NAFPAKTOS, Greece (Reuters) - After storming the pop charts and ruffling the feathers of the conservative Orthodox Church, Greece's "rocking monks" are taking the next natural step -- a North American tour to spread their message.
The group of young monks from Saints Augustine and Serapheim Sarof monastery, nestled in the serene hills near the town of Nafpaktos in central Greece, have achieved celebrity status in their homeland with a rock sound and lyrics touching on subjects from globalization to drug abuse.
In less than two years, the "Free Monks" collective has recorded three albums -- their most recent featuring songs in English for the first time -- and this June's tour will take them to Chicago, New York, Boston, and Toronto.
"Our children are not just those of Greece but of the whole world. As we are all children of the same God, we have to speak to them in a language they understand, so that God's word reaches everywhere," said the monastery's abbot, Father Nektarios Moulatsiotis.
Proceeds from the concerts will help pay the legal fees of about a dozen convicts of Greek origin on death row in the United States who do not have the money to fund an appeal.
The campaign is organized by a society of the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States, which invited the monks to perform. Father Nektarios said the monks were not taking sides in the issue, only supporting the prisoners' right to appeal.
"The right for someone to make an appeal, whether he is innocent or guilty, that right belongs to everyone, and if because of economic reasons they cannot make an appeal, it is our job as the church to help them financially," he said.
"If they are innocent then they will be freed. If they are guilty, then they will face sentence," he added.
GOD'S WORK
Young screeching fans packed a concert hall in March to hear the monks perform their songs in English for the first time.
The monks, wearing black robes, ponytails and long beards, said fame hadn't distracted them from their devotion to God and their mission to spread God's message through music.
"It hasn't changed me," said the group's lead singer, Father Pandeleimon. "The people don't look at us but at the work we do. Fame is here today and gone tomorrow, the work is the important thing, the work remains."
Thirty-year-old Pandeleimon, who was a musician before he became a monk five years ago, said the recording studio was a very different place from the serene hilltop monastery.
"From the day I became a monk the music environment has been foreign to me ... We don't belong to the music environment. What we do is a holy mission, the people know that. It's not an art form, but a holy mission."
Asked if he missed the musician's life, he said: "No, I was a musician once, but I left that behind me. This is my life now."
Their first album two years ago, "I Learned to Live Free," was a major hit, going platinum in just a few weeks after selling 80,000 copies. It was followed with "SOS -- Save Our Souls," which also racked up tens of thousands of sales.
"By Your Side," the group's third album includes two English songs -- a club remix of an earlier chart-topper now called "Freedom Lies in Heaven," and the title track "By Your Side."
UPSET AT HOLY SYNOD
Lyrics on all their albums have touched issues such as drug abuse, politics, money, globalization, loneliness, depression, and how the road to God would save souls.
"There's so much pain and isolation, birth control manipulation. The project of Doom. The New Order Lords. I don't want to be their fool no more," read the English lyrics of the song "Freedom Lies in Heaven."
"There's no more time for business talking, Mr. Money is out to lunch, you are just a lonely number counting on his lonely clock," it reads.
The monks' fame has upset the bishops of Greece's Holy Synod, the Greek church's top administrative body, who have condemned their actions as scandalous and not consistent with the practices of monastic tradition.
Father Nektarios was not disturbed by the criticism of the Holy Synod and said it would not hinder the monks from continuing to record music.
"The Holy Synod disagrees with this work, they say it is unusual for the Orthodox religion. But they do not forbid it because they know what we are doing is not a sin," he said.
"They lost the following of the youth because they didn't do what they should have. Well, we did and succeeded in bringing the young people back to the church with these new methods."