Methodios Fouyias

Methodios Fouiyas (Corinth, 12 September 1924 - 2006) served as Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain (concomitantly Apocrisarios of the Oecumenical Patriarch to the Archbishop of Canterbury) from 1979 to 1988. After studies in the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens and parochial responsibilities in Munich, he served in various positions within the Patriarchate of Alexandria culminating in that of Metropolitan of Axum covering Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Fouiyas' studies and encounters led to a favourable understanding of the Church of England which he saw in some respects as a continuator of the Saxon Church before the Norman Conquest, the Gregorian Reform and most importantly the East–West Schism of 1054. He was thus seen as the ideal candidate for the post of archbishop in London. Several years experience however of deepening division within Anglicanism led him openly to suggest (in an article in The Times) that the road to unity for Anglicans lay in submission to the discipline of the Roman Catholic church. As his post involved close relations with Lambeth it was judged expedient that he should be recalled. Methodios assumed the title of Pisidia and continued his studies (notably on Bessarion) in Greece.

Sources: Christos P. Baloglou, The former Metropolitan of Nicaea Cardinal Bessarion and contemporary Greek bishops, in Bessarion fom Trebizond of Pontos, ed I.A. Glarenis et al.[Domus Byzantinus], Thessaloniki

Matthew Baker & Todd Speidell, T.F. Torrance and Eastern Orthodoxy, Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2015

G.Dragas (ed.)Aksum - Thyateira; A Festschrift for Archbishop Methodiusof Thyateira & Great Britain, London, 1985

(online)Orthodox Archdiocese of Belgium: Ecumenical Patriarchate: Deceased Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Part3