Griniezakis Makarios, Archbishop of Australia
The Most Reverend Archbishop of Australia Mr. Makarios (Griniezakis), was born in Heraklion, Crete in 1973. He attended his general studies in his hometown and at the Rizario Ecclesiastical School of Athens. He is a graduate of the Higher Ecclesiastical School of Athens and the Theological School of the National and Kapodistrian University. He completed postgraduate studies at Boston University (Master of Sacred Theology), Harvard University (Master of Arts), and Monash University (Master of Bioethics), while his doctoral thesis was approved with an "excellent" grade by the Medical School of University of Crete and was published with the title: "Cloning: Therapeutic and reproductive perspectives and its possible consequences".
Since 2003 he has been teaching at the Patriarchal Academy of Crete, at the same time he was a visiting professor at various Universities, among which the Theological School of the Holy Cross in Boston, the University of Tartu and the Medical Schools of the Universities of Crete, Thessaly and Athens. In May 2015, he was elected the first Dean of the Department of Orthodox Theological Studies of the Autonomous Church of Estonia.
He became a monk and a deacon in 1993, an Elder in 1997 and an Archimandrite in 1998, at the Holy Monastery of Agioi Georgios Apanosifis, while on Easter Sunday in 2008, the Ecumenical Patriarch Mr. Bartholomew awarded him the office of Archimandrite of the Ecumenical Throne. He served as a Deacon in the Holy Metropolitan Church of Agios Minas Heraklion, as a priest in the parish of Agios Nikolaos Charas in Heraklion and in the historical community of Agios Georgios Southbridge, USA. He was, in the Holy Archdiocese of Crete, Director of the Radio Station, President of the Administrative Committee of the School of Byzantine Music, Director of the Center for Ecclesiastical Education of the Patriarchal Academy, member of the Synodal Committee "Bioethics and Contemporary Religious Issues", Director of the Press Office 2002 until his election as bishop.
He founded and directs the Publishing Series "Everywhere in Bioethics", which is under the auspices of the Mother Church of Constantinople. In 2008, the Holy and Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate appointed him as a representative in the Pan-Orthodox Committee on Bioethics, while in 2018 President of the Synodal Committee on Bioethics of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
He has represented the Mother Church of Constantinople in various missions, he has been invited as a speaker in many Metropolitans of Greece and abroad, he has given lectures at international scientific, medical and theological conferences, he is a member of many scientific and ecclesiastical organizations, publications and publications and books.
On April 27, 2015, he was unanimously elected by the Holy and Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Bishop of Christoupolis as Assistant to the Ecumenical Patriarch. Ordained by the Archbishop of Crete Mr. Irenaios in the Holy Metropolitan Church of Agios Minas of Heraklion, on the 16th May of the same year, assuming the high duties assigned to him by Patriarch Bartholomew and the Great Church in the Autonomous Church of Estonia, in order to organize its theological and catechetical work.
He participated in the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church in Crete, in 2016, as an advisor to the Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
On May 9, 2019, the Holy and Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, following the gracious proposal of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and after evaluating the theological and formal education, the literary contribution, the administrative gift and the ecclesiastical ethos of the until then Bishop of Christoupolis Mr. Makarios , elected him by universal suffrage as Archbishop of His Holiness the Archdiocese of Australia
