New Secretary General of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (I.A.O.) is Mr. Maximos Charakopoulos and President of the I.A.O. General Assembly is Mr. Sergei Gavrilov
The 27th General Assembly of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (I.A.O.) was held virtually on Thursday, 17 September. Approximately 85 Members of Parliaments, official representatives of Parliaments, parliamentary groups and individual Parliamentary personalities participated at the General Assembly. The official opening of the works was declared by the President of the Hellenic Parliament Mr. Konstantinos Tasoulas, via his message, read by the Third Deputy Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament Mr. Athanasios Bouras.
The greeting message of the Chairman of the Russian State Duma, Mr. Volodin Vyacheslav was read by the President of the I.A.O. General Assembly Mr. Sergei Gavrilov.
The President of the Interparliamentary Union (IPU) Mrs. Gabriela Cuevas Barron addressed the participants of the I.A.O. General Assembly.
Greeting messages from the President of the European Parliament Mr. David Sassoli, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) Mr. Karim Darwish, as well as from the representative of the Focolare Movement in Athens Ms. Patrizia Taranto were read. The greeting message of His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, was read by His Eminence Metropolitan Theodoritos of Laodikeia; the message of His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa Theodoros II, was read by His Eminence Archbishop Ioannis of Zambia, I.A.O. Liaison with the Pan-African Parliament, while the message of His Beatitude Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill, was read by His Eminence Archbishop Leonid of Vladikavkaz and Alania.
The departing I.A.O. Secretary General Dr. Andreas Michailidis presented the overview of the I.A.O. activities and was honoured with the honorary medal Cross of the Apostle and Evangelist Mark in recognition of his contribution to the humanitarian and missionary work of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa.
The elections of the I.A.O. organs followed for a two-year tenure. In the position of the President of the I.A.O. General Assembly Mr. Sergei Gavrilov, member of the Russian State Duma was re-elected. The newly elected Secretary General is the Head of the Greek Parliamentary delegation Mr. Maximos Charakopoulos, who presented the agenda of the future I.A.O. activities.
The General Assembly was concluded with interventions and speeches presented by the members of the National delegations.