April 12, 2003

NEW YORK - The Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople elected unanimously today the Very Reverend Archimandrite Evangelos Kourounis as Metropolitan of New Jersey.

The Metropolitan-elect was the first of three candidates chosen for the see of the Metropolis of New Jersey whose names were recently submitted to the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate by the Holy Eparchial Synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

Archbishop Demetrios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, as soon as he received the official letter from the Ecumenical Patriarch, offered the following comments: "I congratulate Metropolitan-elect Evangelos, whom I have known for many years, initially as a student of our Holy Cross Theological School and then as a clergyman of our Holy Archdiocese of America. During all these years and frequently under challenging conditions, the Metropolitan-elect has demonstrated wholehearted devotion to God, unyielding adherence to the dogmas, the canons and the ethos of the Church, zeal for the dissemination of the Gospel, faithfulness to our Hellenic cultural heritage and our Orthodox traditions and remarkable liturgical expertise. I am sure that by the grace and strength from God, the new Metropolitan of New Jersey of the Holy Archdiocese of America will prove to be a true imitator of our Good Shepherd Jesus Christ and will lead the devoted flock of his God-saved Metropolis to 'springs of living water' (Rev.7: 17)."

The Very Reverend Archimandrite Evangelos Kourounis has been the dean of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. Demetrios in Astoria, NY for the last two years. He was born in New York in 1961 to immigrant parents from the Greek Island of Kalymnos of the Dodecanese. He attended the Greek-American day schools of St. Eleftherios and St. Spyridon in New York. He enrolled in Hellenic College from which he graduated in 1983. He then continued his graduate studies at Holy Cross School of Theology and graduated in 1986 with a Masters of Divinity. He also attended, in 1988, the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey of the University of Geneva (Switzerland) from which he received a Certificate in Ecumenical Studies.

He was ordained to the deaconate February 1, 1987 and to the priesthood on July 30, 1989 by His Grace Bishop Philotheos of Meloa. On March 30, 1991 Archbishop Iakovos elevated him to the rank Archimandrite.

He served as deacon to the Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambesy, Geneva-Switzerland in 1987-88 and served as deacon to Archbishop Iakovos and Assistant Director of Archives in 1988-89. From August 1989 until September of 1993 he served as assistant priest to the Dean of St. Demetrios Cathedral in Astoria, NY. He was then named Chancellor of the Diocese of New Jersey, a post at which he served until March of 1999. He served as the Director of the Registry of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese from 1996 to 2001 and as President of the Spiritual Court of the Archdiocesan District from 1996 until the present.

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America