wfn.org | NIKKI STEPHANOPOULOS RETIRES AFTER 25 YEARS OF DEVOTED SERVICE

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA
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> Email: communications@goarch.org

> July 10, 2008

> Contact: Stavros H. Papagermanos
> Tel.: 212.570.3556 ? Fax: 212.774.0237
> Email: communications@goarch.org

NIKKI STEPHANOPOULOS RETIRES AFTER 25 YEARS OF DEVOTED SERVICE

NEW YORK -- Archbishop Demetrios of America announced today that Presvytera Nikki Stephanopoulos will retire from her current position August 1, 2008, after more than 25 years of faithful and fruitful service to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Presvytera Nikki will continue to provide her insightful and valuable services to the Church and assist its ministry through special projects.

Commenting about Presvytera Nikkiâ??s long service to the Church the Archbishop said: 
â??Presvytera Nikki has been a faithful and creative worker in the Archdiocese, covering as Director the important field of News and Information. She has offered in an insightful and amiable way, her service in the various tasks of the Church which needed her contribution; and she has been an excellent liaison with significant journalists in the New York area. Upon her retirement, Presvytera Nikki has our wholehearted thanks and our warm prayers for abundant blessing from God.â??

Presvytera Nikki Stephanopoulos began working for the Archdiocese in 1983 as a feature editor for the Orthodox Observer, soon after that she became the Director of the Office of News and Information/Public Relations, the position from which she is retiring. She also served as the editor of the LOGHIA magazine and the IOCC Newsletter (1992-94), and as the public relations director of Leadership 100 (1993-95).

Presvytera Stephanopoulos represented the Archdiocese and served in various capacities in many organizations including the National Interfaith Cable Coalition and National Council of Churches where she is a member of the governing board. She has also served in the boards of the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter, the Garret-Medill Center for Religion and News Media, the Council of Churches of the City of New York and the organization Religion in American Life (RIAL). Prior to her tenure at the Archdiocese and from 1955 to 1982 Presvytera Nikki worked as the assistant director and director of College Crusade for Freedom, the editor of the Athens Daily Post, the editor of The Voice (a Greek-American Newspaper in Cleveland) and was the founding editor of the Illuminator, the newspaper of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

She had an active role as an Orthodox press liaison in the Seventh Assembly of the World Council of Churches (Canberra, Australia, 1991), and as press officer for the Pilgrimage of Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios in the United States in 1991, and the Visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the U.S. in 1997. She was the editor for various Archdiocese publications including Iakovos: The Making of an Archbishop (1996), Patriarch Dimitrios in the USA
(1991), Tell the Good News?Public Information and Outreachh (1991), the 30th, 35th and 37th Clergy-Laity Congress Albums, the Yearbook
(2001-08) and various publications of the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity.

Presvytera Nikki was born in Rochester Minn., is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and is married to Rev. Dr. Robert G. Stephanopoulos who recently retired after serving as Dean of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity for 25 years. Father Robert and Presvytera Nikki have four children and two granddaughters: Mother Agapia, an Orthodox nun; George, husband of Alexandra and father of Elliot Anastasia and Harper Andrea, of Washington D.C.; Marguarite of Cleveland, Ohio; and Andrew of Santa Monica, Calif.