Greece

The southern European country of Greece is a majority Christian Orthodox country, with [Page 482]approximately 93% of its population belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church (GOC) and Orthodoxy declared as the “prevailing religion” in the Greek constitution. Surveys suggest low levels of church attendance relative to high levels of self-declared religiosity. The country's religious situation is characterized by a strong relationship between religion and national identity and between church and state (including tensions in the latter), the increasing presence of religious minorities, and fluctuations in the church's public profile according to changes in church leadership.

A perception of “Greek” and “Orthodox” as coterminous is a historical fixture, not the least from the four-century experience of Ottoman rule, under which non-Muslim subjects were divided into groups according to religion (millets), with the Orthodox millet ruled by ethnically Greek clergy. This conflation of Greek ethnicity with the Orthodox faith was buttressed soon after Greek independence was won in the early 19th century, when the autocephalous GOC was established in a unilateral decision by the state and thus became a symbol of national sovereignty. The religion/national identity link has been cultivated since then by both the church and—when politically expedient—the state.

Close church-state relations are embedded in Greek legislation and practice: The clergy of the GOC are remunerated and pensioned by the state, bishops are given a role in the issuance of licenses for the building of places of worship for minority faiths, the lessons of religion in public schools reflect official Orthodox positions, state holidays are compatible with the religious calendar, the Statutory Charter of the Church is passed by the parliament, and church and state leaders often jointly preside over state functions and national holiday celebrations. All of the above contribute to the strong public presence of religion in the Greek public sphere.

At the same time, Greece is increasingly less homogeneous religiously due to the mass influx of immigrants' (representing approximately 10% of the total population) since the 1990s. This situation renders somewhat awkward the aforementioned privileges enjoyed by the majority church over the other faith groups. The lack of a functioning mosque in Athens is conspicuous, as are complaints of limitation of religious freedom by minority religious groups (in particular, Jehovah's Witnesses, who have won multiple cases against the Greek state in the European Court of Human Rights).

Efforts to limit the privileges of the GOC have led to intense church-state conflict, notably over church property ownership (ongoing since the 1980s) and, more recently, the state's removal of reference to religious affiliation from national identity cards (in 2000). In such conflicts, the church has tended to mobilize public opinion in its favor and to thus limit politicians' will to address such issues for fear of losing political support.

The situation was particularly acute during the reign of Archbishop Christodoulos (1998–2008), a vocal and politicized religious leader who frequently invoked the religion/national identity link in his dealings with the state. Archbishop Ieronymos (2008–) distances himself from his predecessor's populist tactics: He calls for separate church-state roles but close cooperation on matters of joint interest, such as the use of church property for the general good of Greek society. The new archbishop's election was greeted with enthusiasm, especially by the elite.

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