Dumbarton Oaks
Research Library
1703 Thirty-second Street
Washington 7, DC
December 12, 1961
The Very Reverend
Professor Georges Florovsky
Harvard Divinity Schools
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts
Dear Father Florovsky,
I hope that your trip to New Delhi [i.e. to the Third Assembly of the World Council of Churches in New Delhi, India on November 19 – December 5, 1961] has been very good and that this letter will find you in very good health.
Perhaps despite your very busy time during the Assembly, you have found a chance to talk with my Athens Professors, or with Metropolitan of Kozani Dionysios who has often expressed to me his wish that I bring him in contact with you, for he feels a deep admiration for your person, since he heard you in Thessalonike on the occasion of the feast of St. Gregory Palamas [a reference to Florovsky’s autumn 1959 visit to Thessalonike for a congress on Gregory Palamas, his two papers, and address “St Gregory Palamas and the Tradition of the Fathers”]. If you had a chance to meet him, I am sure you have noticed that he is one of the best educated and seriously concerned bishops of Greece. Unfortunately, Metropolitan Panteleimon of Thessalonike did not attend the Assembly. I do not know very much about the rest of the Greek bishops that were there, but I am afraid the delegation did not include the best of them.
If you had a chance to speak with Professor Konidaris about my work, he may have told you something about my thesis for the University of Athens, about which I have not heard anything yet. He may have also told you about the difficulties that exist in Greece at the present time with regard to my placement in some teaching position there. As you know, there are only two Universities in Greece and, in any case, a young man can hardly find a position there. In view of these circumstances, I would greatly appreciate any advice that you may offer me, since I think that I ought to seek a teaching position in this country [i.e., the United States]. Of course, I am aware of the needs that exist in Greece and I have not ceased to feel a moral obligation towards my Church there. But since there seems to be no place for me at this moment, I cannot see how I can be useful there. I have talked about this problem, while you were away, with Professors Williams and Stendahl, who have shown a full understanding of my situation and promised to help me. At the suggestion of Professor Stendahl, I have registered with the Harvard Appointment Office, so that my name would be considered in case that an opening appears. It is part of the procedure for this registration that three Harvard Professors who know me well, write letters of recommendation for me and send then directly to the Appointment Office. Professors Williams and Stendahl have expressed their willingness to write such letters for me. In view of the kind concern that you have always shown for my studies and future, I am sending you the enclosed form, and I will be sincerely grateful to you for whatever you can do in my behalf.
My work on St. Maximus is progressing. I have more or less completed by research and started writing the text. I hope to be able to send you a detailed statement about that in the next future. [The dissertation was never finished].
Please remember me in your prayers,
Meta bathutatou sebasmou [With deep respect,]
John N. Zizioulas
P.S. In a special envelope you will receive two offprints which Professor Konidaris has asked me to forward to you.
