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GOARCH - April 16, 1999
OFFICIAL NEWS

Enthronement of Bishop George of New Jersey on April 17

New York, NY - His Eminence Archbishop Spyridon, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, will officiate at the enthronement of newly-elected Bishop George of New Jersey on Saturday, April 17th at 6:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. John the Theologian,Tenafly, NJ. An Enthronement Banquet will follow in the Cathedral Center (353 East Clinton Avenue). The Diocese of New Jersey is comprised of the all the parishes in the State and by assignment from the Archdiocesan District the parishes in greater Philadelphia, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

The Formal Election Announcement (Mega Minima) for Bishop George will be read today at 3:00 p.m. at the Archdiocese Chapel of St. Paul in New York City. The Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate elected Bishop George of Komanon as presiding Bishop of the Diocese of New Jersey on March 13,1999. He served as auxiliary bishop to Archbishop Spyridon and in November had been appointed Director of the Office of Public Affairs of the Archdiocese headquartered in Washington, DC.

Prior to his elevation to the episcopacy on June 13, 1998, Bishop George (Papaioannou), had served as pastor of the St. George Church, Bethesda, MD for 27 years. A widower, Bishop George and his late Presvytera Maria have three married daughters and six grandchildren.

A native of Prodromos,Thebes (Greece), Bishop George,66,is a 1957 graduate of the Patriarchal Theological School of Halki (Constantinople) and his pastoral assignments have included the Church of the Virgin Mary in Constantinople; St. Demetrios Church, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; St. George Cathedral, Manchester New Hampshire and St. George, Bethesda, MD. He pursued graduate studies in Church History at Boston University and received his

Doctor of Theology Degree in 1976. His dissertation was entitled Patriarch Athenagoras and the Greek Orthodox Church of America.

Considered an expert on the history of the Church in America, other publications by Bishop George are: From Mars Hill to Manhattan: The History of the Archdiocese of North and South America, the Odyssey of Hellenism in America and The Diamond Jubilee of the Greek Archdiocese of America, 1922-1997. Bishop George is especially known to the Greek Orthodox faithful in America and abroad for his popular column, "Tell Me, Father", which he wrote on a regular basis for twelve years in the Orthodox Observer.

Bishop George's ministry has been marked by several significant philanthropic efforts including cooperative programs with the National Institute of Health. Through this program more than 1,000 persons from Greece, many of them children, have been housed at The Kollecas House, located on the grounds of the St. George Church in Bethesda, while undergoing medical treatment at NIH. In 1985 he led a campaign to raise $175,000 for the liver transplant of a 12-year old boy, Vasilaki and in 1997 he a led a national drive to solicit $300,000 for a liver transplant for Father Moses, a monk from Mount Athos, Greece.

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