The Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain is an archdiocese of the Eastern Orthodox Church, part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Its present head is Archbishop Nikitas Loulias. Its jurisdiction covers those Orthodox Christians living in Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. The adherents are largely of Cypriot Greek descent, mainland Greek migrants and their descendants, and more recently native British converts along with a few Poles, Belarusians, and Ukrainians. It is also the largest Orthodox Archdiocese in the British Isles. The former archbishop, Gregorios, himself was a Cypriot whose ancestral village of Marathovounos, in the district of Famagusta, is occupied by the Turkish army. Archdiocesan Administration The Archdiocese is organised around the archbishop whose cathedra is located at the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom (also known as Saint Sophia's) in London. It one of the various metropolis' of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, established as part of the large expansion of Orthodox Metropolia in Western Europe, such as with Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland. The archbishop is considered the 'Primus inter pares' of the various Orthodox ecclesial bodies in the United Kingdom. The archbishop, therefore sits at the head of the Pan-Orthodox Episcopal Assembly of the British Isles and Ireland. The headquarters of the Archdiocese is at Thyateira House, in the Bayswater district of London. The first Metropolitan of the (then) Metropolis of Thyateira and Great Britain was Metropolitan Germanos Strinopoulos. The current Metropolitan Archbishop is Nikitas Loulias History The first recorded organised Greek Orthodox community in England was established in 1670 by a group of 100 Greek refugees from Mani. There were also theologians, students, coffee shop owners, traders and sailors. Their priest was Daniel Boulgaris, who also seems to have taken the initiative to gain permission from the Anglican Bishop of London to build a permanent church for his growing flock. His efforts were boosted in 1676 by the arrival of the Archbishop of Samos, Joseph Georgerines, who had originally travelled to London to publish his Anthologion, "for the use of the Eastern Greek Church". Soon, the London authorities granted them permission to build a church. Georgerines then travelled around the country with his manservant, Dominikos Cratianas, to raise the necessary funds. The church was inaugurated in 1677 in Soho and dedicated to the Panagia on what soon became Greek Street. However, the situation turned precarious when Dominicos