Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon
His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, Elder Metropolitan, Hypertimos and Exarch of all Bithynia
His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, Elder Metropolitan, Hypertimos and Exarch of all Bithynia, born Emmanuel Adamakis, was born in Agios Nikolaos, Crete. He studied at the Pedagogical Academy of Heraklion, Crete, and continued his studies at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Catholic Institute of Paris, alongside his theological studies at the St Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris. In 1984, he received a Master’s degree from the Ecumenical Institute of the Catholic University of Paris, and the following year he obtained a pre-doctoral diploma from the Sorbonne University, Paris IV, in the History of Religions.
He was ordained Deacon and Presbyter in 1985. In 1987, he received a Master’s degree in Theology, Th.M.C., from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston, and assumed the duties of Chancellor of the Holy Metropolis of Belgium, while also serving as priest-in-charge of the parish of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel in Brussels. For twenty years, from 1994 to 2014, he served as Director of the Office of the Orthodox Church to the European Union.
In 1996, he was unanimously elected by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as Bishop of the historic Diocese of Rigion, serving as Auxiliary Bishop to the Metropolitan of Belgium. In 2003, he was again unanimously elected Metropolitan of France. At the same time, he was entrusted with the representation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the theological dialogue between Orthodoxy and the Ancient Oriental Churches, while also retaining the position of Christian co-chair of the bilateral academic meetings with Islam and Judaism.
He has served as President of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and is a member of the Board of Directors of the interreligious foundation KAICIID in Vienna, as well as of the Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities. He has participated in numerous ecumenical and scholarly conferences. On 16 February 2021, he was unanimously elected by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as Metropolitan of the senior Holy Metropolis of Chalcedon.