The Greek Orthodox Church continues to protest the compulsory teaching of new approaches to gender in schools
February 10, 2017 – The Greek Orthodox Church continues to protest the teaching of the “Body and identity” week in schools, in which one of the subjects is tolerance to homosexuality and transsexuality.
The “thematic week”, which created numerous protests among teachers, was discussed during a session of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. The High Priesthood made the decision to send the explanatory letter of Minister of Education Kostas Gavroglu to all dioceses in order to discuss it and to develop an initiative for a unified-church position.
The Minister of Education added some fuel to the protest fire. Kostas Gavroglu stated that “seminars about gender identity” would be compulsory for all Greek schoolchildren. “Parents will not have the right to prevent their children from attending these lessons”.
“The Tolerance Week” caused protests from the Greek clergy and society. Many parents signed a petition to refuse their children from attending the thematic week of the “Body and Identity”. The teachers are called upon to refuse teaching subjects that “go against the Orthodox faith and the dogmas of the Gospels”.
In an open letter to the Minister of Education, Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus called for an immediate stop of the “impeding decadence”.
“The public demonstration and propaganda of homosexuality insults the public morale and religious sentiments. It also calls upon the youth to lead an immoral sexual behavior and is an explosive planted under the seat of the Greek family institution, which is facing a demographic crisis. It will also cause psychological deformities in children, who will be taught by homosexual couples”.
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