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Historical survey

Independence of the Church of Greece

Georg Ludwig von Maurer, the Regent of the newly founded Greek Kingdom, with the co-operation of Theoclitos Pharmakides, an intellectual and leading figure of the Church, declared the (...)

Georg Ludwig von Maurer, the Regent of the newly founded Greek Kingdom, with the co-operation of Theoclitos Pharmakides, an intellectual and leading figure of the Church, declared the independence of the Church of Greece from the Patriarchate of Constantinople (1833), contrary to the Orthodox canonical tradition. The background for the creation of the Greek Church was the modernist ideology of nationalism: the idea that each nation-state should have its own national Church, out of the administrative control of any other institution that might be influenced by a foreign power. From a realist political perspective, this decision was considered unavoidable in order to prevent the perceived ottoman ‘enemy’ from interfering in the domestic affairs of the country through the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Taking into account the strong symbolic capital of religion in the collective conscience as well as its special role in the political operation, the government could not take the risk of not fully controlling the ecclesiastical affairs of the state. The newly formed ecclesiastical institution was considered schismatic, because it had been created without the necessary canonical approval of the legitimate ecclesiastical authority, the Ecumenical Patriarch, under whose jurisdiction it had always functioned; thus, communion between them was terminated. The relations between the two institutions were restored in 1850.

November 2013

D 18 September 2013    AKonstantinos Papastathis

Status of the Church of Greece

The Church of Greece was established by the State with the status of a legal entity under public law. From then onwards, the relations between state and Church have been generally governed by (...)

The Church of Greece was established by the State with the status of a legal entity under public law. From then onwards, the relations between state and Church have been generally governed by the so-called system of ‘state-law rule’, according to which the Church has the status of a state agency. The Ordinance of 1833 stipulated that the King was the administrative head of the Church. In particular, King Otto was the supreme leader of the Church, having the power to appoint all the members of its synod. Furthermore, all Synodal decisions had to be approved by him, or else they would be considered null and void. The subordination of the Church to the state resulted in the ‘institutional’ identification between the two spheres. On the other hand, this interplay has given to the Church the opportunity to reproduce its social power and escape –at least partially– from the effects of the secularization process.
The main characteristics, the ‘ideal type’, of the ‘state-law rule’ system, various forms of which have been in effect to this day in Greece, are in principle the following: a) the state has the upper hand as concerns the religious affairs. The two spheres are not on an equal footing, the Church being subordinated to the political power; b) Orthodoxy is recognized in Greece as the ‘prevailing’ religion of the state, i.e. the official religion; c) the Church is a legal person under public law; d) the Orthodox Church enjoys a privileged legal and financial position compared to the other cults; and e) the state guarantees, however, the right of religious freedom to all its citizens.

As provided by the Constitution of 1975, the Church is under the authority of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, while the Greek Parliament is the competent body to legislate on the various religious affairs (art. 72, par. 1). According to art. 3, the Orthodox faith is the ‘prevailing’ religion of the state. Art. 13 protects the rights to freedom of religious conscience as well as that of religious expression. Conversion through violent means is prohibited.

D 20 September 2013    AKonstantinos Papastathis

Organisation of the Church of Greece

The Greek territory is divided in 5 distinct ecclesiastical jurisdictions: a) the Autocephalous Church of Greece (the Metropolitanates in Central Greece, the Peloponnesus, the Cyclades islands, (...)

The Greek territory is divided in 5 distinct ecclesiastical jurisdictions: a) the Autocephalous Church of Greece (the Metropolitanates in Central Greece, the Peloponnesus, the Cyclades islands, the Ionian islands and Thessaly); b) the so-called Church of the ‘New Lands’ (the Metropolitanates in Macedonia, Epirus and Thrace), which are under the administrative jurisdiction of the Church of Greece, but spiritually depend from the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarch; c) the Church of the Dodecanese islands, which is entirely under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch; d) the semi-autonomous Church of Crete; and e) the self-governed monastic community of Mount Athos.

November 2013

D 21 September 2013    AKonstantinos Papastathis

Important events marking State-Church relations after 1974

1979: Introduction by the state of automatic divorce despite the strong disagreement of the Orthodox Church voiced through official statements and encyclical letters. 1982: Legal recognition of (...)

1979: Introduction by the state of automatic divorce despite the strong disagreement of the Orthodox Church voiced through official statements and encyclical letters.
1982: Legal recognition of civil marriage as equally valid to religious marriage despite the Orthodox Church’s huge reactions through official statements and encyclical letters.
1986: Legalisation of abortion despite the reactions of the Orthodox Church through official statements and encyclical letters.
1987: Draft legislation concerning the partial expropriation of the monastic real estate as well as proposed innovations to the internal administration and judicial system of the Church triggered a major crisis between the State and the Orthodox Church. The outcome was at the detriment of the government, which had to withdraw the relevant draft bills and could not implement its project, under the threat of its political cost. After the government’s retreat, the Minister of Education and Religious Affairs was forced to resign.
1992: The European Court of Human Rights condemned Greece for violating the right to religious freedom in a case involving the imprisonment of three Jehovah’s Witnesses. Since then, Greece has been condemned for a number of violations of religious freedom, placing the country at the top of the list of EU countries concerned by the Court.
1998: The election of Metropolitan Christodoulos as Archbishop of the Orthodox Church signified a ’fundamentalist’ turning point in the contemporary history of the Church. Pivotal elements of the religious discourse during the decade of his leadership were: nationalism, populism, and rigorism.
2000-2001: The so-called ‘identity cards’ crisis. The origins of the tension can be found already in 1992-93, when the government initiated the inclusion of religious affiliation on the identity cards on an optional basis. Following the Holy Synod’s reactions, this initiative was withdrawn. In 2000, the government decided, on the basis of a European directive on the protection of personal data, to delete religious affiliation from Greek identity cards, which again provoked a very strong reaction from the Church. Archbishop Christodoulos and the Holy Synod reacted vigorously, organising a campaign to gather signatures calling for a referendum and two major rallies in Athens and Thessaloniki attended by millions of people, demanding at least the optional inclusion of religion on identity cards. The government persisted and the President of the Republic confirmed that, in accordance with the Constitution of Greece and EU legislation, carrying out a referendum or including the religious affiliation in the identity cards was not possible. This is one of the very few cases where the state managed to impose its political decision on the Orthodox Church, despite the strong reactions.
2005: A number of financial, sexual and judicial scandals affected in a very negative way the public image of Archbishop Christodoulos and the Orthodox Church.
2008: Election of Archbishop Hieronymus. The Church’s public discourse became less politicised, more conciliatory and with limited interventions on issues of international relations.
2018: An agreement has been announced between the Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras and Archbishop Hieronymus, towards a new and more ‘secular’ type of relations between the Church and State. However, it was rejected by the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church and organisations of lower rank priests, and it was never implemented.
2020-2021: At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic the Orthodox Church was reluctant to close down all the churches and the government had to strictly impose their closure. While on the whole collaboration between the State and the Church prevailed during the pandemic, the Church, through the Holy Synod or individual Metropolitans and priests, in several cases disobeyed the governmental measures, opened the temples and practiced rituals, which caused heated debates in the public sphere.

D 12 December 2023    AKonstantinos Papastathis

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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