Metropolitan Anthimos (Roussas), who has led the Metropolis of Thessaloniki for nearly two decades, submitted his letter of resignation to the Archbishop of Athens on Monday.
"This is more a political than an ecclesiastical problem now."
The primate of the Macedonian Orthodox Church-Ohrid Archbishopric recently paid a one-month pastoral visit to the MOC’s Diocese of America and Canada.
The Archbishop hopes to return to his duties starting Monday.
Thus, in recent years, those who have been “affiliated with Orthodoxy” have tended to move in one of two directions: to become active practitioners, or to stop associating themselves with the faith—a trend observed across Eastern Europe.