Another Greek bishop warns about heretical Jehovah’s Witnesses

Florina, Greece, August 7, 2025

Photo: imflorinas.gr Photo: imflorinas.gr     

The Metropolitan of Florina, Prespa and Eordaia has issued a public warning to Orthodox Christians about the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses, joining several other Greek bishops who have sounded similar alarms in recent months.

In an official statement released on the feast day of the Transfiguration of Christ, His Eminence Metropolitan Irenaeus cautioned that the religious group “attempts to approach people in order to speak to them about Jesus Christ, while carefully concealing its heretical beliefs” through door-to-door visits and the distribution of pamphlets.

“As your metropolitan and spiritual father, I feel the need to communicate with you on this day of the great Dominical feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, during which Christ Himself revealed His glory,” Met. Irenaeus writes. “I ask you to avoid every foreign teaching that aims to alter the Person of Christ, distorting the glory of His Transfiguration.”

The Metropolitan emphasizes that the diocese communicates with its faithful “through Sunday sermons, special Synodical and Metropolitan encyclicals, as well as through the distribution of approved leaflets and periodicals of our Church.” He stressed that the Church “never distributes leaflets in public squares” and “in no way sends organized groups to visit Christians’ homes or set up booths in squares, exercising their missionary activity, as happens with Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

The warning comes as part of a broader effort by the Greek Orthodox Church to address what it considers heretical teachings. In a statement issued in December 2020, the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church warned that “all the religious beliefs of the so-called ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ are completely contrary to the Christian faith, while the Watchtower [magazine] is internationally known for its false prophecies about the end of the world.” A statement from the Metropolis of Patras in the same month listed 12 specific heresies.

Met. Irenaeus urges Orthodox Christians to “avoid discreetly and with courtesy the proselytizing practices mentioned above” and to “remain steadfast in the Church, with your bishop and priests, as active members of the Body of Christ, experiencing the Transfiguration of our Christ at every moment of your life through worship, prayer and unity.”

The Metropolitan concludes his message by noting that “the Christian lives from worship and not from correspondence,” encouraging the faithful to maintain their connection to the Church through traditional liturgical and pastoral channels rather than engaging with door-to-door evangelists.

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8/7/2025

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