Stockholm Metropolis Thanks Outgoing Greek Ambassador

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The Metropolis of Sweden honoured outgoing Greek ambassador Ekaterini Fountoulaki at Saint George Cathedral in Stockholm on Sunday 27 September.

She attended the hierarchical Divine Liturgy. In a few days she ends her posting and returns to Athens for work on Greek–Turkish relations.

Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden and All Scandinavia preached on the First Sunday of Luke and Christ’s word to Peter: “Launch out into the deep.” He said Christ calls people deeper into faith, prayer, self-knowledge and love, and that old failures need not fix the future.

Before Communion he spoke to the Sunday School about Saint Chariton the Confessor (28 September). The children gave the ambassador a gift from the local Church.

Cleopas then thanked her in the nave. She is a graduate of the University of Athens Law School. She served at Greece’s UN mission in New York and as ambassador to Lebanon before Stockholm.

“We express to her our sincere and profound gratitude for the excellent, cordial and fruitful cooperation we enjoyed throughout her tenure here, as well as for her unfailing interest in and support for the Holy Metropolis of Sweden and our Greek community.”

He congratulated her on the new brief and asked that “the God of peace bless her efforts, so that she may contribute meaningfully to strengthening dialogue, mutual understanding, good-neighbourly relations and the peaceful coexistence of the two peoples.”

A reception followed in the fellowship hall. Cleopas and Bishop Bartholomew of Elaia gave her flowers.

Homily, in brief
The Gospel is the catch of fish and the call of the first disciples. Peter had toiled all night and caught nothing, then obeyed: “At Your word I will let down the net.” The miracle, Cleopas said, prepared them for a ministry that works by grace, not muscle. Peter’s “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man” is humility; Christ answered, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch people.” The same call stands: leave a thin faith, trust more, serve the neighbour. The real miracle was that they left the boats and followed.

Source: Metropolis of Sweden and All Scandinavia, 28 September 2026.

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