The representative of the Permanent Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church, Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Ilion, Athenagoras, stressed that the Church would be appealing to Greece’s media watchdog ESR over false media reports regarding the celebrations of Epiphany and the consecration of the waters.

As the statement released by the Holy Synod mentions, “It strongly protests against publications, not those which criticize the Church, even harshly, but those which systematically, and in a one-sided manner, and purposefully target the Church, its priests and its people and, above all, try to incriminate every manifestation of their religious sentiment.”

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The Synod denounced TV broadcasts from the celebration of the Epiphany of earlier years presented as this year’s footage by the television stations ALPHA, SKAI, and STAR, as well as for press releases with corresponding content.

“From the first moment of the appearance of the pandemic, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece managed it responsibly and urged the believers” in all manner of ways “to join their prayers with those of the holy clergy for the rapid cessation of the pandemic and to follow the instructions of the experts in dealing with the spread of the coronavirus, not so much out of fear for their “individual” health, but because the first commandment after the love of God is the love of neighbour, which is “the other form of Christ”, the statement reads.

In addition, the statement says that “during the feast of the Epiphany inside the holy temples there was order and observance of the prescribed sanitary measures, while the cases of deviations in which the measures were not observed outside the holy temples, were minimal and unfortunately increased disproportionately by the Media”.