Athens, 28 July 2023. Meeting of the IAO Secretary General with the President of the Academy of Athens

In 28th July, the Secretary General of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO), dr. Maximos Charakopoulos and the IAO Advisor dr. Kostas Mygdalis, had an official meeting with the President of the Academy of Athens, former Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Prof. Michael Konstantinos Stathopoulos.

During the meeting held in the Academy’s neoclassical building, the President of the Academy addressed a warm welcome to the head of the international institution of orthodox parliamentarians. Subsequently, he was informed on the 30 year-old-course and activity of the IAO, as well as on the recent IAO initiatives concerning the promotion of the role of Christian values in Europe and the World.

The Secretary General referred to the long-standing trustful relationships that the IAO has built with Academic Institutions and research bodies of Greece, but also abroad, with the most typical example being the conclusion of the Memorandum of Understanding between the IAO and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, which formed the basis of closer collaboration in areas of mutual interest. The fruitful result of this collaboration is the Volume “Hagia Sophia: The Churches of the Wisdom of God around the World”. The Volume has already been translated into 14 languages and distributed in thousands of copies in many countries, in which official presentation events, while it has been handed over to distinguished personalities, such as the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Francis.

The President of the Academy showed particular interest in the recent activities of the IAO, while he thanked Mr. Charakopoulos for offering him the Greek edition of the Volume on the Hagia Sophia Churches.