His Grace Bishop Maximos (Pafilis) of Melitene was appointed to assist Archbishop Nikitas with episcopal duties in the Midlands in January 2022. He was born in 1978 in Karditsa, Greece. He studied History at Deree College. He studied Theology in Athens and Thessalonica. He took classes at the School of Theology of Loyola University in New Orleans, LA, where he also served as a priest, and then he received a Diploma in International Relations and Communication from the University of Strasbourg and a Master’s Degree from the same University in Inter-Christian Relations. He also studied at the European Institute of Computer Science and he received a degree in English from the University of Michigan.
He was ordained in 2003 and he served in Greece, France and USA. He served as a preacher of the Holy Metropolis of Thessaliotidos and Fanariofersala. He served at the Holy Metropolis of Atlanta as a Dean of St. Mark’s church in Ocala, FL and of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in New Orleans, LA. He served for 10 years as a secretary of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. From 2016 to 2018 he served as Vicar General and a secretary of the Holy Metropolis of France and then as a Chancellor.
He has taken part in various ecclesiastical delegations, committees and representations, he is a member of the International Fellowship Network of the Interfaith Organization KAICIID. He is a member of the Bioethics Committee and the Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee of the Council of European Churches (CEC).
On October 9, 2018, he was unanimously elected Bishop of Melitene by the Holy and Sacred Council of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and he was ordained on November 10 at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. Stephen, Paris, by the Eminent Metropolitans Emmanuel of France, Polycarp of Spain, Amfilochios of Adrianople, Maximos of Switzerland and Bishop Ireneos of Rigiou.
On July 20, 2021, at the request of His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain and the assent of His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate approved his appointment to the Holy Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain.