GOARCH’s Archbishop of Atlanta requests retirement due to health

Atlanta, November 11, 2024

Photo: thenationalherald.com Photo: thenationalherald.com     

After 25 years as the ruling hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America’s Metropolis of Atlanta has submitted a request for retirement.

Metropolitan Alexios sent his letter on November 8 to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, with copies to Archbishop Elpidophoros, the head of GOARCH, and the members of the Holy Eparchial Synod of the Archdiocese of America, reports the National Herald.

In his letter, the Metropolitan notes that since he was ordained to the diaconate, 59 years have passed, “during which Divine Grace has allowed me, despite my unworthiness and sinfulness, to stand before the holy Altar and to offer prayers ‘for our sins and the ignorance of the people,’ always caring for the ministry of the flock, always faithful and obedient to the Archbishop of America, the Eparchial Synod, and especially to the Sacred Center of Orthodoxy in Constantinople.”

Further, his “sense of duty” as metropolitan “dictates the writing of this letter, as over time, I feel my physical and spiritual strength weakening.”

Met. Alexios thus requests to be retired in order to “dedicate [him]self to the ministry of prayer.”

He proposes his long-time assistant Bishop Sebastian of Zela as his successor.

***

Short biography of Met. Alexios:

Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta, born Anthimos Panayiotopoulos, was born in Ano Soudenika, Patras, on December 25, 1943. He graduated from the Theological School of Athens in 1973. He became a monk at the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos in 1963, was ordained a deacon on November 1, 1965, and a priest on August 27, 1972. He served as Archdeacon in the Metropolis of Patras and as a parish priest in the United States, particularly at the Saint Demetrios Cathedral in Astoria. He was consecrated as titular Bishop of Troas on May 17, 1987, serving as Auxiliary Bishop to the Archdiocese of America. He served as administrator of the Diocese of Atlanta from 1997 to 1999 and was elected Bishop of Atlanta on March 13, 1999. On December 20, 2002, following the elevation of the Diocese of Atlanta to a Metropolis, he was promoted to Metropolitan of Atlanta. He developed extensive ecclesiastical, administrative, and philanthropic work, while the Metropolis’ Diakonia Center is unique in its kind. He was loved, respected, and appreciated by the clergy and faithful of the Metropolis of Atlanta communities.

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11/11/2024

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