Athens hosts international religious freedom meeting

With a focus on the theme of "Protecting Religious Freedom, Democracy & Human Rights," the 4th International Conference on Religious Freedom, organized by the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, started in Athens on Sunday and ends Tuesday.

The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate are citizens with service to the Church and whose work has "brought honor to the Greek community."

Holders of the title in the past have included Greek-American Senator Paul Sarbanes, Greek-American politician Michael Bilirakis, and former US and USSR Presidents Jimmy Carter and Mikhail Gorbachev.

The delegates of the annual conference in Athens, taking place after those in Brussels, Berlin and Washington, met in places of supreme religious and cultural importance such as the Mitropolis Cathedral in Athens, the Stoa of Attalos in the Ancient Agora, the Old...