GOC reaffirms refusal to recognize same-sex marriages after court ruling

The building of the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church in Athens. Photo: Orthodoxia

On April 1, 2026, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece confirmed that its position on same-sex marriage remains unchanged following a recent court decision in Greece. The statement was issued after a Synod meeting chaired by Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens, Orthodoxia.info reports.

The meeting took place during the 169th synodal session. The hierarchs reviewed a number of current issues in Church life, paying particular attention to a ruling by Greece’s Council of State, which found constitutional a law allowing civil marriages between persons of the same sex and granting them the right to adopt children.

In response to the ruling, the Synod stressed that it continues to adhere to the position it set out earlier, both in its official communiqué of January 2024 and in its special appeal “To the People.” The Church authorities again stated that they do not accept the recognition of same-sex unions as a form of marriage.

The day after the Synod’s statement, Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Messinia also laid out his position. In his article, “The Model of the Same-Sex ‘Family,’ Adoption, and the Position of the Orthodox Church,” he argued that family relations are not a matter of “opinion” or “right,” but a way of life grounded in sacrificial love and complementarity. In his view, the recognition of same-sex unions creates a new model of “family” that does not correspond to Christian teaching.

The hierarch also said that, within the Orthodox tradition, it is impossible to recognize an individual right to self-determine one’s sexual identity as the basis of family relations. He added that weakening the role of father and mother in the upbringing of children, as well as replacing the traditional family with other forms of cohabitation, leads, in the Church’s view, to a distortion of anthropological and social principles.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that hierarchs of the Church of Greece had criticized an EU plan to fund abortions.

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