Fanar theologian: Does baptism of gay children differ from that of orphans?

In a letter addressed to Metropolitan Anthony of Glyfada, Anastasios Vavouskos, the theologian and lawyer of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, stated that the latter could not but know about the “peculiarities” of the baptized family. The text of the letter was published on romfea.gr.

According to Vavouskos, despite the fact that Metropolitan Anthony believes that he was deceived by Archbishop Elpidophoros, he still has not withdrawn the issued permission for baptism. This fact, according to the lawyer, indicates that "there was never a delusion."

The theologian Phanar also compares the baptism of children adopted by a same-sex couple with the baptism of children from single-parent families or orphans.

“Are all these cases an exemplary family in the Orthodox Church, according to the Metropolitan of Glyfada? Not quite so, but since we, as the Orthodox Church, accept that the main character in the sacrament of Baptism is the person being baptized, and from the outside, the receiver, we accept all of the above cases as a ‘family model.’ In the Orthodox Church, the family whose children are baptized is what the law of the Greek state enshrines as a legally existing family, which also applies – whether someone agrees or not – to the same-sex couple,” says the theologian’s letter to the GOC hierarch.

“Of course, same-sex couples in Greece are not allowed to 'have' children, but the couple in this case came from America, where 'fostering' by same-sex couples is legal,” the lawyer said.

Recall that Archbishop Elpidophoros performed the sacrament of Baptism of the children of an LGBT couple in one of the temples of the Greek Church.

The UOJ also reported that the Metropolitan of the Glyfada Diocese, within whose terrain the sacrament was performed, said that the head of the American Archdiocese of Phanar deliberately concealed the “peculiarities” of the couple, who consider themselves the parents of those being baptized.