GREEK LEADER SPURNS DIALOGUE

Catholic Herald Correspondent
ATHENS
ORTHODOX Metropolitan Chrysostornos of Argolis has sharply condemned all forms of dialogue between the Greek Orthodox Church and other Christian communions, including the Catholic Church.
. He made his statement at a time when the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople has sent an observer for the first time to the Vatican Council.
Some elements of the Church in Greece have been consistently hostile to Catholic-Orthodox dialogue tied angrily criticised the meeting of Pope and Patriarch in the Holy Land. But their vices are by no means representative of the entire Orthodox community of their country.
Metropolitan Chrysostomos ‘1/4as recently appointed as a representative of the Orthodox Church of Greece to the Pan-Orthodox conference to he held in Rhodes in November.
Nevertheless, he urges all Orthodox to he on guard against those who vant to lead their Church into an -abominable ecumenism". (The Cireeks have no observer at Vatican II.) In a personal report to his namesake Archbishop Chrysostontos of Athens, the Orthodox Primate of Greece. the Metropolitan declared that the Greek delegation iIl attend the Rhodes congress, but that the official attitude of the Greek Church, towards dialogue and Church unity will remain unchanged.
The Pan-Orthodox conference was summoned by Patriarch Athenagoras to lay down a basis for dialogue with the Catholic Church. The Orthodox Church in Greece, by agreeing to attend. seemed to be softening in its attitude.
The Metropolitan's statement therefore comes as something of a disappointment.