Ecumenical Patriarchate elects new Archbishop of Canada

Metropolitan Apostolos (Koufallakis). Photo: voria.gr

The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate has unanimously elected Metropolitan Apostolos (Koufallakis) of New Jersey as the new Archbishop of Canada. The decision was made on July 22 during a Synod meeting chaired by Patriarch Bartholomew, the UOJ's Greek edition reports.

The election took place at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George in the Phanar. Metropolitan Apostolos (Koufallakis) leaves his previous ministry in the United States to become the head of the Archdiocese of Canada.

The newly elected Archbishop was born on the island of Rhodes and graduated from the Patmos Ecclesiastical School. In 1993, he received the monastic tonsure at the Monastery of Panagia Paramythia, after which he was ordained first as a deacon and then as a priest. He continued his theological studies at the University of Thessaloniki and later at Boston University in the United States, where he earned a Master of Sacred Theology degree.

For more than twenty years, the hierarch held administrative positions within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. In 2014, he was elected Bishop of Medeia, and in 2023, at the recommendation of Patriarch Bartholomew, the Holy Synod elevated him to Metropolitan of New Jersey.

Under the Synod's latest decision, Archbishop-elect Apostolos will now head the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Archdiocese of Canada, serving the Greek Orthodox faithful across the country.

As the UOJ previously reported, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate recently elected a new Exarch for Lithuania.

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