c. 2000 Religion News Service

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ For Metropolitan Athenagoras, home is truly where he hangs his miter _ or sombrero.

“Since I took the position in 1996, I haven’t stayed anywhere more than two weeks at a time,” said the 59-year-old Greek Orthodox archbishop of Central America.

He is the first head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Central America, as well as parts of Venezuela and Columbia and the Caribbean Islands, created when the Archdiocese of North and South America was divided.

Huntsville was one of his many recent stops in his travels. He was here to conduct a memorial service for a longtime family friend and colleague, the Rev. Michael Hatzakis.

Hatzakis, a missionary to Venezuela and Columbia in South America, was killed in a car accident in Venezuela on April 30 _ the Orthodox Easter _ while driving home from the last of the four services he conducted that day.

“Father Michael was a very good friend and someone who I could totally count on,” said Athenagoras, who led the service at Holy Cross Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in early August. “He was full of happiness and did not know what the word `no’ means. He was always willing to do anything anyone asked of him with a happy heart. His work was his life.”

Hatzakis’ family _ his widow, Presbytera Helene, and two of his three daughters, Christina and Markela, live in Huntsville. His oldest daughter, Ann, lives in Atlanta.

Hatzakis was in charge of a diocese that covered some 700 miles, much on rough terrain.

“His family was very close, and they made a real sacrifice by being apart and allowing him to do the work he was called to do,” said Athenagoras, who lives in Mexico City.

Athenagoras, a Chicago native, spoke no Spanish when he first arrived in Mexico City, but he has learned enough to communicate with parishioners.

“We did a lot of gesturing at first,” he said with a laugh. “Obviously it was very frustrating in the beginning, but now I know the language much better.”

He said creating an archdiocese from the ground up “is one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done. We don’t have to do a lot of reaching out because the people are reaching out to us.”

While the Roman Catholic Church has been most prominent in Central America, Athenagoras said the Greek Orthodox Church is making inroads.

“It has been phenomenal and mind-boggling,” he said as he adjusted his black headdress. “At first we only had priests from the Greek-American church. But now, just 31/2 years after we established the diocese, about 95 percent of the people we ordain to the priesthood are from Cuba, Columbia, Bolivia and Haiti.

“It’s amazing the number of young people who are coming into the church. The people are attracted to the (Greek Orthodox) church because of its strong emphasis on tradition and family. People want structure and discipline in their lives.”

Athenagoras grew up in the church and said he always knew he would be a priest.

“The church was my life as a child,” he said. “I lived across the street from the church in a large Greek community, and I went to a parochial school. I knew that’s where I was supposed to be.”

Greek Orthodox priests may be married, providing they have done so before being ordained into the ministry. However, a bishop may not be married.

“The bishop plays the role of leadership in the spiritual family,” said Athenagoras. “He is married to the church and needs to be above reproach. “I’m not sad or remorseful, and I have no regrets,” he said. “Sometimes I do think about what it would have been to have had a family, especially when I see the children and grandchildren of people my age. I really cherish the family, and it is the nucleus of society and the church.”

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Athenagoras, who was born George Angelo Aneste, earned a master’s degree from Theological School of the University of Athens in Greece and later received a master’s degree in Russian literature from the University of Michigan.

In 1965, he was ordained a deacon in Chicago, where he was given his ecclesiastical name, Athenagoras. He became priest of the St. George parish in Toronto, Canada, in 1967. He served four more dioceses until 1982 when he was consecrated as an auxiliary bishop to Archbishop Iakovos in New York City.

He served there until 1996 when Patriarch Bartholomew, archbishop of Constantinople and spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, asked him to establish a diocese in Hong Kong and all of Southeast Asia. He did so by November of that year. Just one month later, he was unanimously elected by the Synod of Constantinople to serve as the archbishop of the newly established Archdiocese of Central America and the Caribbean Islands.

“My mother, who lives in Las Vegas, is in poor health and I asked to be closer to home,” he said. “So they asked me to start a diocese in Central America.”

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Since most of his time is spent traveling throughout his diocese, Athenagoras has little time for hobbies. However, he said he does enjoy swimming and reading _ mostly historical or spiritual books and biographies _ and, of course “the Good Book.

“My fun is serving the Lord and being with people. My rest is my prayer life. I want to give a good account of myself at the judgment seat of Christ and that’s what counts most.”

DEA END BETOWT