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Father Germanos Hage was born in
Koura in North Lebanon in 1938.
As a young boy he went to the Balamand Seminary (Koura) where he
lived and attended classes until he left for Greece to enter university. He
received his degree in theology from the University of Athens
in 1963. After graduation, Father Germanos Hage went to Paris for two years of post graduate studies
in religious education.
Upon his return to Lebanon,
he taught catechism in several schools in the North and was responsible
for the Office of Christian Education at the Greek Orthodox
Archbishopric in Tripoli.
Father
Germanos got married in 1967 and moved to Beirut where he taught
Arabic and religion to high school classes at St. Elie Btina.
He taught at St. Elie
for three years.
In
June 1970 Father Germanos was ordained deacon
in the St. George Cathedral by
metropolitan Eliya Saliba.. Shortly thereafter, he was ordained
priest and appointed to St. Mary’s Church of Dormition as an assistant priest to
Father Hanna Sakkab.
The first few years at St. Mary’s, Father Germanos was a teacher of
catechism with the office of Christian education of the Archbishopric of
Beirut teaching in several government schools.
During
the years 1976 to
1986, Father Germanos
represented the orthodox church at several international conferences.
In 1976 he received a
six month grant from the Greek government to continue his research on
religious education in Athens.
At this time father Iskandar Nasr was appointed as the church’ s
second priest.
From 1993 to 1998 Father Germanos was the
chairperson of the common pastoral action of all the
orthodox parishes in Beirut
From the beginning of his service at St. Mary’s,
Father Germanos has continuously activated parish life with an emphasis
on Christian education. He has
introduced children and youth to
the life of the Church through special programs.
He organizes training for the leaders of the church’s
religious education program as well as
conferences and seminars on educational, theological and social
subjects for the congregation at large. He has founded a library of
theological, cultural and social books.
He has been the behind the publication of several parish
newsletters and magazines and is presently publishing,
with the help of a dedicated group of parishioners,
“Al Raii”, which is issued
three times a year. Copies are
available on the Arabic version of the this website.
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