Costa Carras has extensive experience in a wide range of issues involving conservation and ecology, religion, culture and politics. In 1972 with his wife Lydia he founded Greece's leading environmental organization, Elliniki Etairia Perivallontos kai Politismou (Society for the Environment and the Cultural Heritage), of which he was President 1972-1975 and 2001-2008, and still serves as president of its Council for the Architectural Heritage. Since 1973 he has represented Elliniki Etairia in Europa Nostra, the federation of European conservation organizations, and is that body's longest-serving vice-president. He also founded, and remains vice-chairman of, the Society for the Preservation of the Greek Heritage, USA. Mr. Carras was co-chairman of the British Council of Churches' Commission on Trinitarian Doctrine in the 1980s, when he organized the ground-breaking 1988 meeting on religion and the environment in Patmos, and is a lay Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. From 1978 to 1999, he served on the Assembly of the Diocese of Sourozh in the UK under Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom). In 1974 in London he founded "Friends of Cyprus", of which he remains an active member. Since 1998 he has also been the Greek Coordinator of the Greek-Turkish Forum. His published works in English include 3000 Years of Greek Identity - Myth and Reality (1984); "Religious Identity and Religious Education in Schools" in Clio in the Balkans: The Politics of History Education (2002); and "Greek Identity: A Long View" in Balkan Identities, ed. Maria Todorova. (2004). Mr. Carras holds an M.A. degree from Trinity College, Oxford University, where he studied ancient Greek and Latin literature, philosophy and ancient history.