Archbishop Sotirios of Canada intends to submit his resignation to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in early July, closing 52 consecutive years of episcopal ministry in the country. The development was first reported by the National Herald, the Greek American newspaper, and the archbishop confirmed it himself while on a pastoral visit to Vancouver.
He said he plans to travel to the Ecumenical Patriarchate on the first Saturday of July to discuss the matter with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and that he will make public statements afterward. The question is expected to come before the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the body through which the process will reach its formal completion under church order. Church sources indicate the developments are expected within the opening days of July.
The timing follows closely on a milestone in the archbishop’s life. He recently marked his 90th birthday, and on Sunday, June 14, 2026, more than 600 people gathered at the Cultural Centre of the Archdiocese of Canada in Toronto for a dinner honouring his life and his work for the church. In his remarks that evening he spoke about his childhood years in Epirus, his early attachment to the church, the benefactors who supported his path, and the growth of the Orthodox Church in Canada over the past half century. He credited Patriarch Bartholomew with a decisive role, recalling that in 1996 the patriarch made Canada a separate metropolis, distinct from the Archdiocese of North and South America.
Born Sotirios Athanasoulas in the village of Lepiana, in the Arta region of Epirus, on Feb. 19, 1936, he studied at the Theological School of the University of Athens and earned a master’s degree in theology from the University of Montreal. He served as a supervisor at the Holy Cross Theological School in Boston, and he speaks Greek, English and French. He was ordained a deacon on July 17, 1962, and a priest the following day, taking up ecclesiastical duties in Canada that same year, where he has served continuously since.
He was elected bishop on Dec. 18, 1973, under Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America, and was consecrated on Jan. 27, 1974. He was promoted to bishop of Toronto in 1979. In 1996, following a change to the constitution of the Archdiocese of America and the division of the previously unified jurisdiction, he was elevated to metropolitan of Toronto and exarch of all Canada. In June 2019 he was elevated to archbishop of Canada.
The scale of the church’s growth under his tenure runs through the official record. When he first assumed duties as bishop, there were 22 Greek Orthodox communities in Canada. The number stands today at nearly 80, and the Greek community across the country is estimated at about 450,000 people.
During those decades he founded a wide range of institutions. They include annual youth assemblies, begun in 1980; the monthly newspaper Orthodox Way in 1982; social services and the Metahomes program of shelter for the homeless in 1984; the Greek Orthodox Brotherhood of Canada in 1987; the weekly television program Orthodox Voice, broadcast across the country, in 1990; a school of Byzantine music in 1991; women’s monasteries in Ontario and Quebec in 1993; Greek Orthodox day schools in Ontario in 1996; and the Patriarchal Orthodox Theological Academy of Toronto in 1998. Later years brought summer camps, a cultural centre in 2002, homes for the aged in Toronto, Montreal, Laval and Vancouver, and housing for families in need in Thunder Bay.
His career also carried him into wider church and civic roles. He served as vice-president of the Christian Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, sat on the Archdiocesan Council of North and South America from 1968 to 1996, and was a member of the board of the University of Toronto from 1975 to 1978. He visited China in 1981 with the Canadian Council of Churches and Australia in 1982 with the World Council of Churches.
In 2020, at the archbishop’s request and on the proposal of the patriarch, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate elected three auxiliary bishops for the Archdiocese of Canada. Of that group, for various reasons, only one remained active.
For his work he has received a series of state and civic distinctions, among them Canada’s centennial medal, the medal marking 125 years of Canada, the Golden Jubilee medal of Queen Elizabeth II in 2002, the Diamond Jubilee medal of Queen Elizabeth II, the medal of the city of Athens and the rank of Senior Commander of the Order of the Phoenix of Greece.
