The 75-years-old Metropolitan Damaskinos of Adrianople passed away on Saturday after facing serious medical issues.
His Eminence Metropolitan Damaskinos of Andrianople (in the world Papandreou) completed his studies at the Halki Institute of Theology (Turkey), then at the University of Marburg (Germany), and in the Faculty of the Theology of Athens, where he defended a doctoral thesis in 1966.
After having represented the Orthodox Church in the bosom of the ecumenical community of Taizé (Saône-et-Loire), he became, in 1969, responsible for the Orthodox Center of Chambésy. Ordained a bishop the following year, he has been, since 1982, metropolitan of the diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Switzerland.
He also became the director of the secretariat in charge of the preparation of a future, pan-Orthodox council, the project for which was launched at the beginning of the 1960s and organized, under this title, several preparatory, pan-Orthodox meetings.
The author of numerous studies on ecumenism, for numerous years he has been very involved in the inter-confessional and inter-religious dialogue, notably with the pre-Chalcedonian Churches, Islam and Judaism. In 1999, he was elected president of the International Academy of Religious Sciences. Struck by a cerebral hemorrhage, he has had to considerably reduce his activities since.
His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, sent a condolences telegram at the passing away of His Eminence Damaskinos Papandreou, Metropolitan of Adrianoupolis stating: “At this moment of mourning for the entire Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Switzerland, whom late Metropolitan Damaskinos has served so faithfully as hierarch, we pray God to rest his soul in the light of His Resurrection and of His eternal Kingdom”.
May his memory be eternal.
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