Your Eminence Metropolitan Sotirios,

We respectfully ask for your blessing. We have recently heard that Father Evangelos Aravantinos of St.Nicholas and St. Dimitrios Greek Orthodox Church of East Vancouver will be transferred.

We are hoping that perhaps the decision has not been finalized and we ask with our sincerest hope that you with your magnanimity will permit Father Evangelos Aravantinos to remain as priest of St. Nicholas and St. Dimitrios Greek Orthodox Church of East Vancouver.

We respectfully ask this as Father Evangelos Aravantinos has been our priest for approximately nine years and over the years we have built a trust and bond with him as our priest. We also acknowledge and understand that your Eminence Metropolitan Sotirios has many obligations and that some changes are necessary. We were hoping ,however, that perhaps there would be some way in which Father Evangelos Aravantinos would stay.

Our request is for the greater good. We believe that Vancouver needs a stabilizing factor as it has already undergone many changes with respect to its clergy. If Father Evangelos Aravantinos is also relocated that would result in all three of Vancouver’s Greek Orthodox Churches having new clergy with no long established ties with the community as a priest. We humbly believe that our community will greatly benefit by having at least one of our priests with a long standing history as a priest in our community and one with whom we have built strong bonds because he has baptized our children, buried our parents, married our children etc such as Father Evangelos Aravantinos. Such bonds can only happen through time and we humbly request that your generosity of spirit will permit Father Evangelos Aravantinos to remain as our priest and he is a very good priest. We believe under the present circumstances that the Greek Orthodox Community of Vancouver will greatly suffer if we also lose Father Evangelos Aravantinos. We need a stabilizing factor in our community and we humbly request that you allow Father Evangelos Aravantinos to stay.

With deepest respect,

Your children in Christ