PASOK MEP Nikolas Farantouris received one of the highest honors of the Orthodox Church in Africa during a European Parliament mission to Zambia: the Grand Cross of the Archdiocese of Zambia and Mozambique of the Patriarchate of Alexandria.
The award was conferred on 15 August — the Dormition of the Theotokos — by Metropolitan Ioannis of Zambia and Mozambique, following Farantouris’s attendance at the Divine Liturgy in Lusaka. The distinction recognized his work on behalf of Orthodox communities beyond Greece.
Farantouris was in Zambia as a European Parliament observer for the 14 August elections. While in the capital, he visited the Orthodox churches of St. Alexander and St. Sophia, and met the president of the local Greek community, the honorary consul, Metropolitan Ioannis, and members of the diaspora.
On the feast day he joined the Liturgy — according to later reports, even at the chanter’s stand — before the metropolitan invested him with the cross. Farantouris later called it one of the most moving moments of his public life, adding that the honor carried a matching responsibility.
The medal itself bears the winged lion of St. Mark, the emblem of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa. The lion recalls the Evangelist Mark, first bishop of Alexandria. A green ribbon and enamel cross complete the insignia.
The honor sits in a longer line of work. Farantouris has raised the situation of Orthodox Christians in the Middle East — including a visit to Syria in March 2025 amid violence against Christians and Alawites — and in Africa, with interventions on Nigeria, Libya, and sub-Saharan communities. PASOK MEPs have also submitted a joint question to the European Commission regarding the legal status of St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, seeking EU attention ahead of a critical court process.
The Zambia visit therefore combined election observation, diaspora contacts, and a public reminder that small Orthodox and Hellenic communities still exist across Africa under the Patriarchate of Alexandria.
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