The Grand Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Georgios Tsetsis, fell asleep in the Lord at the age of 90 on the evening of Sunday, June 2, 2024, in Geneva.
The Great Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Georgios Tsetsis with father Thomas and mother Elena, of the Prusalis family, was born in Picridio (Haskoi) Constantinople on June 22, 1934. Coming from a Levite family (his grandfather and uncle were clergymen), he began to he got used to the church-liturgical environment, where from a young age he studied in the church in Picridio.
In 1945, at the age of 11, he was appointed by Patriarch Benjamin as a canon of the Patriarchal Church, first to Archon Protopsalt Konstandinos Pringos and then to Archon Lampadarios Thrasivulos Stanitsas. Thus, singing together with Stanitsas and listening to Pringos, he became acquainted with the so-called Phanariot „patriarchal style“ of singing.
He took his first music lessons from Thrasivoulos Stanitsas, his teacher, and from the autumn of 1949, from Konstandinos Pringos, who was his music teacher at the Theological School in Halki, graduating in 1960.
The topic of his thesis is: „The Suitability of the Saints in the Church Calendar“. During the academic year 1958-1959, he studied at the ecumenical institute BOSSEY (Geneva). In 1988, he presented a doctoral thesis at the Theology Department of the Theological Faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, entitled „The Contribution of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Creation of the World Council of Churches“, and was declared a Doctor of Theology.
In May 1961 he married Jacqueline Mermud, with whom he had two children, Thomas (1962) and Emilia (1964).
Church career
From July 1960 to May 1961, he served in the offices of the General Secretariat of the General Secretariat of the Patriarchate. In May 1961 he was ordained a deacon by the late Metropolitan Dorotheus of the Princes Islands and appointed Archdeacon of the Holy Metropolis of the Princes Islands. In August 1964, he was ordained a presbyter by the aforementioned metropolitan.
With the approval of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate, in January 1965 he was appointed to the Committee for Inter-Church Cooperation of the World Council of Churches in Geneva. He served successively in the following capacities:
– January 1965 – October 1967: Assistant Secretary of the Secretariat of the Orthodox Churches of the Middle East,
– October 1967 – April 1978: Executive Secretary of the Middle East.
– May 1978 – December 1984: Deputy Director of the PSE Inter-Church Aid Committee with special responsibility for the coordination of the Asia, Africa, Europe, Middle East, Latin America and Pacific Secretariats regarding inter-church aid programs and development projects of the WCC.
In November 1984, by decision of the Holy Synod, he was appointed from 1.1.1985 as a permanent representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the headquarters of the WCC.
Within the World Council of Churches, he was a member of the Internal Administrative Committee (1971-1984), chairman of the Orthodox Working Group (1972-1984), chairman of the Working Group for the Middle East (1973-1977), member (1980-1984) and co-chairman (1983) of the Joint PSE-Vatican Consultative Committee on Social Affairs. Participated in the general assemblies of the WCC (Uppsala 1968, Nairobi 1975, Vancouver 1983, Canberra 1991), the Council of European Churches (RORTSCHACH 1967, Chania 1979, STIRLING 1986, Prague 1992, GRAZ 1997) and the Council of Churches of the Middle East (L Eukosia 1974, Beirut 1977), in the Synods of the Central and Executive Committee of the WCC as well as in various other inter-Christian and Orthodox conferences. At the General Assembly in Canberra he was elected a member of the Central Committee of the WCC and then a member of the Executive Committee.
In the context of his service on the Inter-Church Relief Committee, he repeatedly visited the WCC member churches. in the North America, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Pacific region.
In his capacity as a cleric of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, he participated as a secretary-member in the Delegations of the Church of Constantinople to the Orthodox churches in Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Poland, Czechoslovakia (1966 ). ), the Vatican (1971) and the Coptic Church (1972). Participated as a theological adviser to the Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in the work of the Second Orthodox Preparatory Commission of the Holy and Great Synod and the Third Pre-Synodal Pan-Orthodox Conference (1986).
From 1970 to 1982 and from 1991 to the present, he served as Secretary of the Governing Council of the Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Geneva. At the request of Metropolitan of Austria and Exarch of Switzerland Chrysostom and prior to the creation in 1982 of the Holy Metropolis of Switzerland, he served the Greek Orthodox Parish of Geneva as an unpaid priest and Hierarchical Commissioner of the Holy Metropolis of Austria (1966 -1982).
He published dozens of books and studies with theological, liturgical, historical and ecumenical content. There are numerous church, state and university honors from around the world.