LAST UPDATE 12:24

By Emilios Polygenis

From today, Saturday, May 11, the Holy Archdiocese of America has a new Archbishop, after the resignation of Archbishop Dimitrios Trakatellis.

The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which summons at the Phanar, elected just a while ago the new Archbishop of America.

The new Archbishop of America is Metropolitan Elpidophoros of Bursa (Prousa), Abbot of the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegial Monastery of the Holy Trinity on the island of Chalki.

The election of Elpidophoros as Archbishop of America, was unanimous, as pointed out in a statement by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Archbishop Elpidophoros (Lampriniadis) was born in 1967 in Makrohori, Constantinople.

He studied at the Department of Pastoral Theology, at the Theological School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, from which he graduated in 1991.

In 1993, he finished his postgraduate studies at the Philosophical School of the University of Bonn.

He was ordained a Deacon in 1994 at the Patriarchal Cathedral and then he was appointed as the Codecographer of the Holy and Sacred Synod. The next year he was appointed as a Deputy Secretary of the Holy and Sacred Synod.

During the years1996-1997, Elpidoforos studied at the Theological School of St. John the Damascence in Balamand, Lebanon, where he mastered the knowledge of Arabic language.

In 2004 he was invited as a visiting Professor (he taught for one semester) at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston.

In March 2005, he was ordained a Presbyter by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, at the Patriarchal Church.

In March 2011 he was elected Metropolitan of Bursa, and in August of the same year he was appointed Abbot of the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegial Monastery of the Holy Trinity on the island of Chalki.

Last but not least, Archbishop Elpidoforos is a member of the Patriarchal delegations to the General Assemblies of the Conference of European Churches and the World Council of Churches.