Page 38 - Western Diocese Annual 2023

DIOCESE OF WESTERN AMERICA
Funeral of Metropolitan John
of Pergamon (Zizioulas) The Guide of the Church at a Critical Moment in History
On Thursday, February 2, the world heard of the repose in the Lord of
Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of
Pergamon, the leading theolo-
gian of the Orthodox Church of
our era. Athens, where the Met-
ropolitan of Pergamon spent the
last years of his life, gathered Hi-
erarchs, clergy, and faithful peo-
ple around their Bishop, teacher,
professor, and friend. In the ear-
ly morning hours of Saturday,
February 4, a Requiem Liturgy
was celebrated, which was pre-
sided over by Archbishop Euge-
nios of Crete. In his sermon, at
the end of the Liturgy, he said
that “The exit of the Hierarch
John from this life becomes his
entry into the Kingdom of God. He left the Church great treasure that we should keep as the apple of our eye, being obliged to show him the deepest respect for his wonderful and unrepeatable work, the work of a faithful and wise servant of God. May his prayer ac- company us in our personal feat and may his memory be eternal”.
The funeral service, which was held in the early af- ternoon, was presided by the Metropolitan of Laodi- cea kyr Theodoritos, representative of His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, with metro- politans Makarios of Aeneas, Georgios of Guinea, Ig- natios of Dimitriade and Almira, Nikolaos of Masoga- ia and Lavreotiki, Chrysostomos of Messinia, Amphilochios of Adrianople, Nektarios of Argolis, Gregory of Perister, Damascene of Aitolia and Akar- nanias, and Bishop of Los Angeles and Western Amer- ica Maxim.
The funeral service was also attended by Archbish- op Eugenios of Crete, Metropolitan of Krini Kyrilos, Metropolitan of Selyvria Maximos, representatives of several universities, the Academy of Athens, of which the blessed metropolitan was a member, and other
cultural and educational institu- tions. Metropolitan Maximos of Selyvria, president of the Acad- emy of Athens, as well as repre- sentatives of the theological fac- ulties in Athens and Thessaloniki, said their farewells to the late Metropolitan with appropriate and touching speeches.
John Zizioulas was born on January 10, 1931. in the village of Katafygio near Kozani. He was ordained to the rank of deacon on June 14, 1986, the next day he became a presbyter, and on the day of Pentecost on 22nd of June, he was ordained as the Metro- politan of Pergamon. He dedi- cated his entire life to theology and the Church, wrote over 200
academic papers, 20 books, taught at various faculties, both in the East and in the West. He taught theology at prestigious theological faculties in Athens, Geneva, Edinburgh, London, Thessaloniki and others. In Ath- ens, he was elected as a member of the Athenian Acad- emy, and in 2002, as its president, making him the first ordained priest to preside over this highest body in Greek society. Until the end of his life, he tirelessly wrote, worked and lectured on various theological topics, leaving an indelible mark on the contemporary theological and scientific world. He received an HO- NORIS CAUSA from the University of Belgrade in 1991.
During his long and fruitful life, he was a witness to many secular and ecclesiastical phenomena about which he wrote, advocating for the preservation of the dignity and identity of the human person. He made an original contribution to ecclesiology, anthropology, liturgy, bioethics, canon law, etc. In his life, like no one in modern Orthodoxy, he combined worship and sci- ence, showing that the Church can be “relevant only when it recognizes the heartbeat of history and re- sponds to the existential needs of the world.”
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