The leaders of the Christian Churches of Europe will attend the funeral of His Beatitude Christodoulos, which will be celebrated in the Cathedral of Athens on Thursday. The funeral will be officiated by the Patriarch, Bartholomew I, while the sermon will be given by the metropolitan bishop Antimo of Salonika. The latest news about the State funeral come from Brussels and has been given by the archimandrite Ignazio Sotiriadis, representative of the Orthodox Church of Greece to the European institutions. The Holy See will be represented by card. Paul Poupard, emeritus president of the Papal Council for Culture, and mgr. Brian Farrell, secretary of the Papal Council for the promotion of the unity of Christians. The Conference of the European Churches will be represented by the secretary general, Colin Williams, while the Anglican communion will be represented by the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres. Leaders of the Orthodox Churches will obviously come in plenty: the Patriarchate of Moscow will be represented by the metropolitan bishop Filaret of Minsk in his capacity as the permanent member of the Holy Synod. There will be the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Patriarch of Alexandria, the Patriarch Daniel of Romania, while the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, will be there with a delegation of 6 people.
