The Church of Greece has discussed ten proposed principles for clergy using social media, including warnings against personal branding, public insults, and sharing confidential pastoral conversations. The proposals were presented to bishops in Athens on October 7, but no new binding regulation was announced.
Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Chalkida outlined the recommendations during a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Hierarchy. According to the Church’s official statement, clergy should verify information before sharing it, avoid insults and public shaming during disagreements, and exercise particular caution in private digital communications.
The proposals also discourage priests from developing personal online brands or presenting themselves as independent religious authorities. Their public presence, Chrysostomos argued, should reflect their relationship with their bishop and the wider Church.
He rejected a blanket ban on social media, citing earlier Church guidance from 2002 and 2015 that recognized the internet’s potential for pastoral outreach. Instead, he proposed basic training to help clergy understand how digital platforms encourage polarization and addictive behavior, along with the challenges posed by artificial intelligence.
The question of religious authority online has also occupied Orthodox leaders in the United States, although the American discussion extends beyond ordained clergy.
At the July 2024 National Clergy-Laity Congress, Archbishop Elpidophoros of America criticized self-appointed religious teachers on YouTube and Facebook who operate without Church oversight. He accused many of cultivating followers for personal recognition or financial gain rather than directing people toward the faith.
The Church, he said, should use modern technology without emphasizing “any messenger over the Message.”
American priests have also described the difficulties of working with people whose understanding of Orthodoxy was formed online.
Father Evagoras Constantinides, dean of Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Brooklyn, told the Orthodox Observer in November 2025 that Greek Orthodox clergy were not always trained to instruct converts who had spent years in darker corners of the internet. He also warned that racism, white nationalism and contempt for women must be confronted rather than allowed to influence parish life.
At Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles, convert Abia Ailleen described a different challenge. After researching Orthodoxy online for six months, she found a parish that emphasized humility, vulnerability, and acceptance of human imperfections. In a December 2025 Associated Press report published by The National Herald, she observed that newcomers arriving with rigid expectations formed online sometimes struggled to adjust to that approach.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has adopted formal restrictions in one narrower area. In February 2026, its Holy Eparchial Synod approved guidelines on political activity, prohibiting partisan campaigning through parish websites and church-managed social media accounts. Clergy are also barred from using personal accounts that identify their clerical status for partisan purposes. These rules concern political conduct, not online religious personalities more broadly.
In Greece, the bishops have not announced plans to adopt Chrysostomos’s proposals as formal rules. One of his ten principles calls for digital communication, whenever possible, to lead people toward personal encounters, worship, and participation in parish life.