Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia

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Bp. Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia

His Grace, the Right Reverend Bishop Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia (b. 1934, also known by his lay name, Timothy Ware) is an auxiliary bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Great Britain. From 1966-2001, he was Spalding Lecturer of Eastern Orthodox Studies at Oxford University, and has authored numerous books and articles pertaining to the Orthodox Christian faith.

Life

Born Timothy Ware in Bath, Somerset, England, Bp. Kallistos was educated at Westminster School and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a Double First in Classics as well as reading Theology. In 1958, at the age of 24, he embraced the Orthodox Christian faith (having been raised Anglican), traveling subsequently throughout Greece, spending a great deal of time at the Monastery of St. John in Patmos. He also frequented other major centers of Orthodoxy such as Jerusalem and Mount Athos. In 1966, he was ordained to the priesthood and was tonsured as a monk, receiving the name Kallistos.

In the same year, he became a professor at Oxford, teaching Eastern Orthodox Studies, a position which he held for 35 years until his retirement in 2001. In 1979, he was appointed to a Fellowship at Pembroke College, Oxford, and in 1982, he was consecrated to the episcopacy as an auxiliary bishop with the title Bishop of Diokleia, appointed to serve as the assistant to the bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain.

Since his retirement from active academic life in 2001, Bp. Kallistos has continued to publish and to give lectures on Orthodox Christianity throughout the world. He additionally leads annual pilgrimages to Iona and is the chairman of the group Friends of Orthodoxy on Iona.

His Grace is perhaps best known as the author of the book The Orthodox Church, published when he was a layman in 1963 and subsequently revised several times. The book is still in print and considered by many to be the best introduction to Orthodoxy in the English language.

Writings

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