LETTERS
Maria Becket
A hero of our times
I first met Maria in Vienna, sixteen years ago, as she was preparing the third environmental symposium - A River of Life: Down the Danube to the Black Sea. She impressed me deeply even before I knew her well. It was her aura. Lively and piercing dark eyes in a shattered body that fixed her vis-à-vis with determination but radiated a great sense of humor and an incredible lightness, the lightness of a free spirit.
As a member of the Austrian Foreign Service, I gave Maria a little help in putting together a list of suitable speakers for the Danube Symposium. It was the third in a series of eight symposia that studied the fate of the world’s main bodies of water. Maria’s conviction, that every human being has the right to a safe environment, which therefore needs to be protected, made immediate sense to me. This became the ecological manifesto, as some like to call it, of her NGO Religion, Science, and the Environment. The Symposia’s participants were religious, scientific and political leaders across the globe, who met for a week or so, to study a particular environmental problem from the most diverse perspectives, and combine efforts to solve it. Common ground was found among different religions, and where secular and religious views had differed or had not been discussed before. I relished the idea of building bridges from a boat, because that was where all the symposia took place. I was not convinced, however, that we would be able to sail down the Danube without trouble, with the debris of bombed bridges blocking passage here and there, on a boat that was not welcome everywhere, carrying the NATO country flag of Hungary in a territory where only a few months earlier NATO bombs had been dropped.
But nothing seemed impossible for Maria, no task too big to be undertaken, and we somehow got through. In order to prevent the Serbs from shooting at us as they had threatened, as soon as we would sail through their territory, Maria asked the Patriarch of Serbia, who was traveling on the boat, to stand up on deck and show himself to his people. Patriarch Pavle, ancient and frail, agreed instantly and was hauled on deck. The trick worked. Then we were told that our boat, the Austrian-made “MS Delphin Queen”, would not continue further down the river past Novi Sad due to the broken bridge. So Maria had us raised at 4 am and we disembarked at a God-forsaken pier, wondering what to do. Thanks to a phone call that Maria had made to the responsible official in the middle of the night, we were picked up at the pier by some rather uncomfortable Chinese buses, which took us down to Belgrade and further on, until we found the two Romanian ships that should have been waiting for us at a different location than we had expected.
Despite all the problems along the way, the Danube Symposium became a very successful one. Among other things, a number of focal points were established along the river with the support of the WWF Danube Carpathian Programme, in order to link the faith communities and environmentalists with each other, from the source of the Danube in Germany across ten European countries to the Delta near the Black Sea.
Maria was driven to the extent of self-denial, by a sort of visionary force that seemed to come from somewhere else. She was personally shy and avoided public exposure when she could. At the same time, she was determined and courageous, and defiant in the face of adversity. She hated self-pitying and shallow talk. Passionate both in her sympathies and antipathies, her capacity to love was as strong as her ability to hate. She could be generous but also unforgiving.
In June of 2002, I participated in the Adriatic Symposium, which addressed the ethical aspects of the environmental crisis. Special attention was paid to the problems created by the six countries surrounding the Adriatic Sea, where millions of people live with a generally underdeveloped ecological consciousness in a small space with a precious and ancient heritage. During the Symposium, religious leaders were asked to propose ideas as to how religion could inspire humanity towards an ecological ethos; and scientists were asked to examine the moral foundations of scientific research in the realm of environmental protection. One of the outcomes was the signing of the Venice Declaration by Their Holinesses the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope John Paul II in the Ducal Palace of Venice. The Pope, too frail to travel, signed the Declaration in Rome and was broadcast via a big video-screen. One other culminating point with great symbolical value was the celebration of the liturgy by the Ecumenical Patriarch in the sixth century basilica of Sant’ Apollinare in Ravenna. This church had not seen an Orthodox liturgy since the twelfth century, and it now took place with the Pope’s permission. The liturgy moved Maria to tears. She saw in it the chance of a healing process between the two Christian churches after a 1000-year schism. It was an achievement that would not have happened without her.
I am proud and honored to count myself among Maria’s friends. I guess that one of the reasons why I came to admire her so much lies, as it so often does, in my own history and upbringing. As the child of two refugees who had lost their homes and pretty much everything else, I grew up with the awareness that everything can be gone from one day to the next without your own fault; and that there is no time to waste after that. If you want to do something with your life, if you have a vision or a goal, you can achieve a lot provided you have self-discipline and rely on yourself. If you don’t do it yourself, nobody else will do it for you. This was Maria’s maxim of life. Through her own example she showed me the gain of inner freedom that comes when you stop worrying about what other people think of you and especially, when you stop valuing yourself according to other peoples’ expectations.
As time passed and I moved to the Unites States with my family, then back to Vienna and further on to our present home in Italy, Maria and I stayed in touch through telephone conversations and e-mailing. She kept me abreast on her work and told me about her African experiences and her meetings with Desmond Tutu. At 80, she must have been aware that her time was running out and that there was still so much work ahead. Our discussions became more frequent in the last year of her life, and they went beyond her plans for the next symposium. We thoroughly discussed the political situation in Egypt since the events of the Arab Spring. Maria was convinced that Mohammed el-Baradei was the right person to lead the country ahead. She also spoke of her past; of her role in fighting the military Junta in Greece, and of her life-long dedication to help solving the most prolonged and complex conflict of our time, the Palestinian dilemma. Then, last spring a book arrived in the mail that had been published in Norway in 2009 with her support: Eyes in Gaza. It is the sobering account of two Norwegian medical doctors, Mads Gilbert and Erik Fosse, who with the help of the Norwegian Aid Commission had succeeded in getting into Gaza City during the twenty-two day military offensive of Israel at the end of December 2008. The book tells the story of the doctors’ journey through the ravaged city, treating local Palestinians and hearing their stories. 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the offensive.
Maria told me how her grandparents’ Constantinople household, full of intellectuals and refugees from Smyrna, had influenced her; I learnt about her family’s patriotism, which was founded on its long history with the Byzantine Empire and its descent from the Paleologus dynasty; hence her family’s traditional support to the Patriarchate, and Maria’s personal loyalty to this Byzantine institution that she helped, among other things, gain international exposure in ecological matters through her Symposia activities. It would be banal, however, to reduce Maria’s big choices in life to her family’s lineage and historic role. She was a free spirit with an enormous amount of energy that she canalized the way she chose. And it seems she did so even at the very end of her life, when she decided it was enough.
We were all pained by the circumstances of her death, in the midst of a smear campaign that accused her of swindling the Greek state for personal gain, by allegedly setting up a fake and fraudulent NGO. Nothing could be further from the truth, and time will prove it. Maria deserves a place among the heroes of our time, thanks to her life’s work and dedication to helping the suffering and suppressed, including our nature. This is also the moment to give credit to her family, especially her daughters Sandra and Daphne, who courageously bore the many sacrifices that are imposed upon the children of a heroic parent, and who succeeded well in their lives, both professionally - Sandra as a dedicated medical doctor and Daphne as a passionate architect - and privately, as sensitive and trustworthy human beings.
Christoph Meran
Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum
Rome, February 9, 2013
From Amanda Shakespeare
Dear Sandra, Daphne, Jim and Sophia,
Thinking of you all so, so much……
This is how I remember your mom – dancing on the Mississippi – for all her steely determination, relentless courage, fierce loyalty and discretion……she also SPARKLED like a rare jewel…….whilst she had the soul of a wise old woman, her spirit was that of a young girl – she was FUN.
I feel so privileged to have shared some very special moments with her in some extraordinary places. I will miss her wit, her wisdom and her fighting spirit - but will always remember your mother with many fond memories as a dear friend and a truly exceptional human being.
She touched so many as she reached out to the unheard and sought the unseen, whether a Patagonian Prisoner or an Amazon Chief. She will be sorely missed by many, but long remembered.
Sending you lots of love and light......
Amanda
ARNE TREHOLT, A LONG TIME FRIEND, PAYS TRIBUTE TO HIS FRIEND MARIA BECKET
A last farewell to a Greek and Scandinavian heroine.
I met Maria Becket in 1968. The Scandinavian countries, Sweden, Denmark and Norway had brought complaints against the Greek military dictators for violations of elementary human rights in the European Human Rights Commission in Strasbourg. The complaint was later extended to include torture. My close friend, Jens Evensen, was appointed as chief prosecutor for the Scandinavian countries.
Evensen called me one frosty winter day and asked me to meet a representative for the Greek resistance; “This lady is in my office in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and insists that the Norwegian government should support the resistance with financial and material support. Could you, please, talk with her!”
That marked the beginning of my friendship with a remarkable lady, a true Greek heroine. Maria Becket was already a legend among the Scandinavians. I met a soft spoken, convincing woman with a steely glance. She convinced immediately with her strong will power, a young and attractive lady of practical deeds more than diplomatic etiquette.
Maria Becket was instrumental in the international legal fight against the Greek Colonels which ended with the dictatorial regime’s expulsion from the European Council in December 1969. Maria became the unofficial liaison between the Greek resistance and opposition forces and the Scandinavian attorneys. She provided them with the evidence needed to win the court case.
That made Maria Becket not only a Greek, but a Scandinavian heroine.
She brought numerous witnesses to Strasbourg where they testified about human rights violations and torture. No wonder that the “respectable” diplomatic phrase of “junta” Minister of Foreign Affairs, Panayotis Pipenelis, sneered at Maria with an accusing finger damning her as responsible for Greece’s expulsion from good European company.
Maria was a lady of action. Where others hesitated and stumbled she was a guiding light. If there were no traveling documents and passports, she invented them. Maria Becket was an activist in the best sense of the word, without fear, always believing in what she thought was the best contribution to a better world and mankind.
She continued to fight for the overthrow of the junta till she saw her friend and admirer, Konstantin Karamanlis, returning from exile in Paris in triumph in late July 1974. She stood up for Cyprus’ freedom and independence when a Greek instigated coup against Archbishop and President Makarios triggered not only the fall of the junta but the Turkish invasion and occupation of the island.
One of Maria Becket’s finest hours was during August in 1974 when she was organizing high national politics and pulling strings at the Hotel Grand Bretagne in the heart of Athens in August 1974. I came to Greece as an envoy from the Norwegian government. It was Maria who brought me to Prime Minister Karamanlis at his provisional office in the hotel, and arranged the audience with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, George Mavros, in the room of her then 14 year old daughter, Sandra, on the third floor.
Thereafter she took me to another audience with a Foreign Minister, Spyrou Kyprianou, located with his Cypriot friends on the second floor. Hours later I found myself on the plane to London to meet with His Beatitude, the deposed President Makarios. I found a heartbroken person, saddened by his own countrymen’s treason, and not mentally prepared for the Northern European tour that Maria had initiated for him.
Maria burnt of devotion and love for Greeks and Greece. She showed no hesitation to persuade the Chairman of PLO, Yassir Arafat, to send 4000 of his best fighters to assist Makarios in his fight for freedom. If realized, it would have meant a dangerous injection in an already complicated and dangerous big powers play, but that did not stop Maria. Nobody could in the aftermath say that she at least was not willing to try.
The aftermath following a revolutionary victory, when life slowly returns to normal and where heroic deeds are not called for to some degree, is the most challenging for idealistic activists. Maria cared for her family; for her two daughters whom she loved. Her life was filled with joy and pride when a beautiful grand daughter entered her life. But she remained the same idealistic, restless soul searching for new task and challenges. Nothing to small, not a mountain, too, big to climb.
Over the years I met with Maria in different corners of the world; in Geneva, in my home city of Oslo, In Moscow and in New York. Over the years we had endless phone conversations about what is happening in the world. Maria lived in her time as demonstrated when she in the mature age of 81 years brought her tent to the Syntagma square and together with thousands protested against imposed austerity measures.
She found meaning in the fight for clean water and global environment. She took the gospel of a cleaner global environment to the North Pole, the Mississippi river, Brazil and found a soulmate in Desmond Tutu in South Africa. Maria was a Greek and Scandinavian heroine, but her world was without boundaries. She cared and fought for what she believed in. She did it with a clean mind and heart.
Family, friends, distant and close acquaintances took farewell with Maria in a little overcrowded chapel in Plaka. In a touching movie produced by her beloved Jim, she was again among us, eloquent and mild tempered with her sophisticated sense of self- irony and mental spirit. The religious and political world had praised her. The Grand Old Man of Greek politics, Konstantin Mitsotakis, gave her the tribute she had deserved. All were fighting with tears as we smiled for having the honor to have such an extraordinary lady as friend.
My beloved friend, Maria
I am sitting here, gazing at the blank page, trying to capture in words this force of nature, this incredible human being that was Maria. Any word that comes to my mind sounds hollow, inadequate, unable to describe the totality of Maria, that rare mixture of ingenuity, resourcefulness, passion, wit, efficiency, humor, vision, uncompromising determination and values, goal-directedness, harshness, where needed, warmth and caring, where deserved, courage, fearlessness, haughtiness and humbleness, vitality, tirelessness, inspiration, stamina, youthfulness… the list is endless!
I met Maria 18 years ago, when she was organizing the first Symposium and, since then, I worked with her for five Symposia as part of the organizing committee and our relationship soon turned into a deep friendship. I will not get into what those Symposia offered to the world environment, Orthodoxy, Greece or to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Other, much more important people have already done that. Maria was always urging me to write a book about the symposia behind the Symposia. All those funny, anecdotal, sometimes incredible things that were happening backstage. I regret now that I never found the time to do it before her passing away.
So many memories… I remember how much we laughed with Maria when the Symposia participants thought that behind the Symposia there was a huge organizing mechanism of many people and resources, which worked in a spacious office with high-tech equipment. If they could only see us… One phone line, one fax that rarely worked and one computer. Three or four persons maximum, plus Maria, who was worth fifteen people, working on the floor of her apartment, in the kitchen, having her bed or the couch as desks! We worked from nine in the morning –Maria’s work day begun at 5:00 a.m.- till midnight or even later. We were all exhausted –except Maria! She was going around, humming to herself, coordinating our actions, bringing forth new ideas all the time, and by the time that we returned the next morning she had stuck about fifty “post-it” on our work spaces (floor, bed, kitchen table etc.) with new tasks and ideas.
Later, things got a little better –we had some more laptops (that were stolen at some point!) and two desks. We even acquired a copying machine and a second phone line!
I’ll never forget one night that Maria and I had stayed late to put in alphabetical order the photocopies of the 400 participants’ passports that, next morning, we had to send to the various countries of the Black Sea in order to get their visas. We had six copies of each passport that, somehow, had gotten all mixed up. We were exhausted, hungry and sleepy, and we had difficulty remembering the alphabet! Every once in a while, Maria or I would ask, “Is S before or after P?” or something equally silly, and after a while we were laughing like crazy and it was impossible to continue, so we fell asleep right there, and woke up three hours later to finish the job.
Another time, at the Danube Symposium, Maria arrived in Passau where the Symposium would start, with shirts and blouses in her suitcase without any skirts or pantyhose! We arranged for them to be sent, but meanwhile her legs were cold and she asked me if I could buy some pantyhose for her. I asked her what size and she threw a “The largest” over her shoulder as she was speeding to the riverboat. So I did as she asked, but in the maelstrom of the Symposium I forgot to ask her how they fitted her. When I finally did after a few days, she answered nonchalantly, “Oh, they were fine. Just a bit tight under the armpits”!
During the same Symposium, which took place shortly after the war in the former Yugoslavia, we faced what the rest of us thought were insurmountable difficulties. Not Maria! She always had a creative solution for everything and “creative” is an understatement. For example, we had to make part of the journey by buses because some of the Danube’s bridges had been bombed and blocked the river and the boat could not get through. We had to go the Hyatt Hotel in Beograd to pick up two participants, who had come that day, but the Beograd police would not let our buses go through the center of the city, probably because they did not want the foreign media that were with us see the ruins of the city. After about an hour of negotiations, Maria just had enough. So, very seriously, she informed the head officer that she had 280 people in the buses, heads of states and religions, high officials and scientists from all over the world, journalists and international TV crews, who had spent hours in the buses and were feeling nature’s call quite acutely –which was absolutely true!- and if they did not let us get to the hotel she would have them all relieve themselves in the middle of the road, with the TV crews recording for all the world to see their humiliation by the Serbian authorities –and she meant it! Guess who won the contest of wills… (As a footnote, I will add that when we got at the hotel, and lined outside the toilets in the lobby, we discovered that the place was full of fountains and water was running continuously between double glass panels. You get the picture…)
Maria was always on the move. She would fly from one continent to the other or one country or city to the other organizing, arranging, meeting key-people, finding boats, booking hotels, charter planes etc. Whenever she was telling me her next itinerary I would scream “Stop! I get tired just listening to you!” One of those times, she left the keys of her house in some other country and when she returned at 03:00 a.m. she discovered that she could not get in her house. Unperturbed, she simply opened her suitcase, spread her clothes in the corridor outside her door and she slept there – to the great horror of her next door neighbor in the morning! When I asked her why didn’t she call the lady who was helping her in the house chores and who has a spare key, she looked at me as if I had suggested the most outrageous thing. “What are you talking about?” she reprimanded me. “She works all day and she is tired. I couldn’t wake her up just because I’m so careless with my things!”
The Adriatic Sea Symposium ended in Venice, where the historical common declaration for the environment was signed by both HAH the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and HH Pope John Paul II. We had spent hours preparing this significant event that took place in Palazzo Ducale. It was a very hot and humid day and all the female members of the organizing committee were dressed up and standing on our high heels for hours. When it was all over, my sandals had dug into my feet and I couldn’t even walk the short distance to the boat. I thought of taking my shoes off, but then I decided that it wouldn’t be proper for a member of the organizing committee of such a formal event to be seen walking barefooted in the middle of Venice so I took a water-taxi. I got to our boat, and was trying to free my poor feet from the sandals at the empty reception, when I saw Maria coming up the escalator arm in arm with a young priest, dignified as ever, and… holding her shoes in her other hand as if it was the most natural thing in the world! She had crossed all the distance from Palazzo Ducale to our boat barefooted!
I could go on for hours talking about Maria and still not be able to draw her picture. And my pain for her loss gets mixed up with my anger for the way she was treated by her own country that she served so faithfully and so passionately all the years of her life. I want to shout “Shame on you!” to all those that treated her with such ingratitude as if she were a common criminal.
But Maria, being Maria, had the final word, as always. She did not give them the satisfaction to see her dragged in courts, humiliated. So, she left this ungrateful world when she wanted, the way she wanted. I can picture her now up there examining carefully the rivers and oceans of heaven, looking for potential injustices against the underdog and organizing projects with her departed friends, Prince Sadrudin Aga khan, Daniel Amit, Panaghiotis Kanellakis and so many others who shared her vision.
Heaven beware! Maria is coming.
Rena Karakatsani
I am sitting here, gazing at the blank page, trying to capture in words this force of nature, this incredible human being that was Maria. Any word that comes to my mind sounds hollow, inadequate, unable to describe the totality of Maria, that rare mixture of ingenuity, resourcefulness, passion, wit, efficiency, humor, vision, uncompromising determination and values, goal-directedness, harshness, where needed, warmth and caring, where deserved, courage, fearlessness, haughtiness and humbleness, vitality, tirelessness, inspiration, stamina, youthfulness… the list is endless!
I met Maria 18 years ago, when she was organizing the first Symposium and, since then, I worked with her for five Symposia as part of the organizing committee and our relationship soon turned into a deep friendship. I will not get into what those Symposia offered to the world environment, Orthodoxy, Greece or to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Other, much more important people have already done that. Maria was always urging me to write a book about the symposia behind the Symposia. All those funny, anecdotal, sometimes incredible things that were happening backstage. I regret now that I never found the time to do it before her passing away.
So many memories… I remember how much we laughed with Maria when the Symposia participants thought that behind the Symposia there was a huge organizing mechanism of many people and resources, which worked in a spacious office with high-tech equipment. If they could only see us… One phone line, one fax that rarely worked and one computer. Three or four persons maximum, plus Maria, who was worth fifteen people, working on the floor of her apartment, in the kitchen, having her bed or the couch as desks! We worked from nine in the morning –Maria’s work day begun at 5:00 a.m.- till midnight or even later. We were all exhausted –except Maria! She was going around, humming to herself, coordinating our actions, bringing forth new ideas all the time, and by the time that we returned the next morning she had stuck about fifty “post-it” on our work spaces (floor, bed, kitchen table etc.) with new tasks and ideas.
Later, things got a little better –we had some more laptops (that were stolen at some point!) and two desks. We even acquired a copying machine and a second phone line!
I’ll never forget one night that Maria and I had stayed late to put in alphabetical order the photocopies of the 400 participants’ passports that, next morning, we had to send to the various countries of the Black Sea in order to get their visas. We had six copies of each passport that, somehow, had gotten all mixed up. We were exhausted, hungry and sleepy, and we had difficulty remembering the alphabet! Every once in a while, Maria or I would ask, “Is S before or after P?” or something equally silly, and after a while we were laughing like crazy and it was impossible to continue, so we fell asleep right there, and woke up three hours later to finish the job.
Another time, at the Danube Symposium, Maria arrived in Passau where the Symposium would start, with shirts and blouses in her suitcase without any skirts or pantyhose! We arranged for them to be sent, but meanwhile her legs were cold and she asked me if I could buy some pantyhose for her. I asked her what size and she threw a “The largest” over her shoulder as she was speeding to the riverboat. So I did as she asked, but in the maelstrom of the Symposium I forgot to ask her how they fitted her. When I finally did after a few days, she answered nonchalantly, “Oh, they were fine. Just a bit tight under the armpits”!
During the same Symposium, which took place shortly after the war in the former Yugoslavia, we faced what the rest of us thought were insurmountable difficulties. Not Maria! She always had a creative solution for everything and “creative” is an understatement. For example, we had to make part of the journey by buses because some of the Danube’s bridges had been bombed and blocked the river and the boat could not get through. We had to go the Hyatt Hotel in Beograd to pick up two participants, who had come that day, but the Beograd police would not let our buses go through the center of the city, probably because they did not want the foreign media that were with us see the ruins of the city. After about an hour of negotiations, Maria just had enough. So, very seriously, she informed the head officer that she had 280 people in the buses, heads of states and religions, high officials and scientists from all over the world, journalists and international TV crews, who had spent hours in the buses and were feeling nature’s call quite acutely –which was absolutely true!- and if they did not let us get to the hotel she would have them all relieve themselves in the middle of the road, with the TV crews recording for all the world to see their humiliation by the Serbian authorities –and she meant it! Guess who won the contest of wills… (As a footnote, I will add that when we got at the hotel, and lined outside the toilets in the lobby, we discovered that the place was full of fountains and water was running continuously between double glass panels. You get the picture…)
Maria was always on the move. She would fly from one continent to the other or one country or city to the other organizing, arranging, meeting key-people, finding boats, booking hotels, charter planes etc. Whenever she was telling me her next itinerary I would scream “Stop! I get tired just listening to you!” One of those times, she left the keys of her house in some other country and when she returned at 03:00 a.m. she discovered that she could not get in her house. Unperturbed, she simply opened her suitcase, spread her clothes in the corridor outside her door and she slept there – to the great horror of her next door neighbor in the morning! When I asked her why didn’t she call the lady who was helping her in the house chores and who has a spare key, she looked at me as if I had suggested the most outrageous thing. “What are you talking about?” she reprimanded me. “She works all day and she is tired. I couldn’t wake her up just because I’m so careless with my things!”
The Adriatic Sea Symposium ended in Venice, where the historical common declaration for the environment was signed by both HAH the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and HH Pope John Paul II. We had spent hours preparing this significant event that took place in Palazzo Ducale. It was a very hot and humid day and all the female members of the organizing committee were dressed up and standing on our high heels for hours. When it was all over, my sandals had dug into my feet and I couldn’t even walk the short distance to the boat. I thought of taking my shoes off, but then I decided that it wouldn’t be proper for a member of the organizing committee of such a formal event to be seen walking barefooted in the middle of Venice so I took a water-taxi. I got to our boat, and was trying to free my poor feet from the sandals at the empty reception, when I saw Maria coming up the escalator arm in arm with a young priest, dignified as ever, and… holding her shoes in her other hand as if it was the most natural thing in the world! She had crossed all the distance from Palazzo Ducale to our boat barefooted!
I could go on for hours talking about Maria and still not be able to draw her picture. And my pain for her loss gets mixed up with my anger for the way she was treated by her own country that she served so faithfully and so passionately all the years of her life. I want to shout “Shame on you!” to all those that treated her with such ingratitude as if she were a common criminal.
But Maria, being Maria, had the final word, as always. She did not give them the satisfaction to see her dragged in courts, humiliated. So, she left this ungrateful world when she wanted, the way she wanted. I can picture her now up there examining carefully the rivers and oceans of heaven, looking for potential injustices against the underdog and organizing projects with her departed friends, Prince Sadrudin Aga khan, Daniel Amit, Panaghiotis Kanellakis and so many others who shared her vision.
Heaven beware! Maria is coming.
Rena Karakatsani
Από τη Μαριάννα Κορομηλά
Αθήνα, 19/9/2012
Δυο λόγια για την κυρία Μαρία Μπέκετ
Η Μαρία Μπέκετ είναι μία εξέχουσα φυσιογνωμία του σύγχρονου ελληνικού κόσμου. Με μεγάλη οικογενειακή παράδοση, την οποία τίμησε απαρέγκλιτα, με απαράμιλλο πάθος, έμπνευση κι αγωνιστικό πνεύμα σε όλη τη διάρκεια της ζωής της.
Αφιερωμένη στις αξίες του οικουμενισμού, της φιλοπατρίας, της δημοκρατίας και των ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων, εργάστηκε αθόρυβα για να κάνει πράξη τις ιδέες της.
Γνώριζα ένα μικρό μέρος της δράσης της τον καιρό της Δικτατορίας (1967-1974), όταν οργάνωσε από την Ελβετία όπου ζούσε ένα ολόκληρο αντιστασιακό δίκτυο. Το σημαντικότερο μέρος αυτού του έργου ήταν η συστηματική συγκέντρωση συντριπτικών στοιχείων ώστε να καταδικαστεί το δικτατορικό καθεστώς από τους διεθνείς φορείς (κυρίως το Συμβούλιο της Ευρώπης). Για εμάς, τη νεολαία εκείνης της εποχής, αυτή η γυναίκα ήταν ένας θρύλος. Όχι μόνο για την δράση της και τους Έλληνες διωκόμενους που φυγάδευσε στο εξωτερικό ή τη φιλοξενία που τους παρείχε, αλλά γιατί δεν επιδίωξε ούτε τότε ούτε αργότερα να εξαργυρώσει με κανέναν τρόπο την προσφορά της. Της αρκούσε η ικανοποίηση ότι αγωνιζόταν για τη δημοκρατία. Σημαντικό υπήρξε προς αυτή την κατεύθυνση και το βιβλίο που έγραψε ο Αμερικανός σύζυγος της και δικηγόρος της Ύπατης Αρμοδίας για τους Πρόσφυγες του ΟΗΕ, για τα βασανιστήρια και τις φυλακές στην Ελλάδα, με τίτλο Barbarism in Greece.
Για τους παραπάνω λόγους, ήταν μεγάλη τιμή η γνωριμία μου μαζί της τον Ιούλιο του 1974. Η Χούντα είχε πέσει, αλλά η Τουρκία είχε κατακτήσει τη μισή Κύπρο. Η Μαρία Μπέκετ εργάστηκε επί χρόνια νυχθημερόν για την υπόθεση της Κύπρου. Για τη διεθνοποίηση του Κυπριακού, την ευαισθητοποίηση των ξένων διπλωματών, των διεθνών φορέων, του ΟΗΕ, την ενημέρωση Αμερικανών γερουσιαστών και Ευρωπαίων βουλευτών, την κινητοποίηση διεθνών προσωπικοτήτων αλλά και των Ελληνοαμερικανών. Ξόδεψε μεγάλο μέρος της περιουσίας της για ταξίδια στην άκρη του κόσμου, για να στηρίξει με κάθε τρόπο τα δίκαια της Κύπρου, να προσκομίσει στοιχεία σε δημοσιογράφους κύρους (όπως ο Ερίκ Ρουλό της Monde), να πείσει υπουργούς εξωτερικών, να πιέσει φίλους που την εκτιμούσαν και την πίστευαν. Πάντα αθόρυβα, συστηματικά, με συνέπεια κι αφοσίωση.
Κι όταν το Κυπριακό πήρε τον δρόμο του, η κυρία Μπέκετ έστρεψε τα ενδιαφέροντά της προς το μεγαλύτερο πρόβλημα της ανθρωπότητας, την υποβάθμιση του περιβάλλοντος και την οικολογική καταστροφή.
Έτσι, «επέστρεψε» στην Κωνσταντινούπολη απ’ όπου είχε φύγει πρόσφυγας η οικογένειά της.
To Whom It May Concern
October 25, 2012
I have known Maria Becket since 1995, when I joined the first of the eight symposia that she organized under the auspices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. At that time I was diplomatic correspondent for the Financial Times, and in an article for the Financial Times I described the symposium as a significant gathering of religious leaders, political decision-makers, scientists and environmentalists.
I also participated in six out of the seven symposia which Mrs Becket organized in later years (between 1997 and 2009) and I was therefore able to follow the emergence of “Religion, Science and the Environment” as an important force in international affairs. Although my role was an informal one, I had a particularly close involvement with the symposium of 2006 in the Amazon, and with the symposium of 2007 in the Arctic. In the months leading up to those two events, I attended many preparatory meetings and was in close contact with Mrs Becket throughout that period.
These symposia were unique events, of real global importance. In some of the most ecologically sensitive places on earth, they proclaimed the message that saving the planet from man-made destruction will only be possible if many different forces work together: the spiritual insights of religion, the technical achievements of science and the wisdom and traditions of ordinary people affected by environmental degradation. The symposia gave a platform to His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch to proclaim his message that reconciliation between man and God must involve the entire material world, not just human souls and bodies.
When, in 2006, the Patriarch blessed the waters of the Amazon, the event was broadcast live to tens of millions of viewers across Brazil and beyond – bringing home the entirely new (and to many people, surprising) message that the Christian church can and must play a role in saving the rain-forests which act as the lungs of planet Earth. During the Arctic symposium, which took place on a ship off the coast of Greenland, there was another world-historical moment when the Patriarch and senior representatives of many other world religions stood silently on the deck and prayed for the future of the planet. Images of this extra-ordinary instant, which was conceived and organized by Mrs Becket, were relayed by photographic and news-film agencies to every corner of the earth.
As an experienced writer on Greek affairs, I cannot easily think of any other environmental or philanthropic initiative based in Greece which has acted as such a powerful force for good in world affairs. Among its many benefits, RSE has also transformed the image of the Orthodox Church by drawing the secular world’s attention to the riches of its spiritual tradition, and the important messages it contains for the future of the planet. Largely as a result of the symposia, the Ecumenical Patriarch has been honoured by publications ranging from Time magazine to the Guardian as an indispensable figure in the battle to save the planet from destruction.
None of this would have happened if Mrs Becket had not devoted 25 years of her life to conceiving, planning and executing these extraordinary events. Even when she was approaching her 80th birthday, and suffering from several serious health problems, she worked and traveled at a pace which many younger people would have found exhausting.
During the months before the Amazon symposium, for example, she made at least five trips to the heart of the rain-forest where she established contact with important local personalities and overcame huge logistical difficulties. Especially during the early stages of planning each symposium, it was obvious that she was using her own personal resources, for example by turning her own home into an office, for the benefit of RSE events. The idea that she or her family were using the symposia for any sort of personal gain is manifestly false.
Long before she took up the environmental cause, Mrs Becket also had a remarkable track record as a campaigner for democracy in Greece at a time when the country was under a dictatorship. That made her unpopular among people who prefer dictatorship to democracy. She has a powerful and demanding personality, without which she would never have pulled off so many feats of organization and choreography in remote and challenging corners of the earth. But this personality was used to wonderful effect and I profoundly believe that Greece in is her debt.
Bruce Clark
Writer on law, ethics and religion
(formerly international editor and international security editor)
The Economist
To Whom It May Concern.
I write as an honorary professor of archaeology at University College London, and as a journalist and writer of books who has received many awards for my work in Britain, Europe and the United States.
I have been working with Maria Becket and the Symposia movement (originally ‘Religion, Science and the Environment’) for some 14 years. In that period, I accompanied Mrs Becket and the Ecumenical Patriarch on study voyages to the Black Sea, the Danube, the Adriatic, the Baltic, the Amazon, the Greenland Arctic, and the Mississippi . I was also a member of the preparatory committee which worked out the itinerary and logistics of these voyages and took part in numerous planning meetings in London, Athens and many other European cities. I was involved in planning meetings for several other Symposium voyages which for various reasons did not take place: the Nile, the Caspian Sea, the Ganges basin.
I can testify that the Symposium voyages were all attended by leading figures in world politics, economics and the environmental movement. RSE’s central concern was the fate of the world’s waters under pressure from pollution, overfishing, deforestation and global warming. Repeatedly, I watched EU Commissioners, directors of the World Bank, heads of state and government and ministers of the environment in several continents absorbing the lessons of these study voyages, and attempting to apply them at national and international level. I should also add that after a few years, these Symposium voyages became a regular meeting-point for the world’s leading environmental journalists, who were able to meet the great names in the environmental movement – scientific and political – and question them at length.
On the basis of my long engagement with RSE and Mrs Becket, I can state that any suggestion that the Symposia movement was in any way a criminal or profit-making enterprise is utterly bizarre. It would be less eccentric to suggest that Save The Children or Oxfam were front organisations for the Russian intelligence services. Its aims and achievements were exclusively humanitarian and idealistic , and it included a strong theological element drawn principally -from the Orthodox faith and tradition - as the years of intimate patronage by His All-Holiness Bartholomew 1, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, confirm.
Maria Becket herself is the opposite of a criminal. Exactly the contrary! She is one of the very few Greek personalities who over more than 40 years, through bad times and better periods, has reminded the elites of the international community that Greece’s ancient commitment to democracy and justice remains a reality. Her selfless and patriotic achievements are extraordinary, beginning with her work at the United Nations and elsewhere to lobby against the Greek military dictatorship in the 1960s and to organise international support for the democratic opposition. Mrs Becket’s later commitment to the cause of the world’s waters, with the creation of Religion, Science and the Environment, can also be understood as a determined effort, through alliance with the Church, to put Greece in the leadership of international efforts to deal with climate change and the global ecological crisis.
Her energy and optimism made possible the Symposium voyages, which have contributed so much to understanding the planet’s ecological emergency. To organise and plan these initiatives, she drew constantly on her own personal finances, although the major costs – ship hire etc. - naturally were covered by outside donors, private or institutional.
It is not too much to say that these grotesque charges against Mrs Becket can only appal the world of science and politics, in which she is held in the highest respect, and gravely damage the credibility of Greek authority.
Neal Ascherson.
To Whom it may Concern
Regarding Maria Becket
I am proud to be associated with the Symposia organised by Maria Becket and hold dear the friendships and alliances made in extra-ordinary circumstances on board ships in various parts of the world.
Indeed, the vulnerability of floating on water (let alone skating on thin ice, as in the Arctic Symposium) was a strong reminder of the fragility of humanity when faced with the forces of Nature or the Power of the Almighty.
The Symposia were utterly unique. In order to attract leading figures from around the world to engage with issues shaping the destiny of millions, the highest standards were required in terms of transport, accommodation and supporting facilities - but the benefits were incalculable.
My own work focusses on the Rainforest. I am Managing Director of Canopy Capital, Trustee of the Global Canopy Programme and advisor to the Rainforests Project of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. I attended the Arctic and the Mississippi Symposia in addition to the Amazon, but that is where I was most involved and where I would like to record three episodes to illustrate the diverse impact of the Symposia :
First, I recall the Blessing of the Waters where the Rio Negro meets the Rio Solimoes and the Amazon proper begins. Not only were the waters blessed by HAH the Patriarch Bartholemew and other religious leaders, but after 500 years of suffering at the hands of the white man, a Catholic Cardinal received a blessing of forgiveness from an indigenous leader in the name of the original people of the Amazon.
Second, the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool was one of those who blessed the waters. He took the message of the Symposium to the UK Parliament where he has repeatedly tabled Questions and encouraged the British Government to engage with the Brazilian authorities on the conservation of the Amazon as a high political priority.
Thirdly, I recall an after dinner conversation between Antonio Nobre of INPE and John of Pergamon about the origins of the rainfall and the workings of the Divine. It symbolised everything the Symposia stood for - one of the greatest scientists of our time pushing boundaries and finding common cause with one of the leading theologians of the Orthodox Church.
Of course, inspired by the quality of these encounters and the presence of leaders including the Brazilian Minister of the Environment Marina Silva; the leader of the Yawanawa people from the far western Amazon; John Hemming, former President of the Royal Geographical Society and Paulo Adario, head of Greenpeace in Santarem ( to name only a few ) David Shukman was sending live feeds from the Symposium to the BBC with images of the flotilla of boats heading upstream appearing on the 10 o'clock news in London.
These images were followed by Hans Blix going on the record during the Arctic Symposium saying that the destruction of the rainforest posed a greater threat to Mankind than weapons of mass destruction......a message that was taken to world leaders at the beginning of the Bali conference of the UNFCCC.
It is with sadness and disbelief that I hear of the allegations leveled against Maria Becket - a woman who turned words into deeds, who gave so much to so many, whose personal courage overcame so many obstacles, including her own advancing years. I look forward to hearing that current misunderstandings have been resolved and, in the meantime, would be delighted to elaborate on the above as required.
Sincerely
Hylton M Philipson
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN REGARDING
MARIA BECKET
When I was filming my feature documentary film for the French German cultural channel ARTE, about H.H Bartholomeos the Ist, Patriarch of Constantinople, I met many times Mrs. Maria Becket.
Maria Becket was full of energy, giving everything she could and even more to make this Symposium successful and really useful. We traveled this year all over the Adriatic Sea, it was in 2002, the former Yugoslavia countries where just recovering after the war.
The Patriarch brought them hope and encouraged them to look to the future and not to be shucked in the pass. He gave them a fantastic perspective to work for the defense of nature our only treasure with life.
Without Maria Becket’s energy and total devotion, this symposium couldn’t be organized at that level.
I do thank her for her unique contribution and for her constant support for my films and my Works.
Jacques DEBS
8, rue de Paradis
75010 Paris
FRANCE
To whom it may concern regarding Maria Becket:
I first met Maria Becket, after several invitations to symposia I had to decline, in Greenland, at the Patriarch’s Symposia on the Arctic Ocean. It was one of the most moving experiences of my life. I do not think that a similarly diverse and spiritual group of leaders has ever been assembled in Greenland – we had atomic bomb victims from Nagasaki, a Tehran City Councilwoman, native Americans from the Amazon, a Hindu organic food activist, key scientists from Europe, Latin America and the US, one of whom know head the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, a Buddhist monk from Southeast Asia, several Orthodox theologians and Bishops from North America and Europe, Cardinal McCarron of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, and the Bishop of Greenland.
The Symposium gave me a new, religious frame on the problem I have devoted the last decade to – climate change. I wrote four articles from the trip, and am attaching the links to them here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-pope/a-tale-of-two-continents_b_63501.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-pope/a-tale-of-three-arctics_b_63823.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-pope/the-beginning-of-life-and_b_64026.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-pope/god-grant-us-the-wisdom-t_b_64330.html
I was so inspired by my experience, by Maria’s courage and integrity, and her vision and belief that faith and science had to be brought together for the world to survive, that both my wife and I worked with her on planning future Symposia – some, like the Mississippi River, which came together, one, the Great Lakes of Africa, that was killed by the outbreak of civil war in Kenya, and one, the Ganges, that simply could not be pulled together before Maria’s health gave out.
But there is no doubt that the series of Symposia on the world’s oceans, seas and rivers which Maria pulled together remain as one of the outstanding legacies of the growing connection between faith, science and environmentalism, and that in nurturing them and dedicating herself to their development, Maria Beckett is one of the outstanding emissaries that Orthodox Christianity has to the rest of the world.
Sincerely yours,
Carl Pope
Former Chairman and Executive Director
The Sierra Club
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
Thank you for informing me of the situation of Maria. I feel very sad for her and hope that these allegations do not negatively affect her situation and state of mind. All involved can witness and know that the symposia she organized are and will remain world famous and that nobody can ever take those achievements away from her.
As to the charges against her I may not be of much use to you. My experience with Maria and the symposia is that she did not inform nor bother others with concerns to which solution she believed they could not contribute much. I found her very targeted and selective in her approach to people and felt quite comfortable with that. I admire her for her incredible strong drive and her skills to organize almost every year again symposia at a level and impact which I believe were and will forever remain unmatched. I fully enjoyed the gift she was giving us with the symposia and every time with great pleasure tried to provide the inputs and contributions she wanted me to make. I had and have however no idea or insight in how she made it work except that I witnessed her preparing and managing each single symposium with the utmost devotion and exertion.
I wish Maria, you and the family all the strength you need.
Frits Schlingemann
Jim,
So sorry to hear of Maria's passing. In the Jewish religion, we say the blessing "Baruch Dayan Haemet" on hearing of a death, blessed be the righteous Judge, because a person should praise G-d for the good and the bad. It's a lesson I still have difficulty with. From my brief visits with her, I realized Maria was a whirlwind, and righteous in her own right. I know she will be missed.
Mark Schleifstein
To whom it may concern regarding Maria Becket,
After having to regret my first invitation to attend a RSE Symposia due to a prior engagement, I was able to accept and attend one on the Baltic Sea in 2003. I found the Symposia to be informative and inspirational due to the outstanding organizational skills of Maria Becket. Her goal, along with that of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is to highlight areas of the world that need ecological protection. By bringing religious leaders to see the devastation of the sea (pollution mostly), scientists to explain the disasters and potential solutions, and journalists to write about it, she created a holistic approach to saving the planet with particular emphasis on large bodies of water. The resulting awareness brought to the populace and follow up action to protect the Baltic was astounding.
After being on the Baltic Sea for a week with fellow religious leaders, scientists and journalists, I returned to my home with a new sense of responsibility and new ideas of how I can help from my own home base. I was able to tell others around the world about the work I am doing in the US. I made contacts with religious leaders who I would not have known otherwise and who have subsequently helped to build like-minded communities among ourselves. We are the stewards of Creation and we sometimes need a reminder of that fact.
In 2009, I was invited again to attend a symposium in New Orleans, LA, USA and because I live in the US and spent a lot of time in the south, Maria Becket asked me to be on the planning committee. She flew me to Istanbul for a two day meeting with others to map out the itinerary and agenda for a trip on the Mississippi River. Thus I had an insider’s view of the structure and business of the RSE. It is appalling to me that anyone. least of all the Greek Government. would accuse Maria Becket of anything unlawful, unpatriotic or even slightly dishonest is incredulous. Maria was open, honest and thoughtful. She was careful with funds coming in and going out. I believe she was spending a good deal of her own money on making sure that these events were carefully orchestrated with out being extravagant. Each of us attendees came away better informed, and inspired to act on behalf of Creation.
I find it hard to imagine that anyone could find Maria anything other than honest, open and completely loyal to her Greek heritage. She was dedicated to making the world a more peaceful and healthy place to leave for our children and their children.
A magnificent woman who in her final days should be given an award for her work rather than be accused of anything disloyal or dishonest.
Faithfully in Christ
The Rev. Canon Sally G. Bingham
Canon for the Environment Episcopal Diocese of California
President: The Regeneration Project/Interfaith Power and light
October 21, 2012
To whom it may concern regarding Maria Becket
As a scientist and community developer, I was very happy to be invited to go with the symposium on the Black Sea organized by Maria Becket. It was a profoundly important event for me, bringing to life the environmental crisis occurring in all bodies of water around the earth.
I was moved by the event and volunteered to help Ms. Becket plan and implement additional symposia.
The ones I was able to attend were on the Adriatic Sea, the Baltic Sea, Greenland waters, and the Mississippi River in the United States. I helped plan the ones on the Danube, and Amazon rivers
I was happy also to have the opportunity to organize an educational retreat for Ms. Becket and the Ecumenical Patriarch at which religious leaders from all around the Black Sea came to learn about environmental science. It was held in the Istanbul area.
Ms. Becket’s contribution to environmental awareness around the world is unequalled. The people she brought together at these events were profoundly moved and benefited greatly from the new contacts made and the new levels of understanding achieved.
It is a loss for us all that these symposia have come to a close due to her ill health.
Yours sincerely,
Robert V. Lange
Physics Professor Emeritus, Brandeis University
President, the International Collaborative for Science, Education, and the Environment,
81 Kirkland Street Unit 2
Cambridge MA 02138
USA
From the office of Rt. Hon. The Lord Malloch-Brown KCMG, PC
House of Lords
London
To Whom it May Concern Regarding Maria Becket,
As the former Administrator of the UN Development Programme I attended two of Maria Becket’s Symposia for Religion Science and the Environment. One was on the Danube and the second was in the Adriatic. Both reflected the extraordinary convening power of this remarkable woman as well as her dedication to the world and its natural environment as well to Greek culture and heritage. These were remarkable events that brought together a network of religious and secular leaders together with environmental experts.
Yours sincerely,
Lord Malloch-Brown
After having to regret my first invitation to attend a RSE Symposia due to a prior engagement, I was able to accept and attend one on the Baltic Sea in 2003. I found the Symposia to be informative and inspirational due to the outstanding organizational skills of Maria Becket. Her goal, along with that of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is to highlight areas of the world that need ecological protection. By bringing religious leaders to see the devastation of the sea (pollution mostly), scientists to explain the disasters and potential solutions, and journalists to write about it, she created a holistic approach to saving the planet with particular emphasis on large bodies of water. The resulting awareness brought to the populace and follow up action to protect the Baltic was astounding.
After being on the Baltic Sea for a week with fellow religious leaders, scientists and journalists, I returned to my home with a new sense of responsibility and new ideas of how I can help from my own home base. I was able to tell others around the world about the work I am doing in the US. I made contacts with religious leaders who I would not have known otherwise and who have subsequently helped to build like-minded communities among ourselves. We are the stewards of Creation and we sometimes need a reminder of that fact.
In 2009, I was invited again to attend a symposium in New Orleans, LA, USA and because I live in the US and spent a lot of time in the south, Maria Becket asked me to be on the planning committee. She flew me to Istanbul for a two day meeting with others to map out the itinerary and agenda for a trip on the Mississippi River. Thus I had an insider’s view of the structure and business of the RSE. It is appalling to me that anyone. least of all the Greek Government. would accuse Maria Becket of anything unlawful, unpatriotic or even slightly dishonest is incredulous. Maria was open, honest and thoughtful. She was careful with funds coming in and going out. I believe she was spending a good deal of her own money on making sure that these events were carefully orchestrated with out being extravagant. Each of us attendees came away better informed, and inspired to act on behalf of Creation.
I find it hard to imagine that anyone could find Maria anything other than honest, open and completely loyal to her Greek heritage. She was dedicated to making the world a more peaceful and healthy place to leave for our children and their children.
A magnificent woman who in her final days should be given an award for her work rather than be accused of anything disloyal or dishonest.
Faithfully in Christ
The Rev. Canon Sally G. Bingham
Canon for the Environment Episcopal Diocese of California
President: The Regeneration Project/Interfaith Power and light
October 21, 2012
To whom it may concern regarding Maria Becket
As a scientist and community developer, I was very happy to be invited to go with the symposium on the Black Sea organized by Maria Becket. It was a profoundly important event for me, bringing to life the environmental crisis occurring in all bodies of water around the earth.
I was moved by the event and volunteered to help Ms. Becket plan and implement additional symposia.
The ones I was able to attend were on the Adriatic Sea, the Baltic Sea, Greenland waters, and the Mississippi River in the United States. I helped plan the ones on the Danube, and Amazon rivers
I was happy also to have the opportunity to organize an educational retreat for Ms. Becket and the Ecumenical Patriarch at which religious leaders from all around the Black Sea came to learn about environmental science. It was held in the Istanbul area.
Ms. Becket’s contribution to environmental awareness around the world is unequalled. The people she brought together at these events were profoundly moved and benefited greatly from the new contacts made and the new levels of understanding achieved.
It is a loss for us all that these symposia have come to a close due to her ill health.
Yours sincerely,
Robert V. Lange
Physics Professor Emeritus, Brandeis University
President, the International Collaborative for Science, Education, and the Environment,
81 Kirkland Street Unit 2
Cambridge MA 02138
USA
From the office of Rt. Hon. The Lord Malloch-Brown KCMG, PC
House of Lords
London
To Whom it May Concern Regarding Maria Becket,
As the former Administrator of the UN Development Programme I attended two of Maria Becket’s Symposia for Religion Science and the Environment. One was on the Danube and the second was in the Adriatic. Both reflected the extraordinary convening power of this remarkable woman as well as her dedication to the world and its natural environment as well to Greek culture and heritage. These were remarkable events that brought together a network of religious and secular leaders together with environmental experts.
Yours sincerely,
Lord Malloch-Brown