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A Strange incident at St. John’s Parish in Tampa

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BOSTON – A strange incident took place relatively recently at St. John’s the Baptist Greek Orthodox parish of Tampa springs which caused alarm to officials and congregants of the parish.

Specifically, according to the parish’s announcement, “at the conclusion of the sermon, an elderly woman who presented herself as an invalid in a wheelchair made some comments that were only heard by the first few rows of people. She was mostly rambling and at the end used a couple of derogatory phrases and then got out of the wheelchair and pushed it out of our church, with her walking behind. The police department was called and by the time officers arrived, the woman had already left the property.

The parish issued a statement that reads: “Please be assured that we are putting procedures in place so that something like this will not happen again. Please know that the safety of all of our parishioners is a top priority. A safe environment in which to worship is a top priority of our parish of St. John Greek Orthodox Church in Tampa. The Parish Council is forming a committee specifically devoted to security. We are researching best practices already implemented in other churches, including Orthodox Churches. We plan to have security measures in place very shortly.”

In a telephone interview with the presiding priest of the parish Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis, he told The National Herald that “some lady who is not a member of our community came into the church in a wheel chair and during the sermon started making some comments. After she did that she got up and she pushed the wheel chair out. Obviously she wasn’t an invalid. She just pushed the chair out and left. She rambled some things, like we are all trash people and whatever, and she left.”

Asked if she knew the lady and whether she is of Greek Orthodox background, Fr. Stavros said “we have visitors all the time and when she began talking I thought she was hungry, homeless, sick or whatever, and by the time I realized that she was not when she was done, I asked her to leave the property.”

Asked if they had any similar incidents at the church in the past, Fr. Stavros said, “no this was the first time.”

According to Fr. Stavros the parish consists of four hundred families and The National Herald has learned that the parish is one of the most well organized and active parishes of Florida and the Archdiocese.

It is reminded here that Archbishop Elpidophoros visited the parish on January 5, 2020 where he was received enthusiastically by all the generations of the parish.

The post A Strange incident at St. John’s Parish in Tampa appeared first on The National Herald.


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