This year, the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of their founding. The Archons in the United States were organized on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, March 10, 1966, when Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America of blessed memory conferred upon thirty outstanding laymen of the Church the respective offikia of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on behalf of the late Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras.
For all of the sixty years of their existence as a modern organization, the Archons have been relentlessly focused on protecting religious freedom for all and ensuring the future of the Ecumenical Patriarchate – the historical spiritual center of the world’s 300+ million Orthodox Christians.
The Archons’ direct and indirect support of the Ecumenical Patriarchate between 2002 and 2025 has amounted to a staggering $73,969,933. This is vivid and striking testimony to the remarkable impact that the AEP has had over the last 24 years upon the ability of the Holy Mother Church of Constantinople to fulfill its sacred mission in perpetuity. The Archons recognize in this regard the extraordinary philanthropy to the AEP of National Vice Commander Nicholas J. Bouras of blessed memory which continues through his Nicholas J. and Anna K. Bouras Foundation facilitated by its Trustee, National Vice Commander Hon. B. Theodore Bozonelis.
Archon Religious Freedom Resolutions Project
In order to protect religious freedom and advocate for human rights, the Archons make active government relations efforts at the federal and state levels to leverage the global leadership of the United States. The Archons’ Religious Freedom Resolutions project has successfully brought about the adoption of religious freedom resolutions in support of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 47 state legislatures (with the exceptions only of Hawaii, Maryland, and Montana), raising the awareness of lawmakers and citizens alike regarding the necessity of protecting the Ecumenical Patriarchate as the spiritual center of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians.
The Archons also labor on the international level, having held four International Conferences on Religious Freedom. These extraordinary, historic and watershed events were held in Athens, Greece (2024); Washington, D.C (2017); Berlin, Germany (2013); and Brussels, Belgium (2010). They included speakers and panelists consisting of scholars, journalists, human rights advocates, diplomats, and politicians, including Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton, Michael Pompeo, and Marco Rubio.
Also, in June 2022, an Archon delegation visited Romania, Bulgaria and Greece on a Religious Freedom Mission, during which the Archons and their associates met with some of the key religious and political leaders of the respective countries to discuss all-important issues of international religious freedom.
The Archons are working with the European Centre for Law and Justice in Strasbourg, France, as well as with a Turkish human rights attorney, to develop strategies to security property rights for the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This work is particularly urgent in light of the landmark 2008 decision of the European Court of Human Rights, which recognized the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a legal entity that has the right to own property in Turkey.
The Archons are also involved in ongoing efforts to reopen the Halki Theological School, which was forcibly closed down by Turkish authorities in 1971. Since its closure, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has had no place to train native clergy, which could result ultimately in the asphyxiation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate itself. The Archons are working assiduously to make the reopening of the school a reality.
The Archons also strive in numerous ways to raise international awareness of the plight of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Since 2005, the Archons have sent a delegation to the annual Warsaw Human Dimension Conference of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Europe’s largest annual human rights and democracy conference, in order to present vital information to the international community on the Turkish Republic’s continuing violations of the human rights and religious freedom of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the nation’s Christian community.
On Sunday, December 1, 2024, parishes throughout the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America commemorated for the first time the indefatigable work of the Archons to support and defend the Holy Mother Church of Constantinople, with the first annual National Archon Sunday, which was established with the blessings of the Exarch, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, and by unanimous decision of the Holy Eparchial Synod of the Sacred Archdiocese of America. This annual commemoration is an opportunity to educate the faithful about the central importance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the necessity of protecting its ability to carry out its sacred global mission.
The Archon Sprout Program, established at the same time, provides Orthodox Christian children throughout the Archdiocese of America with an age- and grade-specific catechism curriculum. This curriculum is taught in all the Sunday School Classes on Archon Sunday, regarding the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Sacred Center of our Holy Orthodox Faith, and the challenges that His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Holy Mother Church of Constantinople face in this age.
In the same spirit, the Archons established the annual Pilgrimage of Discovery program, a remarkable seven-day, all-expenses paid, religious and cultural summer journey to the heart of the Orthodox Faith. This transformational program is dedicated to sending Orthodox Christian young adults to Constantinople each year to learn about Orthodoxy, our Ecumenical Patriarchate and the challenges it faces, the history of the Church, the experience of the remaining Orthodox people living in Asia Minor, and other crucially important issues for the Orthodox Christian faithful now and in the future.
All that would be more than enough to enable an ordinary organization to rest on its abundant laurels. But the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate are no ordinary organization. On January 17, 2019, the Archons established the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation, a response to a deep and longstanding need to establish a solid financial foundation for the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation is a reliable, substantial charitable foundation to fund the worldwide salvific ministries of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, increase the Orthodox Christian presence on the global stage, foster increased inter-Orthodox dialogue, and expand charitable and humanitarian aid.
The Foundation was initiated with the $1.4 million seed money raised at the 2018 Athenagoras Human Rights Award that honored Father Alex Karloutsos, our Archon Spiritual Advisor, and Presbytera Xanthi.
As of March 11, 2026, a total of $29.2 million has been pledged to exclusively support the work and mission of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This includes 269 FOUNDERS and 17 FOUNDER Parishes throughout the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. A FOUNDER pledges $100,000 payable over 10 years.
The Archons also recognize notable people in all walks of life who strive to protect and defend religious freedom for all people. One of the primary ways in which they do this is through the annual conferral of the Athenagoras Human Right Award. Established in 1986, the Athenagoras Human Rights Award is given in honor of Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, who served as Archbishop of the Americas for 18 years before being elected Ecumenical Patriarch in 1948. He was universally acknowledged as a visionary leader and worked for peace among Churches and people throughout his life.
Previous recipients of the Athenagoras Human Rights Award include former President Joseph Biden; former President Jimmy Carter; former President George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush; Nobel Laureate and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev; Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel; Mother Teresa of Calcutta; Russian dissident Yulia Navalnaya; the Prince’s Trust (now the King’s Trust), an international youth charity founded by King Charles III while he was Prince of Wales; His Beatitude Theodore II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa; His Beatitude Epiphaniy, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine; former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo; and the scientists who developed COVID vaccines and treatments. View a list of recipients.
The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate work tirelessly to advance religious freedom and the global salvific mission of the Sacred See of Saint Andrew.
Dr. Anthony J. Limberakis, has been National Commander since January 1998, and was conferred the title of Grand Aktouarios by His All-Holiness on September 3, 2023.
The Archons celebrate their patronal feast on November 30, the feast day of Saint Andrew the Apostle. The fundamental goal of the Archons is what it has been since the days of classical Athens: to preserve peace, advance human dignity, foster civic responsibility, and ensure the integrity and future of faith.
