Dear Friend of the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,
As many of you know, with the blessings of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, Archon John Gumas has generously volunteered his advertising agency’s services on a pro bono basis to more effectively communicate who we are and what our purpose is as an organization. As part of this extensive and well-researched effort, we recognized that we have been using two identities to convey who we are – “Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle” and “The Archons.” As a best practice and consistent with what virtually all companies and organizations do, the National Council, Executive Committee and the Communications Team working with GUMAS decided to focus on a singular name for our organization – Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. With this shift, we will also be introducing a new logo that you can see below:
The new logo treatment appropriately places the emphasis and focus on the Ecumenical Patriarchate while visually updating and retaining the connection to Saint Andrew the Apostle.
A second element of the work we are introducing along with the new logo is an exciting and dynamic tagline that is both positive and forward leaning. Instead of our current tagline we’ve been using – Defenders of the Faith – our new tagline, used in conjunction with our logo is:
Protecting the Future of Faith
We believe this elevates our purpose as an organization and is much more positive and reaffirming of the work the Archons are doing.
Third, we have also clarified how we want to talk about our organization in a more compelling, positive and consistent way when asked what we do. We call this our “elevator pitch.” Below is what we ask ALL Archons to utilize when speaking about our organization or when giving a formal presentation:
Elevator Pitch
The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is a group of passionate leaders, relentlessly focused on protecting religious freedom for everyone and ensuring the future of the Ecumenical Patriarchate – the historical spiritual center of the world’s 300+ million Orthodox Christians.
As we begin introducing these elements across all of our communication materials, websites, events, social media channels, etc., we will evolve our content over time to be much more externally facing as opposed to content that is largely relevant to the Archon community alone. This is a major shift and will require that we think much more critically about demonstrating HOW we are Protecting the Future of Faith with tangible examples of work that is externally oriented to keep our websites and channels engaging and interesting for those who want to learn more about our efforts in protecting religious freedom. At the same time, we acknowledge that there is still much work to do in educating our own community about the Ecumenical Patriarchate, what an Archon is, the work we do and why it’s critically important. This work along with the outstanding initiatives produced by our Archon Engagement Committees must continue as we pivot to being more externally focused with our content.
Over the weeks and months ahead, you will begin to see these changes implemented along with updates to materials. We hope you understand and fully support these important changes to our branding and believe they will strengthen the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a force in protecting religious freedom for all and the Holy Mother Church.
In the Service of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,
Anthony J. Limberakis, MD
Archon Aktouarios
National Commander
