In an interview with the newspaper The National Herald, Archbishop Elpidophoros of America spoke about the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.
As he stressed, “now we have to wonder what the re-conversion of Hagia Sophia signals for the future of all minorities in Turkey. Diversity is strength, not weakness.”
Asked about what the Greek diaspora could do, the Archbishop of America highlighted that what we could do was “to educate our neighbors and our political establishment about the plight and the situation that affects our brothers and sisters of all faiths.”
Asked about what he expected from the U.S. authorities, he replied that “we can say that there has been a sensitive response, one with empathy from political leadership. But as we say in America, there is little use in closing the barn door once the horse is out. We have much to do to educate ourselves about our own history, and in this process, we would have educated and engaged our government. But we must never lose hope.”
Finally, the fact that the Archbishop comes from Constantinople “helps me to discern that of all things we want to do, some can have results, some can succeed, and some can make things worse.”