IDENTITY AND IDENTITY CARDS

This book was written in 2002 when the whole of Greece was in uproar over the issue of whether or not religious affiliation should be recorded on the new police identity cards. As Chairman of the Special Synodical Committee on Identity Cards, the author was involved with this serious question, and followed all the stages of the Church’s struggle at close hand.
The reader can learn about what happened on this issue by studying abundant material consisting of statements, articles and comments by the author in newspapers, and interviews on television and radio. The book provides an historical review starting from 1986, and there is a detailed explanation of the Church’s interest in this particular matter. It is emphasised that Orthodoxy is not in fact a religion but a Church, which, as the Body of Christ, can never lose its identity.
As a spiritual institution the Church confronted the subject of identity cards as an issue indissolubly linked with a person’s individual identity, but also with the identity of the nation. It speaks of the rediscovery and preservation of our ecclesiastical identity, and the regenerative energy of the Church.