{"id":1898,"date":"2022-06-20T07:37:50","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T07:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fundatia-nawafsalameh.ro\/the-alexandrion-foundation-hosted-the-delegation-of-the-order-of-saint-andrew-archons-of-the-ecumenical-patriarchate-on-its-mission-to-promote-religious-freedom\/"},"modified":"2022-06-20T07:37:50","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T07:37:50","slug":"alexandrion-foundation-hosts-archons-religious-freedom-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fundatia-nawafsalameh.ro\/en\/alexandrion-foundation-hosts-archons-religious-freedom-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"The Alexandrion Foundation Hosted the Delegation of the Order of Saint Andrew, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, on Its Mission to Promote Religious Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Alexandrion Foundation Hosted the Delegation of the Order of Saint Andrew, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, on Its Mission to Promote Religious Freedom<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Mr Nawaf Salameh, Founding Chairman of Alexandrion Group and the Alexandrion Foundation:<\/em><\/p>\n

“I wish Romania to become a model of religious freedom<\/em> <\/em>for other countries.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Alexandrion Foundation, part of Alexandrion Group, hosted a delegation of Greek Orthodox Christians from the United States of America, who belong to the Order of Saint Andrew, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The delegation visited Romania to promote religious freedom. The visit is part of a tour of South-East Europe, held from 8 to 19 June 2022, during which the Archons and their associates will meet key religious and political leaders in Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, to discuss Orthodox solidarity and religious freedom and to promote the Archons’ mission, underlining the ethnic richness of Orthodoxy and respect for local culture and, above all, its universal, transcendent character. They also hope to strengthen existing ties and create new ones between the Orthodox communities in the USA and the Mother Church in Constantinople, and among Orthodox countries, including Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus, based on a strong shared commitment to the Orthodox faith and traditions.<\/p>\n

The delegation includes Dr Anthony J. Limberakis, National Commander of the Order; Judge B. Theodore Bozonelis, National Vice Commander of the Order; Father Alexander Karloutsos, Spiritual Advisor of the Order; Mr Nawaf Salameh, Archon candidate, Founding Chairman of Alexandrion Group and of the Alexandrion Foundation; Archon John Mindala; and Nicholas S. Kass, Executive Director for International Corporate Affairs at Alexandrion Group, together with an accompanying delegation made up of Dr Maria A. Limberakis and Mrs Helen Bozonelis.<\/p>\n

The mission began in Romania on 9 June. The delegation met Mr Sergiu Nistor, Presidential Adviser, Department of Culture, Religious Affairs and National Minorities; His Grace Varlaam Ploie\u0219teanul, Assistant Bishop of Patriarch Daniel of All Romania and Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church; Mr Mircea Abrudean, Head of the Chancellery of Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuc\u0103, together with Mrs Irina-Dumitri\u021ba Solomon, Secretary of State within the Prime Minister’s Chancellery; and David Muniz, Charg\u00e9 d’Affaires ad interim at the US Embassy in Romania. On the evening of 9 June the delegation also attended the event celebrating the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, organised by the British Embassy in Bucharest, a good opportunity for the Archons and their associates to meet Romanian politicians, representatives of the Romanian business community, the press and others.<\/p>\n

A strong supporter of religious freedom and of dialogue between religious communities, the Alexandrion Foundation facilitated the delegation’s meetings in Romania and promoted its mission and messages in the public sphere.<\/p>\n

Mr Nawaf Salameh, Founding Chairman of Alexandrion Group and the Alexandrion Foundation, said: “Alexandrion Group, the Alexandrion Foundation, my family and I have supported religious freedom for more than 30 years, taking part in initiatives and projects that mediate dialogue between different religions. Constantin Br\u00e2ncoveanu, the patron of the Foundation, was himself a promoter of religious freedom, and we have always set out to follow in his footsteps and to play a role similar to the one he played 350 years ago in the religious world. I was born and raised in a family of several religions; likewise, my two older sons are Greek Orthodox, while the youngest is a Maronite Catholic. For me, religious freedom is a human right as important as the right to life. I hope that one day Romania will become a model of religious freedom for other countries.<\/p>\n

This is why I was so glad to invite and receive the visit of the delegation of the Order of Saint Andrew, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and to support it in its mission. I am equally proud to have been nominated as an Archon candidate, and I look forward to joining the Order. Saint Andrew, the spiritual patron of Romania, was born in Syria, in a village sixteen kilometres from my hometown of Marmarita, so on a spiritual level everything that happens in this context makes sense to me.”<\/p>\n

Speaking about the role of the Archons, Dr Anthony J. Limberakis, National Commander of the Order, said: “The unique mission of the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is to fight for religious freedom, for the Mother Church in Constantinople and for all the children of Abraham, regardless of faith. We have programmes in each of the 50 states, which promote religious freedom in the name of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. We work with the State Department, the American Congress, the White House and the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.”<\/p>\n

Dr Limberakis explained that the process of selecting an Archon is very rigorous. Each candidate needs the blessing of Archbishop Elpidophoros of America and the final approval of His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch: “An Archon is nominated by another Archon or by a spiritual father. They put the person forward to the governing body of the Order of Saint Andrew, called the National Council. We have a selection committee that examines each candidate. We look at their position on the religious freedom of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and we receive letters of recommendation from priests and from two other Archons. We also look at the candidate’s willingness to give their time and talent to the Order. We have teams of Archons who are experts in law, accounting, marketing or branding.”<\/p>\n

Speaking about his background and mission in the Order of Saint Andrew, and also about the visit to Romania, Father Alexander Karloutsos, Spiritual Advisor of the Order, said: “I have been very blessed to do what I do for the Church. I am blessed to be an Orthodox priest. I am blessed to be on this great land of Romania, with ample spiritual traditions that I admire very much. The famous Romanian writer and philosopher Mircea Eliade was one of the people who brought Orthodoxy to the USA, but from a philosophical point of view, and I have great respect for him.”<\/p>\n

Judge B. Theodore Bozonelis, National Vice Commander of the Order, concluded: “We wish to thank Alexandrion Group, the Alexandrion Foundation and Mr Nawaf Salameh for hosting us. We appreciate Mr Salameh’s business, since part of what we do here has to do with the business community. We are in Romania also because of Romania’s strategic importance in terms of its position in the European Union (EU), as well as its strategic position towards the Balkan area and the issues of Romanian Orthodoxy. We want to make sure that the values you hold in Romania, as in other countries, continue, and religious freedom should be part of these traditional values. We went to the Romanian Patriarchate and spoke about the fact that we want to develop an ongoing relationship; we do not want this visit to be a one-off. We also visited the United States Embassy in Romania and spoke about issues such as human trafficking, which concerns us all, and the Ukrainian refugees, and we must thank Romania for everything it has done for the refugees, not only through the Patriarchate but also through the Government. Through our relations with the US government, we believe we can support this partnership.”<\/p>\n

On the evening of Sunday, 12 June, the delegation left for Bulgaria and will then visit Greece, due to arrive in New York on 19 June<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Alexandrion Foundation Hosted the Delegation of the Order of Saint Andrew, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, on Its Mission to Promote Religious Freedom Mr Nawaf Salameh, Founding Chairman of Alexandrion Group and the Alexandrion Foundation: “I wish Romania to become a model of religious freedom for other countries.” The Alexandrion Foundation, part of Alexandrion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"alx_galerie":"383,384,385,386","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alexandrion-foundation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundatia-nawafsalameh.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundatia-nawafsalameh.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundatia-nawafsalameh.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundatia-nawafsalameh.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundatia-nawafsalameh.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fundatia-nawafsalameh.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundatia-nawafsalameh.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundatia-nawafsalameh.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundatia-nawafsalameh.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundatia-nawafsalameh.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}