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Gorbachev becomes Archon of the Patriarchate of Constantinople

According to Anthony Limberakis, National Commander of the Order of St.Andrew the Apostle, the ex-president was given the honorary title as ‘a baptized Russian Orthodox Christian’ who played a key role in ‘adopting the law that guaranteed religious freedom in the former USSR’.

Each archon has to make a sworn oath at his investiture ‘to defend and promote the Greek Orthodox faith and tradition’ and, in particular, ‘to protect and promote the Holy Patriarchate and its mission’. The statute says that this honour is bestowed upon individuals of ‘proven Christian character’, who ‘conform faithfully to the teachings of Christ, and the doctrines, canons, worship, discipline, and encyclicals of the Church’.

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