Iakovos

More than 6,000 children on the Aegean islands have studied since the mid-90s until today for free at the music workshops of the Friends of the Greek Island and the Sea Association.

Greece was very fortunate because it had a generation of Greek-American "giants" by its side upon whom it could rely whenever it faced difficulties. This was the generation that exerted immense pressure on Henry Kissinger after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and spent its political and economic capital to help Greece. 

Amid mounting tension over Archbishop Elpidophoros in the Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the head of the Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Fund, a non-profit NGO dedicated to the advancement of the Orthodox faith, has weighed in in his favor.

I first met Andrew Liveris in 2012 in Florida, at the most significant annual meeting of prominent Greek Americans of the Leadership 100 organization, which had been founded by Archbishop Iakovos. It was during the peak of the Greek economic crisis and the forecast was grim.

Greece grew and won important battles when it counted on the support not only of its citizens, but also of Hellenism as a whole. The diaspora is a power multiplier. The important leaders of this country understood its role and cultivated it carefully.

The Greek Orthodox Church of America has always been considered the nucleus of community life and a significant part of the Greek-American identity.

Five contemporary Greek composers - Iakovos Konitopoulos, Alexandros Mouzas, Vassiliki Filippaiou, Alexandra Papastefanou and Leonidas Kanaris - have set to music clerical poems by Panagiotis Kapodistrias, Stylianos S. Charkianakis, Evangelos Galanis and Moisis Agioreitis.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is due to travel to the United States on October 17 for a visit where he will probably see for himself how much the Greek diaspora's influence in Washington has waned.

A funeral is planned Friday for the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in the US Midwest who died last week at age 89.