Stylianos S. Charkianakis has been the archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia since 1975. Born in Crete in 1935, he studied at the famous Orthodox School of Theology on the isle of Halki, and was ordained as a priest in 1958. He completed postgraduate studies in Systematic Theology and Philosophy of Religion, in Bonn, West Germany, and has published widely in Dogmatic and Systematic Theology. He has also published 16 collections of poetry. Among his honors are the International Gottfried von Herder Award, the Award for Poetry from the Academy of Athens, and an Honorary Doctorate from Lublin University, Poland.