GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA 8-10 East 79th St. New York, NY 10021 Tel: (212) 570-3530 Fax: (212) 774-0215 Web: http://www.goarch.org Email: communications@goarch.org
For Immediate Release: March 23, 2006
Contact: Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos Cell: 617-680-7222
Email: communications@goarch.org
ARCHBISHOP DEMETRIOS HONORED BY NATIONAL
SECURITY ADVISOR FRANCES FRAGOS TOWNSEND AT BLAIR HOUSE
Washington, DC - On the evening of March 22, 2007, National Security Advisor Frances Fragos Townsend hosted a dinner in honor of His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, spiritual leader of 1.5 million Greek Orthodox Christians in America, at the Blair House. Guests included the Foreign Minister of Greece, Dora Bakoyianni, Metropolitan Nicholas of Detroit, members of the government, and diplomats of the Greek American community.
In her welcome, Advisor Townsend expressed tremendous pride in being a member of the Greek American community serving in government positions. "We who are Greek,"? said Townsend, "share a passion for selfless service. This is what characterizes our nationality . . . it is the heart of who I am in my Greek background!"?
In his remarks Archbishop Demetrios recalled how a fabric-embroidered icon of the Mother of God was used by Bishop Germanos of Patras as a banner to declare the beginning of the Greek Revolution on March 25 of 1821. "This symbol was not accidental,"? said the Archbishop, "it makes a connection with the very holy in terms of religion with the very holy of human dignity which is freedom and independence."?
Archbishop Demetrios concluded his comments by noting the historic correspondence between President Thomas Jefferson and Adamantios Koraes, a Greek physician, intellectual, scholar and an early proponent of the Greek Revolution who wrote many times to Jefferson asking for his support to the struggle of Greece for independence. Quoting from one of Jefferson's letters to Koraes, the Archbishop singled out the words of Jefferson who said, "the blood of Homer, Demosthenes, and the splendid constellation of Sages and Heroes still flows in the veins of the modern day Greek people and whose merits are still resting, as a heavy debt, on the shoulders of the living and the future races of men."?