Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

ecognized the Constitutional right for evangelicals
to have such a school. In spite of this judgment, how
ever, the Ministry of Education still persists in its
refusal to issue the permit on the ground that the
Archbishop of Athens has not given his consent. It
should be noted that the Archbishop has no legal
right whatever to interfere in an educational matter
of a religious minority. The Moderator of the Evan
gelical General Assembly visited him and tried to
persuade him to withdraw his objections. The arch
bishop, however, was adamant in his refusal to do
so and asked the Moderator never again to mention
this matter to him.
Equally unsuccessful was a visit by the Mod
erator and other members of the Executive Com
mittee of the General Assembly to Prof. H. Alivizatos
who is the liaison between the Greek Orthodox
Church and the World Council of Churches and its
relief branch, the Church World Service. Alivizatos
is famed as a great believer in "ecumenical" ideals.
Unfortunately he proved even more definite than the
Archbishop in his refusal to recognize the right for
a small Protestant community to have a day school
of its own. When it was pointed out to him that both
the law of the country and the judgment of the Su
preme Court recognize this right, he answered in
anger that he did not care what the law and the Su
preme Court is in this matter and that, if he were the
Minister of Cults, he would never consent to give a
permit to the Evangelical Church to have its own
schools.
Seizure of Property
Again in Katerini Evangelicals received their
most severe blow. Between the beautiful church
building there and the orphanage, where fifty Greek
Evangelical orphan boys and girls are being given a
home, evangelicals have a piece of land which they
have planted by their church with trees, flowers and
shrubs and for the last thirty years has served as a
little park as well as a place where the Sabbath School
children meet for exercises, etc. The town munici
pality, incited by fanatical Greek Orthodox church
men, issued a decree by which they seized this piece
of land, for the purpose of building a Greek Orthodox
school. This decree of the town municipality was
recently ratified by the King and was published in
the State Gazette in spite of the fact that the local
court decided in favor of the evangelicals.
This serious blow against religious freedom
opens the door for fanatical elements in the Greek
Orthodox Church to lay hand on all Evangelical
Church property without any indemnity being paid.
Under such conditions the very existence of Evan
gelical Christianity in Greece is imperiled. At the mo
ment all evangelicals can be expelled from their plac
es of worship.
The Katerini brethren then went to the Supreme
State Court,
although bitter experience had taught
them how futile this is if the Archbishop
chooses to
tear its judgments to pieces. On the day of the hear
ing there was brought to the notice of the Court a
Panteleimon
addressed to the Holy Synod of the Church of
letter of the Bishop of Thessalonica Mgr.
Greece which the Synod promptly sent to the Court,
in order to influence its judgment on the case. This
letter is full of false statements which the bishop did
January 5, 1955
not hesitate to make at the expense of a small Pro
testant Church which never did anything to incur
his wrath. It should be noted that both the bishop
and the Holy Synod intervened in this case, which
was strictly between the Evangelical Church in Ka
terini and the Municipality, wholly uninvited by ei
ther party and of their own free will, in order to
throw their weight in the scales against the evan
gelicals. This proves once again beyond any doubt
that the source of it is not so much the Greek gov
ernment authorities, but the Orthodox Church of
Greece that is responsible for these tragic persecu
tions.
Worship Services Forbidden
Evangelicals living in villages and small towns
in the provinces have asked for the necessary per
mits so that they may have the right to gather for
worship. These petitions have been turned down at
the instigation of Greek Orthodox officials. Over and
over again people have been thus refused the right to
meet and worship God as Evangelical believers in
Greece.
The Moderator of the Evangelical General As
sembly, Dr. G. A. Hadjiantoniou, gave a lecture re
cently in a public auditorium of Athens on "The True
Nature of the Church," in which he tried to show
that the spirit of religious intolerance is unchristian
and pleaded for a more generous spirit in the rela
tions of the churches one with another. A second
lecture had been planned in the same auditorium by
the same speaker to be given a month later. The so
ciety, however, to which the auditorium belongs,
withdrew its permission for the lecture, having made
it quite plain that this was done because the Office
of the Archbishop of Athens did not give its consent.
Greek Orthodox authorities have repeatedly re
fused to permit Evangelicals even to bury dead in the
public municipal cemeteries. In many
other respects
a decided effort is being made to uproot this little
Church by robbing it of the small measure of relig
ious freedom which it now enjoys.
Protest and Prayer
Although this Evangelical Church in Greece is
not a member of our World Evangelical Fellowship
and chooses to hold membership in the World Council
of Churches, these humble people are our brethren.
If we might be permitted to aid them American
evangelicals would be most happy to do so.
We protest against this unchristian treatment
of a small Protestant minority by a nation that
boasts of its religious freedom and by a church that
boasts it is the one and only true Christian church.
We protest against the utter neglect and disregard
accorded these patient and long-suffering evangeli
cals at the hands of the World Council of Churches.
We ask every reader of these lines to pray for
Dr. Hadjiantoniou and the members of the Executive
Committee of the General Assembly and for those
humble brethren in Katerini, Neos Mylotopos and all
other communities who are experiencing the darkest
hour in the 100-year history of evangelical Christian
ity in Greece. This is not the first time in the history
of the Church that persecution has been faced for
loyalty of the Faith. May God give the evangelicals
of Greece ultimate victory in His Name !