Metropolitan Emmanuel, president of the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of France (AEOF), was received by the Machelon Commission on Friday 3 February. The Commission was set up by French Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy last October to “conduct a legal reflection on the relations between religions and the public authorities”. The aim is to reach, by June this year, “proposals with regard to the law of 1905” (upholding the secular State). The metropolitan “declared says a press release put out by the AEOF that the Orthodox Church in France is pledged to the principles of secularism, in the republican system of separation and mutual respect between Church and State”, but also said he was “favourable to some practical adjustments”: administration of religious buildings, public subsidies and greater concertation.
