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| THE MONTREAL GREEK TIMES GOPHER NEWS SERVICE |
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August 2026
Archbishop Sotirios honoured for 90 years of a bright journey
(GIF) article photo
By Dimitri Papadopoulos
Beneath crystal chandeliers, amid long tables crowned with white orchids
and the steady glow of floating candles, the cultural centre of the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada filled on the evening of June 14
with the low murmur of a community gathered for a single purpose. A wide
screen above the head table carried a grainy image from another century,
and the room rose to its feet as clergy in black robes processed toward
the front, one young guest holding a small Greek flag against his chest
while a girl in a white dress watched the procession pass. The evening
that followed would trace nine decades of one life, the patient building
of Orthodoxy in Canada out of the most modest of beginnings, and the
question that sits at the centre of every diaspora gathering, which is
how a people abroad keeps its faith and its language alive for the
children who will inherit them.
The gathering took place on Sunday, June 14, at the Metropolitan
Cultural Centre of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada in
Toronto, where more than 600 people sat down to a formal dinner in
tribute to the life and ministry in Christ of His Eminence Archbishop
Sotirios. The evening marked the official presentation of a
commemorative volume from the Saint Nicholas Cathedral Community,
titled "90 Years of a Bright Journey," the most recent of four books
the community has published since 2022 to record the historical and
continuing ministry of the archbishop.
The event was organized by Anastasia Sotiropoulos, president of the
Saint Nicholas Cathedral Community, working with a team of volunteers.
The head table brought together Archbishop Sotirios; Ignatius, the
former metropolitan of Arta, who travelled from the Church of Greece
accompanied by Archimandrite Theologos Ntouvalis; the Reverend Father
Photios Tsamis, president of the Clergy Syndesmos of Canada; the
Reverend Father Evangelos Athanassoulas, parish priest of the Saint
Nicholas Cathedral; Abbess Alexia of the Saint Kosmas Aitolos
Monastery; the consul general of Greece in Toronto, Ioannis
Chatzantonakis, with his wife, Marilena Griva; Archon Evagelos
Sotiropoulos, president of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Archons in
Canada; Archon Jim Anas, treasurer of the Archdiocese; Zoe Veroutis,
president of the Philoptochos of Canada; and Betty Skoutakis, president
of the Greek Community of Toronto. Among the elected officials in
attendance were Vince Gasparro and Jean Yip, members of Parliament;
Effie Triantafilopoulos and Jonathan Tsao, members of the Ontario
legislature; and Nick Mantas, a Toronto city councillor.
The formal program opened with the evening's masters of ceremonies,
Nancy Gymnopoulos and Vicky Topos-Tsakalos, who introduced Nicholas
Sirmalis, a graduate of the Patriarchal Toronto Orthodox
Theological Academy, to sing the Greek and Canadian national
anthems as the hall stood in silence.
In her welcome, Anastasia Sotiropoulos spoke of the weight of the moment
and the response it had drawn from the community. "The love of our
families was proven to be even greater than the walls of this room," she
told the gathering, describing the hundreds who had called wishing to
attend. She described the archbishop in the language of leadership
rather than office. "He is a true leader," she said, "a leader who is
always there for his people on the front line."
Father Photios Tsamis carried the greetings of the clergy across Canada
and used the occasion to remind those present of how recently the
church's present comforts had arrived. "We have big churches, we have
decorated churches, we have everything today," he said, "these came
because one, the archpriest, took care of them." Consul General
Chatzantonakis followed with words of esteem on behalf of Greece,
reflecting on the meaning of the archbishop's work for Hellenism in
Canada and for the bond between the community and the motherland.
Archon Evagelos Sotiropoulos then presented the four volumes the Saint
Nicholas Community has produced since 2022, extending the community's
thanks to the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of Chrysopigi
in Chania, Crete, which assisted in the publications. He began, by his
own description, with a peculiar photograph, the same faded image
projected on the screen behind the head table. It showed a scene from
1963, when the future archbishop, then a young priest ordained only a
year earlier, baptized an infant in Saskatchewan in a plastic garbage
can for want of a font. "That's where we came from as a church and
that's where we came from as a community," he said. He set the image
against the present, recalling the first arrivals from Greece who had
built the church. "Many came from motherland Greece," he said, "with
little in their pockets but with a strong and unyielding desire to work
for the betterment of themselves, their family, and this gracious
country that we love and call Canada."
The personal thread deepened with Archon Jim Anas, treasurer of the
Archdiocese's national board of directors and a collaborator of the
archbishop for more than 50 years, who painted his portrait from memory.
"Sixty years ago at a Greek Orthodox youth conference in Montreal, I met
a young priest," he said, recalling a first encounter that began with a
difference of opinion. He reached back to the diocese he inherited on
the eve of the archbishop's arrival. Asked to review the finances in
1973, he found, as he put it, "just over a thousand dollars in the bank
of the diocese." From that point, he said, the archbishop led a
transformation of the church across the country. He remembered the
regional youth assemblies of the 1980s that drew hundreds of young
people, reaching 500 at one gathering, and the fireside talks where
nothing was off limits, down to the bishop's favourite hockey team,
which in those years, he noted with a smile, was the Montreal Canadiens.
The keynote was delivered by Ignatius, the former metropolitan of Arta
and a longtime friend of the archbishop. He spoke with evident emotion
of the honoured guest's childhood, of the humility that has marked his
bearing, and of the work accomplished across a lifetime of service in
the vineyard of the Lord. At the close of his address, the cathedral
community presented him and the archbishop with flowers and a token of
gratitude at the lectern.
Final remarks came from Archbishop Sotirios himself, who spoke in his
familiar manner, with plain words and without notes. He recounted a
difficult childhood in Epirus, his early devotion to the church, and the
benefactors who made his education and his ministry possible. "It is not
a shame to ask for the advice of people who know better than you," he
said. "It is not a shame to be humble." He measured the distance the
church has travelled. "Here in Canada, when I came in 1962, we started
from the very beginning," he said, returning to the image of the infant
he had once baptized in a garbage can, now an adult and a benefactor of
the same Saskatchewan community. He reserved his deepest gratitude for
the Ecumenical Patriarch. "The Great Benefactor, not only of myself but
also of the Church of Canada, is His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew, whose determination and vision led, in 1996, to the
establishment of Canada as a separate Metropolis, distinct from the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America," he said. "This
historic decision greatly fostered the growth and flourishing of the
Orthodox Church in Canada."
The archbishop returned again to the simplest of instructions, drawn
from the example of Saint John the Evangelist, whose sermon, he
recalled, ran to two words. "Love one another," he said. He spoke too of
the years behind him and the road ahead, telling the hall he had tried
his best and would continue to do so, and acknowledging that he was
giving serious thought to retirement.
The musical portion of the evening followed, as the assembled clergy
chanted "Axion Estin," the Apolytikion of Saint Nicholas the
Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra, and the fimi of Ecumenical
Patriarch Bartholomew. Youth dance groups then took the floor in
traditional costume, the dancers in red and dark blue skirts and
embroidered white blouses moving in line across the centre of the
hall while the guests looked on.
The evening closed with a reception of Lenten fare, served in
observance of the Apostles' Fast.
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