His Eminence Christoforos (Knitis) was the first Metropolitan of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Australia and New Zealand. On taking over responsibility for diasporic Greeks from the Church of Greece, the Church of Constantinople elected to make a new metropolis for Australia and New Zealand in March 1924. Metropolitan Christoforos was transferred from the Metropolis of Serres to the Metropolis of Australia and New Zealand. He led the new Metropolis for five years and, amidst some scandal, retired to his island of birth, Samos, Greece, in 1929.