My Strength is Made Perfect in Weakness: From the Psychological to the Ontological Way of Repentance

The Very Reverend Hegumen, Archimandrite Peter was born in Kavala, North of Greece, on 16 March 1977.

After completing his general education, he studied at the University of Essex in England, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He then pursued postgraduate studies at the University of East Anglia in the city of Norwich, England, from which he received a Master of Arts in Economics and International Business.

In 2006, he enrolled in the Faculty of Theology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, graduating with distinction in 2010. In 2016, he was awarded a doctorate by the same Faculty of Theology, having submitted a doctoral dissertation entitled: “The Mystery of the Word of God according to Elder Sophrony.” His academic supervisor during the writing of the dissertation was the distinguished Professor, Protopresbyter Vasileios Kalliakmanis.

He has been spiritually connected with the Monastery of St John the Baptist since his student years at the University of Essex. He entered the Monastery twenty-four years ago and was tonsured a monk twenty-two years ago.

He was ordained to the first degree of Priesthood by the late Metropolitan of Pergamon, John, on 27 May 2007, the day of Holy Pentecost, at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Taksim in Constantinople, and to the second degree of Priesthood by the same Hierarch on 13 July 2008, at the Church of All Saints of the Monastery of his repentance.

On 1st December 2016, he was appointed as a Spiritual Father by the late Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain, Gregorios.

On 18 June 2019, he was elected Hegumen by the brotherhood of the Community of St John the Baptist, and subsequently, on 26 August 2019, he was installed and enthroned by His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain.

Arvo and Nora Pärt first visited the Monastery of St John the Baptist in Essex in the early 1980s, where they became acquainted with its founder, Father Sophrony. The spirit of the Staretz and that of the monastery impressed them deeply, and from that time onwards they stayed there frequently. St Sophrony’s example and teaching, and the texts of St Silouan which he increasingly revealed to them, occupy an important place in the life and work of Arvo Pärt.

The lecture will be in English, with interpretation into Estonian.