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"Vasily (Karajannis)"

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Metropolitan Vasily Karayannis (born, Mandres village, Famagusta district, ) – Bishop of the Cyprus Orthodox Church, Metropolitan of Constanta, Proedr of Ammochostos.

Biography
In 1960, after graduating from primary school, he was accepted into the fraternity of the Monastery of the Holy Apostle Barnabas, whose inhabitant he was before the Turkish occupation of Cyprus in 1974.

In 1967-1970 he completed a three-year training course at the Theological Seminary of the Apostle Barnabas in Nicosia.

August 15, 1970 in the Monastery of the Holy Apostle Barnabas was ordained deacon.

From 1970 to 1974 he studied at the 1st male gymnasium Famagusta.

In 1974-1978 he studied at the theological faculty of the University of Athens. During his studies at the Theological Faculty in Athens in 1974-1975 he served as a deacon in the Church of the Mother of God Life-Bearing Source on the street Academy. In 1976-1978 he served in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens.

In 1978 he entered postgraduate studies at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, where for two years he attended lectures on sociology at the Department of Law, Financial and Social Sciences, as well as on theology at the Faculty of Theology. In parallel, he completed his doctoral dissertation in French on the topic “Ontological difference between essence, energy and knowledge of God according to St. Maxim the Confessor”.

In 1978-1981, simultaneously with his studies, he served as a deacon in the Orthodox center of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Chambesy.

On April 11, 1981, he was ordained a presbyter in Cyprus and appointed rector of the Greek Orthodox parish in Geneva.

From 1981 to 1991 he was a protosingel of the Swiss Metropolis of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

In 1991 he was appointed head of the Interchurch Relations Bureau of the Cyprus Orthodox Church and at the same time rector of the Panagia Faneromeni Church in Nicosia.

On February 7, 1996, by the decision of the Holy Synod, he was elected chorebishop of Trimifunt, vicar of Archbishop of New Justiniana and All Cyprus. His episcopal consecration was performed on April 28 of the same year.

Metropolitan Vasily is a member of the Central and Executive Commission of the World Council of Churches and chairman of the Faith and Order Commission (2006-2014). He represented the Church of Cyprus in bilateral theological dialogues between Orthodox and Roman Catholics, as well as Orthodox and Anglicans. Author of monographs and numerous publications in both Greek and foreign periodicals.

On May 11, 2007 he was elected Metropolitan of Constanta. The construction took place on May 12 in the temporary center of the diocese in Paralimni.

On November 21, 2007, as part of the working group of the Orthodox and Eastern Churches for the preparation of a joint memorandum with the United Bible Societies, he met in Moscow with Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia.

On May 9, 2008, during his opening speech at the International Scientific Conference “Saint Epiphanius: Father and Teacher of the Orthodox Catholic Church, 368-2008 Bishop of Consta” held in Cyprus