Increasing the number of state positions for Church of Greece clerics to 10,000 from the current 6,000-odd and a revision of the Church’s charter are the top items on the agenda of Monday’s Holy Synod, which will be attended by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
According to Church sources, this is the first time a prime minister will attend a Synod meeting and it is being viewed as a signal of the intention to strengthen ties between the state and the Church, as well as recognition of the latter’s support in the management of the coronavirus pandemic.
The matter of the payroll for priests and the renewal of the charter will be on a list of priorities that will be handed to Mitsotakis by Archbishop Ieronymos, drafted by the Church-State Relations Committee, a body that had been effectively disbanded under the previous leftist-led administration and was revived by the present government.
