Today 67 years old, Metropolitan DAMASKINOS completed his studies at the Halki Institute of Theology (Turkey), then at the University of Marburg (Germany), and in the Faculty of the Theology of Athens, where he defended a doctoral thesis in 1966. After having represented the Orthodox Church in the bosom of the ecumenical community of Taizé (Saône-et-Loire), he became, in 1969, responsible for the Orthodox Center of Chambésy. Ordained a bishop the following year, he has been, since 1982, metropolitan of the diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Switzerland. He also became the director of the secretariat in charge of the preparation of a future, pan-Orthodox council, the project for which was launched at the beginning of the 1960s and organized, under this title, several preparatory, pan-Orthodox meetings. The author of numerous studies on ecumenism, for numerous years he has been very involved in the interconfessional and interreligious dialogue, notably with the pre-Chalcedonian Churches, Islam and Judaism. In 1999, he was elected president of the International Academy of Religious Sciences (SOP 242.17). Struck by a cerebral hemorrhage more than a year ago, he has had to considerably reduce his activities since.

Translated from the French by Daryle Lamoureux