Saturday, September 11, 2004

AIR CRASH IN GREECE KILLS TOP ORTHODOX CHURCH LEADER

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

GREECE  (ANS) -- A senior leader of the Greek Orthodox Church has been killed along with 16 other people in a helicopter crash off the coast of northern Greece, according to a report from the British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC).

Patriarch Petros VII of Alexandria, the spiritual leader of Greek Orthodox Christians in Africa, was heading north from Athens when contact was lost. He was going to a monastic community on Mount Athos for a religious event.

Aircraft and ships mounted a rescue operation which located wreckage and bodies in the nearby Aegean Sea. No cause has yet been established for the crash, which occurred when conditions were good, the BBC said.

The BBC reported that military officials said the helicopter was in a good condition and the pilots were experienced.

The Patriarch, aged 55 and one of the most senior figures in the Greek Orthodox Church, was on a visit to Greece from Egypt accompanied by Orthodox priests and laymen from the Alexandria area.

His helicopter went missing about two hours into the flight from Athens to Mount Athos -- known as the Holy Mountain -- for a religious ceremony, the BBC said.

A church spokesman said the death of Patriarch Petros “was a huge loss” as he had breathed new life into the Orthodox Church in Africa since being elected seven years ago.

Mount Athos -- a male-only community of Orthodox monasteries -- has been a center of Eastern Orthodoxy since AD963 and is classed as a semi-autonomous monastic republic.

Mount Athos Monk Killed

Thessaloniki, Greece February 8, 2003 (AP) - A 25-year-old hermit monk died after accidentally driving his tractor off a cliff in an attempt to dodge police who have barricaded the monastery, authorities said Sunday.
The incident occurred early Saturday in the Orthodox Christian sanctuary of Mount Athos, where the Esphigmenou Greek monks guard the Faith and Sacred Ground of the monastery has been sealed off by police since Jan. 29.

 Police said the monk, Tryfonas, who lived in solitary quarters, tried to retrieve a tractor outside the monastery grounds during the night to avoid police detection and drove off the side of a cliff.