BOSTON – Greece will be giving a grant of two millions euros every year to Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in support of its survival, programs, and advancement. This grant will be in effect from last year, 2019, and it will continue every year thereafter. It is expected to have a huge impact on the School of Theology economically after the dire and dangerous conditions it endured under the previous administration of the Archdiocese and the School. It had reached the point where it couldn’t cover its basic operating expenses, having exhausted most of the funds of its endowment.
The grants will also contribute to the enhancement of the image of the School in the eyes of the academic agencies which placed the School on two year’s probation after the intervention of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros and the then-vice chairman, now president of the Board George Cantonis, who prepared all the reports and memos sent to the agencies.
It should be noted here that the two million euros grant per year was introduced, pushed, and followed up by the former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in charge of Hellenes Abroad and the Orthodox Churches of the Diaspora Antonis Diamataris. He had also planned many other projects of vital importance for the support and advancement of Hellenism and Orthodoxy, but unfortunately his resignation prevented him of implementing them himself.
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(Photo by TNH Archive/ Theodore Kalmoukos)
It is emphasized here that this is the first time that Greece is making such an important contribution aiming at ‘salvaging’ the School of Theology, which had come very close to shutting down.
The two million euros grant to the School was mentioned by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who this week was visiting the United States, to Archbishop Elpidophoros, who made reference to it in his speech during the luncheon in Honor of Mitsotakis on January 8 at The Willard InterContinental Hotel, in Washington, DC.
The Archbishop, among other things, said: “I would like to acknowledge with gratitude the momentous investment of Hellas in our Theological School – an annual grant of two million euros commencing last year. This commitment of Mother Greece to her children in the Diaspora is particularly significant, because it demonstrates the spiritual as well as ethnic and linguistic ties between us. It creates a fellowship in the Diaspora of ὁμογἀλακτοι, those who have been nurtured by the same Mother. And just as our Mother Church is the Most Holy See of Constantinople, led by our intrepid Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, our culture and civilization – as is true for the rest of the Western World – is Greece! Thank you, Prime Minister, for your commitment to the Omogenia, for your love of our Greek Orthodox Faith and heritage, and for your leadership of the Hellenic Republic.”
It is reminded here that Archbishop Elpidophoros has already begun the reconstruction, the cleansing of the School of its failures and pathogenies of many years. He started with the election to its presidency of businessman George Cantonis and with the appointment to the Deanship of Archimandrite Maximos Constas, while many other basic and essential changes are on the way for the near and distant future.
The School is preparing to welcome on May 7 His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who will be visiting the School to officiate at the graduation ceremonies on Saturday, May 9. The Patriarch and his entourage will stay at the School of Theology and not in hotels in Boston.
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