WELCOME
Dear Friends,
The information you are about to read in the following pages has one purpose. To inform you about my case and my relationship with the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, a rather good relationship which unfortunately turned sour simply because I dared to raise my voice to protest things that I thought were not right with the spirit and the purpose of the Patriarchate.
It has become obvious by the dramatic events that took place in the Patriarchate in the subsequent years after I started my protests in 1988, not to mention events before that, that I not only was right and justified in my protests but especially that the situation was much more dire than I portrayed it to be. It is also now clear that it was absolutely and urgently necessary that measures be taken to mend and correct the situation, bringing it to a level that would be satisfactory to common sense, if not in full line with the spirit of the Gospel, which supposedly is the guide of our lives!
What has happened since then is history. This history I am planning to unfold here for you and for everyone who cares about the Patriarchate and its future.
Someone may say that we should not go public with the internal affairs of the Patriarchate. Generally, that is true. However, I have seen where this kind of behavior took us and where we are today, at least if I may speak for the last 50 years since I first went to Jerusalem. Then, the events that I mentioned above speak more eloquently about the situation in the Patriarchate than I would ever dream off. No matter what, I take full responsibility for what I say here and ask for your understanding and your forgiveness if I offend you in any way. I rest satisfied that what I did, I did with the best of intentions, aware at the same time that I am not perfect. On the contrary I am much worse than most of the Brothers of the Holy Sepulchre and this makes me feel very sad because I expected for many years that one of the more qualified ones would open their mouths and protest as well. Since no one did that and the situation was going from bad to worse, I decided to do what I did, aware of the consequences and ready to face them. The only thing I could never have imagined is what Patriarch Theophilos and his Chief Secretary Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantine, my good and trusted friends, did to me, as I explain in the following pages.
Archbishop Nikiphoros
Athens, March 2009