Announcement regarding the funeral service of the Late Metropolitan Athenagoras of Bizye

The announcement of the Ecumenical Patriarchate regarding the passing away of the late Metropolitan Athenagoras of Bizye, states the following:

It is announced with great sorrow that the ever-memorable Metropolitan of Bizye, Athenagoras, fell asleep in the Lord on Tuesday, 1 July 2025.

The details of the funeral rites for the ever-memorable hierarch are as follows:

a) The funeral service will be chanted at the Church of St. John the Baptist in Des Plaines, Illinois, on 7 July 2025, at 1:00 p.m.

b) Earlier that day, a funeral divine liturgy for the repose of the blessed hierarch’s soul will be celebrated by the local shepherd, His Eminence Metropolitan Nathanael of Chicago.

c. His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America will represent the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Mother Church of Constantinople, and

d. The interment will take place at Elmwood Cemetery.

At the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, 1 July 2025

From the Chief Secretary
of the Holy and Sacred Synod

Photograph: Nikos Papachristou