the future of the church — they’re the reality now,” he said.
Photography courtesy of CEC / Albin Hillert
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