Greek Church’s Archbishop Baptises Gay Couple’s Children

Fashion designers Evanggelos Bousis and Peter Dundas became the first gay couple to hold a Greek Orthodox Baptism for their children- one year old Alexios and three-month old Eleni – in Greece on Saturday.

America’s Archbishop Elpidophoros performed the baptism for the children of the out gay couple in Athens.  The baptism took place at the Panagia Faneromeni Greek Orthodox Church in the diocese of Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogaia.

Bousis praised the Archbishop on social media for his “love with no judgment” view to hold the first “openly gay baptism” within the Greek Church. 

He posted a series of photos with his husband and their children, Alexios and Eleni to Instagram, with part of the caption reading, “We are proud to have christened our children Alexios and Eleni in the first openly gay baptism in the Greek Orthodox church! The Archbishop of America, his Eminence Elpidophoros for pushing change and love with no judgement of anyone in the church and honoring us by christening our angels.”

Brother Hails Archbishop Elpidophoros

Bousis and Dundas’ families, friends and eight godparents joined to celebrate the christening of their children. Among the guests who attended the baptism and celebrations included supermodels Naomi Campbell and Natasha Poly, model and actress Dree Hemingway, Prince Nikolaos and Princess Tatiana of Greece and Denmark and Australian costume designer Catherine Baba.

Bousis’ brother George posted his congratulations to the couple and their family on social media too.

“Thank you to our great spiritual leader, his Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, for christening the babies and not turning away any child or member of our faith. This is the progress and leadership we need in our church, where no person should ever be denied our Lord because of what they are, how they choose to live their lives, and who they love,” George said.

‘We Always Wanted To Have A Family’

In an interview with Vogue Magazine in June last year, Bousis had voiced a hope that there would be a change in the way gay couples were viewed in society when it came to starting a family. 

As their children were born from a surrogate mother, Bousis stated that having friends who also went through the same process helped the couple prepare themselves for what the experience would look like. He added that living in Los Angeles made “everything easier”, reasoning that it was “normal here to have a family the way we’ve created our family. No one kind of looks at you or asks you weird questions.” 

Bousis referenced a Greek saying, “your soul is in your throat”, speaking about his desire to want “a baby that looks like Peter and this and that. And then you’re just like, hold on, I just want a healthy baby.”

He spoke of the importance of having an open discussion and allowing people to talk about it more in order to normalise the idea of varying family structures and what parenting looked like. “It should be something normal. We always wanted to have a family and now we can, and everyone should be able to,” Bousis said.