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| THE TELETEXT GOPHER SERVICE |
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September 2026
New archbishop of Canada enthroned in Toronto
(GIF) article photo
By Dimitri Papadopoulos
The acclamation “Axios,” the ancient Greek cry meaning “worthy,” rose
from a packed congregation inside St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral
in Toronto’s Scarborough district on the afternoon of September 19
2026, as Archbishop Apostolos of Canada ascended the archiepiscopal
throne. Families from across Ontario and beyond filled the nave and the
balcony, many holding phones aloft for relatives watching from afar.
The ceremony opened a new chapter for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of
Canada and the parishes, schools and community institutions that have
anchored Hellenic life in this country for generations, and it raised
pointed questions about how the Archdiocese communicates with the
Greek-Canadian public it serves.
A representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople presided
over the enthronement. The Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate elected Apostolos unanimously on July 22. He previously
served as metropolitan of New Jersey, arrived in Toronto on September
16 and succeeds former archbishop Sotirios, whose long tenure shaped
the Canadian Archdiocese.
The enthronement address, delivered in Greek and English, spoke directly
to the experience of the diaspora. Apostolos described Canada as “the
land where our ancestors arrived with hope, worked, created, built
churches, schools and church communities and laid the foundations of a
living Greek Orthodox presence.”
The Greek language stood at the centre of his remarks. He called it “a
living ark of memory, truth and wisdom,” adding: “It is a bridge between
the generations. It is part of our identity.” In the English portion, he
pledged to strengthen schools, support teachers and renew educational
programs, and he urged young people to take part in Greek education,
community service and volunteer work. For Montreal, home to one of the
largest Greek communities in the country and its network of community
schools, that emphasis carries direct weight.
He also recognized the varied origins of Greek Canadians, from regions
across Greece to Cyprus, Pontus, Cappadocia, Asia Minor, Eastern Thrace
and Constantinople, saying these places, histories and memories “enrich
us and unite us.” He named unity as the defining word of his tenure and
said a person can be “at once a good Canadian, a conscious Greek and,
above all, a faithful Orthodox Christian.” The enthronement Divine
Liturgy was celebrated the following morning, September 20.
For Greek Canadians outside the church, the event unfolded almost
entirely out of view. No professional live video feed was made available
to broadcast media. The only transmission from the Archdiocese came from
a single mobile phone held vertically, with an operator whispering
beside the microphone, hands passing in front of the lens and constant
shaking. The owner of a Greek-language television station in Florida
WZRA Channel 48, searching for a usable signal, contacted The Montreal
Greek Times for help and ultimately aired nothing. Community
broadcasters in Canada with the equipment and experience to produce a
professional signal had no role in the coverage.
Access inside the cathedral followed a visible hierarchy. Media
outlets from Greece moved through areas closed to others, including
positions in front of the sanctuary, while other Greek-Canadian
journalists were directed to the balcony. Marianna Michalitsianou of
The Greek Press in Toronto said she was turned away at the door by an
official who doubted she was media, and entered only after volunteers
at the entrance recognized her. She was then kept from moving forward
to take photographs, while at least two outlets from Greece remained
at the front throughout the ceremony. Other diaspora outlets received
no reply to their requests. The publisher of The Montreal Greek Times
asked publicly whether a pool arrangement had been established, the
standard practice at high-profile events in which one designated crew
shares clean photos and video with all accredited media. No such
arrangement was announced.
“We are talking about the basic professional organization of a major
public church event: media accreditation, briefings, a press position,
a clean television feed, proper sound and one person responsible for
answering the media,” the publisher wrote. “It is Media Relations 101.”
He argued that an event of this scale requires a common, non-exclusive
professional feed and clear access rules applied equally to every
outlet. By favouring media from Greece and sidelining the community
press, the organizers left thousands of Greek Canadians in Montreal,
Vancouver and elsewhere, along with viewers in the United States, to
follow a landmark moment for their Church through selfies, fragments
and shaky vertical clips.
A reception followed the enthronement ceremony, at which further
speeches were delivered. The few amateur videos of the reception
circulating online are too fragmentary to allow those remarks to be
reported with accuracy. The Montreal Greek Times requested access to
the enthronement and received no response, and under the
arrangements in place, independent professional reporting by local
Greek-Canadian media was not possible. Details in this report are
therefore limited to publicly available accounts and material.
Montreal Greek Radio and Montreal Greek TV, part of The Montreal
Greek Times, reported and broadcast the enthronement using the
limited information that was available.
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