Hungary has always known that it adopted Christianity from Constantinople, Semjén, the deputy PM in charge of Hungarian communities abroad, church policy and national and ethnic minorities said, adding that St Stephen, Hungary’s first Christian king, had built his Western Christian mission on this spreading of the Christian faith, – hungarytoday.hu reported.

Hungary belongs to the Western Christian community but it has never denied the Eastern Christian denomination, Semjén said. The service the Eastern Orthodox Church of Constantinople performs across the globe serves all of Christianity, he added.

Semjén attended a liturgy delivered by Arsenios Kardamakis, the Metropolitan of Austria and Exarch of Hungary and Central Europe.

The village of Beloiannisz, where the service was performed, was founded by Greek refugees who fled their homeland after the 1945-49 Civil War and named after Nikos Beloyannis, a leading figure of anti-Nazi resistance and guerilla fighter during the war.

The deputy PM also took part in the unveiling of a memorial plaque commemorating the visit to Hungary by Constantinople Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in 2000.

Featured photo by Zoltán Mihádák/MTI

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