SYRIZA to Keep Paying Clergy Salaries

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On Thursday, the government said there are no plans for the state to stop paying clergy salaries, adding that the Church of Greece also pays its fair share of taxes. Alternate Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas said when questioned about whether taxpayers would continue to cover clergy salaries, “There’s no such issue”. Mardas commented after meeting Archbishop Ieronymos Liapis of Athens, the First Hierarch of the Church of Greece. Vladyki Ieronymos said, “The paying of clergy wages is the reciprocal duty of the state as the Church has handed over its property to the state as part of this arrangement. The Church is taxed properly; maybe, even more than some other bodies”. The General Secretary for Religious Affairs, Georgios Kalantzis, issued a statement backing up Ieronymos on both issues. He said that the state reduced clergy salaries during the crisis by the same amount as other public-sector workers and that the Church pays taxes on revenues and property like other organisations. He added that only places of worship, and sites used for charitable work, such as retirement homes and soup kitchens, are exempt from property tax.

5 March 2015

Kathimerini

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_05/03/2015_547931

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Head of Church of Greece Puts Off Visit to Russia

Bart sucking up to Biden and listening to His Master’s Voice… “Do beware the Danaeans, even when they bear gifts”… I mean the USA, NOT “the Greeks”

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Sources told Kathimerini that Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias, who visited Athens last May, cancelled plans to attend an event at the Greek Embassy in Moscow after the head of the Church of Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos Liapis of Athens, put off a visit to the Russian capital. Officially, the Church of Greece informed the MP that Ieronymos wouldn’t be able to visit due to scheduling problems, but the feeling in Moscow is that he cancelled his trip because of friction between the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul and the MP over the Ukrainian situation. In the past, the two Churches sparred over religious issues in the Ukraine.

e-Kathimerini

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_08/03/2014_538003

Editor’s Note:

Kathimerini is a partner of the New York Times, so, its content is often suspect neoliberal bullshit (remember, the NYT has the likes of Serge Schmemann working for it… you know what flocks together, don’t you?). Here, however, it’s straight reportage… which reveals that the recent meeting in Istanbul went very badly, indeed. Bart is a shameless lickspittle of the Americans, as all Ecumenical Patriarchs since Athenagoras Spyrou have been (he’s also papist-trained, giving him two strikes against him, no?). Do you remember that image of Bart kissing Biden’s ass in public? That was disgusting… but that’s what the EP has degenerated into.

There’s not much on the late meeting in Istanbul on patriarchia.ru (nor is it prominent and highlighted, it’s just ordinary “latest news”… that means that all the hot air out of the Phanar about an imposing and all-powerful “all-Orthodox Council” in two years is sheer hokum and bogus. Don’t forget, the MP and Antioch pulled out of the EP-inspired “Episcopal Assemblies” in the diaspora. Besides which, the EP centre in Chambésy lies shuttered and empty (its funding from the Greek government is gone… Langley didn’t give the EP enough to keep it open), there’s no serious work being done to prepare a council, which requires detailed planning and, most of all, MONEY (money that the EP doesn’t have, by the way… its dependent on Langley hand-outs and shaking down rich diaspora Greeks). Until you SEE planning and SEE serious money on the table, discount all Phanar lies. Indeed, it’d be inane to have a “Synod” in two years (it wouldn’t be an Ecumenical Council, for no patriarch can call such, only an “Orthodox Emperor” can do so)… it’d have the potential to split the Church in two. All sane people oppose such a notional meeting.

It’s best not to comment on the noise from the EP and crank papist sources such as AsiaNews. As the old Russian saying has it, “The dogs bark as the caravan passes… the caravan goes on its way”. In short, the EP isn’t going to steal the Ukraine (that’s what this is all about, kids). Things haven’t changed… “Beware the Danaeans (Americans), even when they bear gifts”… that hasn’t changed, either.

BMD

Hellenic Parliament Lifts Immunity of Six Golden Dawn MPs

Nazis in Greece

Carlos Latuff

2012

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On Wednesday, the Hellenic Parliament voted to lift the immunity of six ultranationalist Golden Dawn deputies:

• Stathis Boukouras
• Giorgos Germenis
• Panayiotis Iliopoulos
• Ilias Panayiotaros
• Ilias Kasidiaris
• Chrysovalantis Alexopoulos

Taking part in the vote on Wednesday were 247 MPs, whilst the Golden Dawn deputies abstained from the procedure. Those voting in favour of the motions ranged from 246 to 247. Germenis, Iliopoulos, and Boukouras face charges for participating and managing a criminal organisation, whilst Panayiotaros faces charges of disrupting the peace. Kasidiaris is accused of rioting and Alexopoulos for establishing an illegal radio station. Meanwhile, three Golden Dawn MPs, party chief Nikos Michaloliakos, second-in-command Christos Pappas, and Yiannis Lagos are in pre-trial custody in Korydallos Prison. All three are accused of participating in a criminal organisation, amongst other charges.

16 October 2013

Kathimerini

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_16/10/2013_523372

 

Church and SYRIZA Seek Understanding

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Analysts reported that tectonic shifts in the political landscape caused by Greece’s economic meltdown have led to a tacit alliance between Orthodox Church leaders and the secular left-wing SYRIZA party. Poised to win the next parliamentary election, whenever that may take place, SYRIZA chief Alexis Tsipras appears keen to build bridges with the deeply-conservative Church, which, controversially for some, remains one of the most influential institutions in the debt-hit country. In response to SYRIZA’s rise, Archbishop Ieronymos Liapis wants to establish a platform for discussion with the main opposition, as it has with other parties.

Such rapprochement may come as a surprise considering the two sides’ differences on a series of key issues, including the separation of Church and state… a perennial demand of leftist elements in Greek society. Tsipras isn’t married to his long-time partner and mother of his two children, who haven’t been baptised. However, after the SYRIZA leader’s father Pavlos Tsipras died last month, Ieronymos officiated at the funeral. Recently, the two sides found common ground in their social work and criticism of Greece’s foreign creditors. Leftist officials also welcomed the clergy’s denigration of the Neofascist Golden Dawn party. Nikos Pappas, a senior SYRIZA figure, told our Kathimerini correspondent, “We’re very lucky that Ieronymos is archbishop at this difficult moment”. The Greek Constitution recognises Orthodoxy as the country’s official religion. Surveys suggest about 80 percent of Greeks believe in God. This makes them among Europe’s strongest Christians, although many are infrequent churchgoers.

24 November 2012

Kathimerini

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_24/11/2012_471486