Metropolitan Ignatios of Larissa,Greece Departs This Life in Miami - chaired committee on heresy

Word has been received of the passing of His Eminence Metropolitan Ignatios (Lappas) of Larissa and Tyrnavos,Greece .He died of a heart attack during liver transplant surgery on 26 June 2018 in Miami,Florida.He was 72.
Born in Salamina,Greece on the island of Salamis,the largest of the Saronic Islands,just 16 kilometers west of Athens,he was fatherless from an early age and endured crushing poverty;yet he rose from distressing origins to a high position within the Church of Greece.It was,as the title of his autobiography put it,"Like a Fairy Tale."*
Educated at the University of Athens,he began his studies as a student of law,then transferred to Theology.Meteorically,Metropolitan Ignatios was tonsured a monk on 17 January 1976;ordained a deacon on 22 January,and then a priest on 25 January of the same year.From 1976-94,he served in his hometown of Salamina and edited the youth magazine "The Talent."
His Eminence was consecrated to the episcopacy on 28 May 1994 and enthroned as Metropolitan of Larissa,capital of the Thessaly region,on 28 July of that year.*
On 6 June 2014 he was awarded the honourary title of Grand Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre by His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem and All Palestine for his genuine love and support of the Jerusalem Patriarchate,which he expressed by his pilgrimages to the Holy Places accompanied by priests and laity from his Metropolis.*
In October of 2016,Metropolitan Ignatios,who was chairman of the Holy Synod's committee on heresy,chaired the 28th Pan-Orthodox Conference on Heresies and Para-Religions in Agrinio,Greece,which was entitled "Heretical and Occult Ideas of the Human Being and Human Rights."The conference was attended by more than a hundred representatives of the Local Orthodox Churches,including the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Moscow Patriarchate.It focused on false beliefs of such groups as the Mormons,Jehovah's Witnesses and Christian Scientists,especially distorted anthropology.The final document concluded that:
Anthropological deviations from the Orthodox teaching in many occult and heretical movements lead to negative consequences for individuals who profess them and for whole groups of people.