Tuesday, May 12, 2009

"Church and Culture" Conference in Volos

On Friday, Bishop Maxim flew into Thessaloniki to attend an international theological conference on "Church and Culture" in Volos. I picked him up at the airport and we drove down to Volos, arriving quite late on Friday.

On Saturday morning, we joined the conference. Bishop Maxim presented his paper on "Neopatristic Theology in the Post-Modern World" at noon. For another paper that he recently delivered (in English), see our new diocesan blog here.

When he finished, around 12:30, the conference took an unscheduled break in order to welcome His Beautitude Ieronymos, Archbishop of Athens and all Greece, to the conference. He made a few remarks on the conference's topic, and then sat to listen to the rest of the session. The second speaker, a professor from Moscow, delivered his paper, and then the floor was opened to questions. Bishop Maxim's paper generated quite a bit of interested and enthusiasm, so most of the questions were directed to him.

The photo at top is of Bishop Maxim and me outside the conference room before his paper began.

The second photo is of Bishop Maxim delivering his paper. In the foreground to the right is Metropolitan Athanasios of Chalcedon, another speaker at the conference, who is third in the hierarchy of the throne of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

The photo immediately below is an overview of the crowd during Bishop Maxim's talk. Here, Metropolitan Ignatios of Volos is saying a few words to introduce Archbishop Ieronymos, who had just arrived.

Finally, at the very bottom, you see Bishop Maxim answering a question from the audience. To the left, Archbishop Ieronymos, Metropolitan Athansios, and Metropolitan Ignatios listen.

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