Servant Leader:

Constantin Bancila

Priest Constantin Bancila, Church of the Nativity of Mary and Saint Charalampos.
Father Constantin Bancila at the Church of the Nativity of Mary and Saint Charalampos, Gavalochori. Luka Tica, Foundation for Gavalochori

Father Constantin Bancila was interviewed on a warm summer evening on the porch of his residence on the grounds of the Church of the Nativity of Mary and Saint Charalampos. Thoughtful and welcoming, he talked about his career path to the village of Gavalochori and the life he and his family enjoy here.

Father Constantin’s call to serve through the priesthood came early in life. Even as a small boy in Romania, he envisioned himself serving people through the profession of the priesthood. He prepared for his vocation by first earning a bachelor’s degree in theology in Romania. Then he learned Greek and completed seminary training in Greece to become a priest. Prior to moving to Gavalochori, Father Constantin served as a priest in Exopoli. Although Gavalochori is his primary assignment, because there is a shortage of priests, he also serves the churches in Xirosterni, Agios Pavlos, and Aspro.

Father Constantin very much enjoys his work and finds it highly fulfilling. He looks forward to services every weekend as well as leading services on the major holidays of Easter and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. On those special days, he finds that the broad and intense participation of the community creates a special spirit. He commented that he especially enjoys officiating at the two large churches in Gavalochori, the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus and the Nativity of Mary. 

Priests in the Greek Orthodox church are allowed to marry if they do so before their ordination as deacons, the first step of priesthood. Father Constantin has been married for over 20 years and has four children.

Father Constantin is supported in his duties as a priest by a four-member church council made up of residents of Gavalochori. They help him maintain the churches, decorate them for name-day celebrations, and sustain liturgical traditions.

Father Constantin and his family enjoy living in Gavalochori. One of the things he really admires about the people of Gavalochori is their hardworking nature. When asked what the challenges are of being a priest in Gavalochori, Father Constantin replied that they are the same challenges that priests face in other Greek villages. However, he noted that in Gavalochori, where a great number of people are engaged in the tourism industry, patterns of participation and volunteerism are different, and the services he provides often need to be different to accommodate this fact. For example, he noted that if new guests are arriving at an Airbnb or a house has to be cleaned for tourists, residents might have to miss church services. Also, tavernas and other eating establishments operate long and late hours during the tourist season, which limits the availability of those engaged in hospitality work to participate in church activities on a traditional schedule. 

When he is not busy with his duties as a priest, Father Constantin enjoys growing grapes and making wine, just as his grandfather and father did, as well as tending to his olive trees and vegetable garden. Although Father Constantin is not a wine expert and makes wine simply as a hobby, he appreciates how some people can tell minuscule differences among wines. He acknowledges that he also feels a connection to winemaking because of the role that wine plays in the liturgy of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Father Constantin and his family enjoy taking an annual trip to Romania, a drive that can take between 17 and 30 hours from Piraeus, depending on road conditions and traffic. A visit home means reconnecting with friends and the country they left behind.

Father Constantin is the channel through which the spiritual life of Gavalochori is nourished. He presides at religious ceremonies every weekend and on major holy days, baptizes the newborn, officiates at marriages and funerals, and serves the community in numerous unseen ways. He is an important part of our village, and we are grateful that he has fully embraced his role as the spiritual leader of the community. 

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. View more
Cookies settings
Accept
Decline
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookie name Active
  1. Information Collected and Its Uses: When you participate in this site, we may collect the personal information you give us such as your name and email address. We may send you emails about our site and related information about the village of Gavalochori. We may also use your email to survey you about your usage or to collect your opinion.
  2. Obtaining Consent: When you provide us with personal information, you imply that you consent to our collecting it and using it for that specific reason only. If we ask for your personal information for a secondary reason, like marketing, we will either ask you directly for your expressed consent or provide you with an opportunity to say no.
  3. Withdrawing Consent: After you opt in, if you change your mind, you may withdraw your consent for us to contact you or for the continued collection, use, or disclosure of your information at any time by contacting us at AnthonyRadich45@gmail.com or mailing us at: 1788 Glencoe Street, Denver, Colorado 80220, USA.
  4. Disclosure: We may disclose your personal information if we are required by law to do so or if you violate our Terms & Conditions. [INSERT LINK to Terms & Conditions].
  5. Location of Data: Your data are stored through the data-storage system of the Foss-Radich Foundation for Gavalochori. Data are stored on a secure server behind a firewall.
  6. Payment Process: If you make a purchase on our site, we use a third-party payment processor. Payments are encrypted through the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Your purchase transaction data are stored only as long as is necessary to complete your purchase transaction. All direct payment gateways adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of credit-card information by our site.
  7. Third Party Services: In general, the third-party providers we use will only collect, use, and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide to us. However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment-transaction processors, have their own privacy policies in respect to the information we are required to provide to them for your purchase-related transactions. For these providers, we recommend that you read their privacy policies so you understand the manner in which your personal information will be handled by these providers. Certain providers may be located in or have facilities in a different jurisdiction than either you or us. If you elect to proceed with a transaction that involves the services of a third-party service provider, your information may become subject to the laws of the jurisdiction(s) in which that service provider or its facilities are located. Once you leave our Website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy or our Website’s Terms & Conditions.
  8. Links: When you click on links on our Website, they may direct you away from the site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites and encourage you to read their privacy statements.
  9. Security: To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed. If you provide us with your credit-card information, the information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL) and stored with AES-256 encryption. Although no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, we follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional generally accepted industry standards.
  10. Cookies: We collect cookies or similar tracking technologies—information that our Website’s server transfers to your computer. This information can be used to track your session on our Website. Cookies may also be used to customize our Website content for you as an individual. If you are using one of the common internet web browsers, you can set up your browser to either let you know when you receive a cookie or to deny cookie access to your computer.
    • We use cookies to recognize your device and provide you with a personalized experience.
    • We use cookies to attribute visits to our Website to third-party sources and to serve targeted ads from Google, Facebook, Instagram, and other third-party vendors.
    • Our third-party advertisers use cookies to track your prior visits to our Website and elsewhere on the internet in order to serve you targeted ads. For more information about targeted or behavioral advertising, please visit: https://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising.
    • Opting out: You can opt out of targeted ads served via specific third-party vendors by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Opt-Out page.
    • We may also use automated tracking methods on our Website, in communications with you, and in our products and services to measure performance and engagement.
    • Please note that because there is no consistent industry understanding of how to respond to “Do Not Track” signals, we do not alter our data collection and usage practices when we detect such a signal from your browser.
  11. Web-Analysis Tools: We may use web-analysis tools that are built into the Website to measure and collect anonymous session information.
  12. Age of Consent:  You may not use this Website if you are a minor (defined as those who are younger than 18 years of age).
  13. Changes to this Privacy Policy: We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. Please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the Website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated so that you are aware of the nature of the information we collect; how we use it; and the circumstances, if any, under which we will use and/or disclose it. If our site is acquired or merged with another company, your information may be transferred to the new owners so that we may continue to provide information to you.
  14. Questions and Contact Information: If you would like to access, correct, amend, or delete any personal information we have about you; register a complaint; or simply want more information, contact our Privacy Compliance Officer at AnthonyRadich45@gmail.com or by mail at 1788 Glencoe Street, Denver, Colorado 80220, USA.
Save settings
Cookies settings