{"id":3086,"date":"2025-10-08T12:04:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agape.gr\/family-and-faith-in-the-21st-century-an-event-by-the-holy-metropolis-of-thessaloniki-and-agape-hellas-october-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T12:05:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:05:41","slug":"family-and-faith-in-the-21st-century-an-event-by-the-holy-metropolis-of-thessaloniki-and-agape-hellas-october-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agape.gr\/en\/family-and-faith-in-the-21st-century-an-event-by-the-holy-metropolis-of-thessaloniki-and-agape-hellas-october-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFamily and Faith in the 21st Century\u201d: An event by the Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki and Agape Hellas (October 2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Organizers:<\/strong> Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki \u2013 Agape Hellas \/Venue: Thessaloniki Concert Hall \/ Date: October 5, 2025<\/p>\n\n

In a hall filled to capacity, the event \u201cFamily and Faith in the 21st Century\u201d<\/em> took place with great success. \nThe speakers \u2014 Fr. Varnavas Yiangou, Mr. Alexis Lappas, and Mrs. Androniki Dragou \u2014 approached the subject from different yet interconnected perspectives: faith, the soul, and human relationships. \n \nThe evening highlighted, through theological reflection and psychological insight, the family\u2019s importance as a space of love, care, and spiritual seeking in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n\n

Fr. Varnavas Yiangou<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Fr. Varnavas emphasized that faith is not an intellectual acceptance of God but a deep trust and a personal relationship with the living God \u2014 a gift of the Holy Spirit that transforms the human being and gives them a new way of existence. \nWithout this, the Christian\u2019s life remains superficial, often indistinguishable from that of a person who denies God. \n<\/p>\n\n

Faith calls the human being to re-examine the motives behind their actions \u2014 not merely on the level of moral behavior but in terms of deeper intention and existential meaning.<\/p>\n\n

This is especially relevant to marriage and family life, which are often experienced without a spiritual foundation, sometimes guided by narcissistic or self-centered motives. Marriage, he said, is not social fulfillment nor a \u201csafe harbor\u201d that solves problems \u2014 it is a great mystery, a school of love, freedom, and creativity, where spouses are called to transcend duality and become bearers of universal love.<\/p>\n\n

Faith also gives new depth to “eros”, which ceases to be a desire for possession and becomes a quest for the truth of the other. True love and affection liberate and divinize the human being, making one capable of seeing beauty behind ugliness, of loving and forgiving.<\/p>\n\n

A mature person \u2014 one who has experienced God \u2014 does not seek satisfaction from the other but rejoices in their presence as a blessing. Without reference to Christ, marriage and family cease to be a communion of love and become a field of toil and fear. \nIt is our faith that opens us to God and to others. Only then does self-loss become gain, love become transcendence, and the other a person of paradise. \n<\/p>\n\n

Highlights<\/em><\/p>\n\n

\u201cFaith is not an ideology. It is a relationship, trust, and a way of existence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cMarriage does not solve problems. It creates opportunities for love, freedom, and maturity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cEros is not possession. It is the search for the truth of the other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe find ourselves only when we lose ourselves for the sake of the other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWithout Christ, marriage becomes a contract. With Him, it becomes a mystery of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Androniki Dragou<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Mrs. Dragou\u2019s address revealed the profound connection between faith, care, and love from an existential and psychological perspective. \nBeginning with the Hymn of Love and the words of St. Paisios, she underlined that faith and love go hand in hand: one cannot love without believing, nor believe without loving. \nIn the life of the Church, values are not lived abstractly but within relationships \u2014 our relationship with ourselves, with others, and with Christ. Ultimately, the way we relate reveals the way we believe.<\/p>\n\n

She also focused on the concept of “care” as a way of being. Care begins with personal responsibility \u2014 for one\u2019s body, health, order, and duties \u2014 and matures into offering: when we truly give something of ourselves, it returns as joy and inner fulfillment. True care, however, presupposes self-knowledge \u2014 recognizing and activating one\u2019s good qualities, without false humility or defensiveness.<\/p>\n\n

Drawing from psychiatry and developmental psychology, Mrs. Dragou highlighted that the first bond between infant and parent is the foundation of trust and the seed of our capacity for faith. \nWithin this trustworthy environment \u2014 the family and community, \u201cthe village that raises a child\u201d \u2014 the first images of God are formed, and our inner flexibility to face life\u2019s crises is shaped. \nShe also noted that the search for meaning accompanies human beings from childhood \u201cwhys\u201d to the questions of adulthood. \n<\/p>\n\n

She stressed that love is not simply a positive emotion but an overcoming of boundaries: we learn ourselves through the other, daring to \u201cadopt\u201d them with the help of the neighbor\u2019s \u201ckind gaze.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

In closing, she referred to the iconography of the Dormition of the Theotokos, where Christ is depicted tenderly holding her soul \u2014 a profound image of care, hope, and assurance that His love ultimately has the final word.<\/p>\n\n

Highlights<\/em><\/p>\n\n

\u201cFaith and love cannot be separated. One gives birth to and sustains the other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cCare is not just duty. It is a way of being \u2014 an act of offering that gives us joy and meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cTrust is rooted in the first relationship of life. There, the first images of God are engraved within us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cLove is the transcendence of personal limits: I learn myself through the other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWithout meaning, knowledge and experience become burdensome. With meaning, they become life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cChrist holds our soul tenderly \u2014 a true image of care that gives birth to hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Alexis Lappas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Mr. Lappas began by saying that much of adult life resembles an effort to compensate for the unfinished experiences of childhood \u2014 we thirst to heal what remains incomplete, often seeking this \u201cdebt\u201d from our loved ones, even from God.<\/p>\n\n

He underlined that Christ does not call us to the \u201clogic\u201d of reciprocity (\u201cI love those who love me\u201d) but to transcendence: to make room even for our enemies and to learn the power of love. \nHe described how the climate of fear \u2014 fueled by media and social tensions \u2014 pushes us to seek \u201cstrong shoulders\u201d: a God of power who changes others for our sake, but not ourselves. \nYet the Gospel calls us to a metanoia of the mind \u2014 a passage from the love of power to the power of love. \n<\/p>\n\n

Using examples from daily life \u2014 family, school, parish \u2014 he emphasized the shift \u201cfrom the behavioral to the relational.\u201d \nHe spoke of fewer admonitions and more compassion and companionship, since the family should be understood as a workshop of relationships, not a performance machine. \nAnything that does not strengthen the desire for life, he said, does not belong to it. \nHe also noted two elements that \u201cwound\u201d the family: narcissistic individualism (\u201ceverything on my terms\u201d) and the tangle of enmeshment (\u201ceveryone mixed up with everyone\u201d). \nHe emphasized that the transformation of parents is a prerequisite for the healing of children and that every wound or trial can become an opportunity for personal growth and sanctification. \n<\/p>\n\n

In closing, he reminded that every cross needs hands to hold and hearts to stand beside it \u2014 even Christ did not carry His cross alone. \nWith a poetic and consoling tone, he concluded that love cannot be preached; it can only be offered. \nFor, ultimately, \u201cevery time the world ends,\u201d what the soul seeks is not judgment but a hand to hold it. \n<\/p>\n\n

Highlights<\/em><\/p>\n\n

\u201cFrom the love of power to the power of love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cFewer sermons \u2014 more relationship: from behavioral to relational.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe family is the workshop of relationships \u2014 where we learn to love life. Anything that doesn\u2019t nurture that desire doesn\u2019t belong to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cNo one can carry the cross alone \u2014 even Christ needed help to bear His.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cTwo things wound the family: the narcissism of \u2018everything on my terms\u2019 and the confusion of roles within it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWhen fear seeks power, the Gospel proposes relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cOur shoulders often ache not from the arrows we feared others would shoot, but from the weight of the shield we refuse to put down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Organizers: Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki \u2013 Agape Hellas \/Venue: Thessaloniki Concert Hall \/ Date: October 5, 2025 In a hall filled to capacity, the event \u201cFamily [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agape.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agape.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agape.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agape.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agape.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/agape.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3087,"href":"https:\/\/agape.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3086\/revisions\/3087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agape.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agape.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agape.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agape.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}