My personal path to Orthodoxy began with an event. They showed on the first television that arrived in my neighborhood the presidents who had visited Colombia and among them was the Archbishop of Cyprus Makarios. I got curious to learn about him and asked who he was. So an Anglican was found and told me that Makarios was an Orthodox prelate. At that time, the Orthodox Church was limited to small Greek parishes in various parts of Venezuela but in Colombia where I come from, we had a cathedral in Bogotá. It was built in 1967 by a Greek man named Christos Arvanitis, but it was closed. A priest came once a year and celebrated the Divine Liturgy. From then on, no one else would come.
Several years passed by and in 1997 the Ecumenical Patriarchate opened the Holy Metropolis of Panama. I wrote to His Eminence Metropolitan Athenagoras and I received the following response: “On that day the Metropolitan will arrive in the capital city of Colombia. He is going to perform the Divine Liturgy for the first time.” As you understand, he came, embraced us, opened the door for us through the Ecumenical Patriarchate and then sent us to Greece to study. He sent two young people from Colombia and another two from Mexico City. We came here, learned as much as we could and with the embrace of the Orthodox Missionary Fraternity we got started. This road led us to priesthood. I was ordained a deacon at the Church of Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki, an elder in my city, and three years ago I was ordained a bishop at the cathedral of Bogota’.
In the year 2000 we returned to Colombia and started teaching. We started from scratch. We really did not reach out to people, but the people themselves came to us because they were looking for something different. They were looking for what I was looking for, the authentic Christianity, the authentic faith, the faith that has never been interrupted and has been the same since the time of the Apostles and the Church Fathers. This treasure is kept alive by the Orthodox Church.
The distances we have to travel are enormous. The parishes in Bogotá are those of St. Anthony, the Presentation of the Theotokos and a Mission in an area where people are really suffering from poverty and deprivation. Then the nearest parish is in a village called Alvan, 2 hours distance by car. Next is Pereira, the Presentation of the Theotokos, 9 hours away. After that is Dekali, 12 hours distance, Medellin, 9 hours, Serete, almost 24 hours. San Agustin, which is the farthest town, is 27 hours journey. In Medellin are the parishes of Saint Mark and of St. Michael the Archangel. From Medellin we have to travel 4 hours to reach Jarumal, and from there we have to continue on horses in the mountains. For Magedupar, it takes us 25 hours and for Koukouta, two days…
Colombia has an area 5 times the size of Greece, and Venezuela, the other country I minister to, about seven times as much. You see… In San Cristobal, we have a parish of Greeks and we go all over Venezuela. We left at Easter to conduct the Holy Week services, leaving Bogotá and taking five days to get to Caracas and five days to come back. Long journeys, great struggles.
There is a western priest who, along with his parish flock- more than 300 people, asked to become Orthodox We must catechize them and print catechetical manuals.
In Colombia we have two typical Orthodox churches, one built by the Greeks and one we have just finished, that of St. john the Forerunner on the border of Colombia and Venezuela. The Church is constructed in Greek style and painted in blue and white because we wanted to honor Greece, to remind us of the flag of the country that enriched our own homeland with culture, wisdom, Orthodoxy and the love of the Greeks !
Today I am happy because I was able to buy all the volumes of the Patrology in ancient and modern Greek to take them to Colombia, because no one can learn correct Theology unless they rely on the experience and teaching of the Church Fathers, who describe and interpret the revelation of Christ. We want to get them translated and organize the texts by topic and then, get them published for our people. We want this because the problems of the time of the Fathers are the same problems we have today. What has changed? The material means and the way we live. However, the problems remain the same: material, existential, emotional, our downfalls. They didn’t have cars, they had horses; but it is the same selfishness, the same arrogance, the same pride, the same avarice that makes man a wolf to man…
And we are making the biggest revolution, which is an ontological revolution. Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba, once said that of all the battles a man can fight, the hardest to win is the war against himself. Real Orthodox Christians know what repentance, purification and emptying themselves means. Without these things, a man cannot be enlightened. He may have academic knowledge, but he cannot possibly have an experience of God.
We have brought children to Greece, who, with the help of the Orthodox Missionary Fraternity were able to study Theology. We have created a digital Theological Academy in Spanish to be able to teach them Theology and the works of the Church Fathers.
The most important thing though is that we need to build churches. Now we must start the construction of the second church. We have a plot of land in Serete, but in places like Medellín, Jarumal and Antioquia we do not have any plots at all.
Since the people of Colombia only earn 200-220 dollars a month, they can hardly make ends meet. As a result, they cannot give much either for food or for their children’s education. Therefore, we do charity work in order to help them.
I dream of a Church that will have learned through the works of the Fathers what orthopraxy means. I dream of a stable Church, not so much in terms of finances, because I do not believe that the economic situation of the country will change. The children we have today will have grown mature and will not need a Timothy running to Greece to bring them 8-9 suitcases full of incense, chalices, altar covers, holy vestments… I dream of a Church whose parishes little by little will get back on their feet so that they can survive, and each priest will have a minimum salary to live on.
We currently need the help of the Greeks, because we need to build churches. I dream of a Church where the right children will come to Greece and take from there the light, the experience of faith and the spirituality to return and enrich my own country. Now is the beginning, the first steps.
† Timotheos of Assos
