EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis). I have said in the past that I was fortunate enough to be in contact with Fr. Georgios Metallinos during the last few years of his life… In this video (unfortunately only in Greek), Father George Metallinos speaks about the end of the “Pseudo-Romaic” order and the rebirth of Romiosyni:
In the attempted homogenization of nations and the leveling of everything that is taking place today, what should our defense and protection be?
The enduring ark of our civilization and of all its constituent elements has always been the body of the Church. The Church preserved our way of being, our culture, and our spiritual outlook. Within this ark, we will preserve our identity today as well.
Contemporary Hellenism must survive not merely “so that our racial stock may not disappear,” but above all because it remains the only truly free voice of Orthodoxy and the bearer of its universal mission.
For Hellenism to continue this mission and its historical role, however, it must know and embody its Hellenic-Orthodox roots. Our Church, despite the inevitable inconsistencies of some of its representatives, preserves the healthy and fruitful elements of our national identity, while keeping it free from every tendency toward chauvinism and racialism.
Amid the increasing homogenization of our age, the Church preserves Greek identity in those elements that Orthodoxy took up and transformed…
It is understandable, therefore, why the late Steven Runciman urged the Greeks to preserve their Orthodox identity, so that they might have a future and a cultural presence in the 21st century as well.
