A memorial service for the victims of the Tempe tragedy was held today, Sunday, in a heavy atmosphere in the parish of Agios Georgios in Anogeia. The memorial service was held by the History and Culture Knowledge Workshop and ANOGI, for the repose of the soul and the lighting of the unextinguished candle for the 57 victims, with many of the victims being young people, students and students who were now starting to create in their lives , as Archpriest Andreas Kefalogiannis told APE-MPE.

After the memorial service, the cantor and artist Vassilis Dramudanis sang the lament with his mandolin, a mandinades song in memory of the dead. The Anogeans, as mentioned, must honor these people, not let their memory be forgotten, expecting blame to be cast in every direction for mishandling and irresponsibility that led to this tragedy.

Speaking about the tragedy that shook the country, Fr. Andreas Kefalogiannis said, addressing the Anogeans: “… we stand today embarrassed, grieving mentally, embarrassed in reality and with difficulty in our thoughts, for the loss of so many innocent people, for their separation from their youth, life, dreams, truth, their parents and their children. That night when we heard the tragic news, of the tragedy in Tempe, we realized how thin is the thread on which we all move, how chillingly thin this thread can lead the members of a family to eternal, earthly, separation. That night we all reflected on how important it is to be able to speak our feelings, to communicate our concerns and to show our love to all those who are next to us and around us. That night, we grasped the self-criticism by the hair, for everything we may have known but didn’t talk about, about what we’ve experienced discerning mistakes and omissions but didn’t talk about, about what we had learned but didn’t pay attention to. For all that, a conversation from each of us could have become a cry for the highlighting of timeless mistakes that ultimately cost human lives. The fatal train crushed that night, every feeling of security that we had foolishly maintained for so many years, resting all of us in a nirvana, a result of materialism and distance from our God and Christ. Rested, away from any dialogue that every society must maintain, away from the reflection on whether and to what extent the structures, agencies, services, reflexes and obligations of a privileged society and state are working properly. That night, at the same time, our sacred need arose within us, our duty and responsibility, to be not Cretans, not brothers, not parents, not citizens but to be above all human beings. With what this means for the struggle we must fight to reevaluate and do all that is required to restart the sane, responsible, safe operation of our state. The tragic mistakes of decades, the mourning, the pain, the tragedies, but above all the separations of our worshipers, are not corrected by imprisonments, decrees, laws, courts and controls. In order to have the proper steering on safe lines in our society and in our state, we must be critical, with iotas, that is, we must have the judgment that our humanity imposes. We must be responsible and demanding towards all those who decide, act, function organizationally and coordinate our lives and those of our children. We, with our attitude and our honesty, will show that the citizens have a duty to oblige those in charge to do everything with faith and sanctity in each of their duties.

“My brothers”

Each of our pending in this obligation, will be one more stone to build another mass grave. In memory and in the souls of our lost children and fellow human beings, we promise the most sacred memorial service. Which is none other than accelerating our every step in the direction of creating strong, solid, humane and worthy bases in our society in our state in our homeland. We keep hearing that we’re going to fix everything. Words from the lips of those in charge. We need a promise, an oath and honest conversations that we will not mourn other children, other fellow human beings, unfairly, unfairly, unfairly and ultimately so dishonourably. We promise you my brothers, my children, our sons and daughters, that from here in the mountainous Anogia, from the top of Psiloritis we will send to the ages of the ages the message of cooperation between honest and consistent citizens with honest and consistent people in charge of our lives. If this message is not heeded, we, the common people, will pound our feet firmly on the ground to tear down the unorthodox and harmful that stigmatize our lives.”