Last Wednesday evening, I found myself in the courtyard of Acheiropoeitos Church in Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, waiting for a vigil against the city's upcoming gay pride parade to start. Three frowning young men dressed in black had stood at the entrance, turning away whomever they thought didn't fit in with the crowd—so as you can imagine I felt rather honored to have been let in.
Advertisement
The church started to fill up around 9PM. The crowd was mostly made up of middle-aged ladies in skirt-suits and various monastic figures in beards, but also families, including young children. 22 Christian organizations and 12 religious blocs had signed the call for this vigil “against the sinners."
A brochure bearing a title that exclaimed we have been walking "towards a Communion of Sodom," was distributed in the courtyard. The accompanying text described Gay Pride as "an open carnival whose participants are monsters—i.e. 'people' who are neither men nor women." The latest issue of a newspaper called Christian Spark was also passed around.We slowly made our way in. Acheiropoeitos is a uniquely preserved early Christian basilica, whose interior has remained intact since its construction sometime in the 5th century AD. I thought it was ironic that this UNESCO listed heritage building was now housing an exorcism against "the gays."
The Bishop of Thessaloniki, Anthimos, arrived around 10PM. People ran to kiss his hand as he made his way to the Sanctuary, where he'd stay for about an hour. At 11:30 PM he came out, stood on the pulpit and proceeded to talk for 23 minutes; surprisingly, this time around he didn't compare homosexuals to dogs. He said, instead, that every man is a carrier of sin but what differentiates "the good" from "the bad" is asking God for forgiveness. At this point, it started to rain heavily and Bishop Anthimos acknowledged that "even the sky was roused."
Advertisement
He went on to note that he could have easily gathered 150 priests for the sermon, but chose not to because those working in the Thessaloniki Cathedral were being "tested by young women running in the street half-naked—as it happens every summer."
Shortly after that, Anthimos and his entourage left the church and the summer rain abated. A few days later, on June 21, 6,000 people marched for Thessaloniki Pride. When the event first took place in 2012, there were only 400 of them.up from only 400 people in its first year in 2012. - See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/thousands-march-thessaloniki-pride-mayor-and-diplomats240614#sthash.8pLmzzvi.dpufup from only 400 people in its first year in 2012. - See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/thousands-march-thessaloniki-pride-mayor-and-diplomats240614#sthash.8pLmzzvi.dpuf
