The conflict between the Constantinople Patriarchate and the Athenian Archdiocese flared up with renewed vigor. The Phanars are annoyed that the municipal authorities of Athens have transferred the Church of St. George in Patisia into the ownership of the Church of Greece, which the Patriarchate of Constantinople considers to be its own, Russian Athens write.

At its last meeting, the Municipality of Athens decided to transfer the temple to the ownership of the EOC, according to which “the term of the concession is agreed for 50 years and begins with the signing of the document, and ends on December 31, 2071 and can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties.”

In 2017, the cleric of the Patriarchate of Constantinople unauthorizedly, without notifying Archbishop Jerome of Athens, went to the church and celebrated the Liturgy in it, which entailed going to court. As a result, the church was sealed by the authorities.

This is not the first scandal between Phanar and Athens, the newspaper writes. After Bartholomew came to the “throne” of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, many conflicts arose between Athens and Constantinople, connected with Bartholomew’s attempts to “grab some more property into the hands of the patriarchy and Jerome’s unwillingness to succumb to these claims.”