Theologian Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, who was unquestionably the most well-known and well-liked Orthodox Christian of recent decades, passed away on Wednesday (Aug. 24) at the age of 87.
Orthodox Christian Kallistos Ware death
The prominent and well-liked Orthodox Christian theologian of recent years passed away on Wednesday, August 24, at the age of 87.
He converted to Orthodoxy, was ordained as a bishop of the see of Diokleia, and was widely regarded as our generation’s most effective and prolific exponent of patristic theology and Orthodox spirituality.
Kallistos Ware Cause of death
His Excellency Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia will pass away on Wednesday, August 24, 2022, according to the Holy Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain. He was 87. Ware apparently had a critical condition earlier this month, according to the Orthodox Times.
According to the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware (1934–2022), Metropolitan of Diokleia and hierarch of the Ecumenical Throne, has passed away in the Lord today, August 24.
Who was Kallistos Ware?
Timothy Richard Ware, better known by his name Kallistos Ware, was an English bishop and Eastern Orthodox Church theologian. He died on August 24, 2022. He has served as the titular bishop of Diokleia in Phrygia since 1982, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople upgraded his position to a titular metropolitan bishopric in 2007. He was a prominent theologian and hierarch in the Eastern Orthodox church today. He served as the University of Oxford’s Spalding Lecturer in Eastern Orthodox Studies from 1966 to 2001.
Early life and ordination of Kallistos Ware
Timothy Richard Ware was born in Bath, Somerset, England in 1934 into an Anglican family. He attended Westminster School in London (where he received a King’s Scholarship) and Magdalen College in Oxford, where he earned a double first in classics while also studying theology. At the age of 24, he converted to Orthodoxy on April 14, 1958.
In an autobiographical work titled “My Journey to the Orthodox Church,” he discussed his initial encounters with Orthodoxy and the rising appeal of the Orthodox Church. He spent six months as a layman in a Russian Orthodox Church Abroad monastery in Canada. Ware, who is fluent in modern Greek, entered the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Patmos, Greece, to become an Orthodox monk. He also frequently visited other important Orthodox centres, including Jerusalem and Mount Athos. He was given the monastic title “Kallistos” and was tonsured as a priest in the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1966.
Professional and ecclesiastical life of Orthodox Christian Kallistos Ware
In 1966, Ware was appointed Spalding Lecturer in Eastern Orthodox studies at the University of Oxford, a position he held there for 35 years before retiring. He was given a fellowship at Oxford’s Pembroke College in 1970. He was ordained to the episcopate in 1982 and given the title Bishop of Diokleia (in Phrygia) in the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain. Ware continued to serve in the Greek Orthodox parish in Oxford and lecture at the University of Oxford after being consecrated.
On March 30, 2007, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate promoted Ware to the level of metropolitan and the Diocese of Diokleia in Phrygia to that of a titular metropolitan diocese.
Ware has continued to publish and lecture about Orthodox Christianity since he retired in 2001. He was also the chairman of the Friends of Orthodoxy on Iona (Scotland), the Friends of Mount Athos, and the board of directors of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge.
Honors of Kallistos Ware
At Cluj-Napoca University in Romania, Lawrence University in Wisconsin, the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, the Orthodox Theological School in Belgrade, the St. Sergius Institute of Orthodox Theology in Paris, the School of Philosophy in Athens, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York, and the New Georgian University in Poti, Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) received honorary doctorates.
The Archbishop of Canterbury presented Ware with the Lambeth Cross for Ecumenism in 2017 “for his remarkable contribution to Anglican-Orthodox theological discourse.”
Tributes to Orthodox Christian Kallistos Ware
Dr. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, the Anglican Communion’s Secretary General, has paid tribute to Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, the Co-Chair of the International Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue, who passed away this morning in the wee hours (Wednesday).
He served as a hierarch and well-known theologian in the Eastern Orthodox church of today. Both Cluj-Napoca University in Romania and Lawrence University in Wisconsin awarded Bishop Kallistos an honorary degree.
With faith in Christ and hope in the resurrection, we share news of the falling asleep in the Lord of His Eminence, Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware). The renowned theologian was an SVS Press author, and honored friend of the Seminary. May his memory be eternal! pic.twitter.com/0V3sK74cEp
— SVS Press (@SVSPress) August 24, 2022
Dr. Josiah Idowu-Fearon wrote to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew today and expressed his grief on learning of the passing of His Eminence Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia. I want to reassure you that I will be praying for the rest of his soul, along with many others in the Anglican Communion. I will also be thanking God for His Eminence’s work as a bishop, theologian, and teacher.
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