Metropolitan Makarios elected as the new Archbishop of Australia

The Holy Synod unanimously voted for Metropolitan Makarios of Christoupolis to be the new Archbishop of Australia. In order to provide as soon as possible for the replacement of Archbishop Stylianos (who reposed on March 26, 2019), and to serve and lead one of the largest Greek Orthodox Christian communities in the diaspora, the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople elected Metropolitan Makarios of Christoupolis as the new Archbishop of Australia on May 9.

Archbishop Makarios (Griniezakis) was born in Heraklion, Crete, in 1973. He studied in Crete, and then at the Rizarios Church School, in Athens (1987-1990). He also received a diploma at the University of Athens Theological School. He then pursued studies in ethics at the University of Boston, where he received a Master in theology.

He also has a Master in History of Science from Harvard, and a Master of Bioethics from Monash University. He pursued philosophy studies in Louvain, Belgium. Then received his Ph.D. from the Medical School of the University of Crete. He passed with an “Excellent” score. His doctoral dissertation was published under the title, “Cloning: Social, Ethical, and Theological Components”.

He received the monastic tonsure and was ordained a deacon on October 18, 1993. He was then ordained a priest on June 25, 1997, and received the title of Archimandrite on April 23, 1998 at the monastery of St. George Apanosifis by Archbishop Timothy of Crete. On Easter Sunday 2008, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew raised him to the rank of Archimandrite of the Ecumenical Throne in Phanar, Istanbul.

He served as a deacon at Agios Minas Cathedral in Heraklion from 1994 to 1997, then as a priest at St. Nicholas Parish in Haraso from 1997 to 1999, and from St. George’s Community in Southbridge, Massachusetts from 1999 to 2002. He was then director of the radio station of the Holy Archdiocese of Crete from 2002 to 2011.

He was also a member of the Synodal Committee of the Church of Crete on Bioethics and Contemporary Issues (2005-2014), the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the School of Byzantine Music of the Archdiocese of Crete (2006-2010), the President of the Office of Ecclesiastical Education (2007-2014), and the official preacher of the Archdiocese of Crete (since 2002). In March 2011, he was appointed the first director of the press office of the new archdiocese of Crete, and the webmaster of the website of the local Church.

His main academic interests are bioethics and pastoral theology. He founded the series Pantodapa tis bioithikis (All about Bioethics), under the auspices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Since 2003, he has been teaching at the Higher Ecclesiastical Academy of Heraklion. He has occasionally taught courses at various universities, including the Hellenic College (Brookline, MA, 2000), the Medical Schools of the Universities of Crete (2002-2014), Thessaly (2007-2014), and Athens (2009-2014). He has also lectured at the Theological Seminary of the autonomous Church of Estonia (2010-2014). He was finally elevated to the rank of Metropolitan in 2015 by the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Source: orthodoxie.com