Source: The New York Times Changing the secular space back into a religious one is a risk for the World Heritage Site. By The Editorial Board The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom. On Friday, after 86 years as a museum, the great Hagia Sophia in Istanbul will once again echo with Muslim prayers. To Turkish Islamists, the conversion marks the fulfillment of a long-held dream of restoring a symbol of Ottoman grandeur. For many others around the world, the change is a…
Browsing: Constantinople
Source: Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in America This informative article details how His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s swift and decisive action in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic unified the Church, staved off disaster, and protected the faithful. His All-Holiness provided crucial explanations for why it was so important to adhere to the guidelines provided by government and health authorities and overcoming various objections to doing so. These explanations were further elaborated by His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America for the safety of the faithful of the Omogeneia. The pandemic, Greece and the Patriarchate Read this article on the…
Source: Hellenic American Leadership Council The latest virtual event in our series on “The Real History of Constantinople” features Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou for a discussion on cultural heritage and political propaganda in today’s Turkey.
Source: The National Herald CONSTANTINOPLE – United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback visited the seat of Ecumenical Patriarchate and met with His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Ambassador Sam Brownback, who had visited earlier the Holy Trinity Monastery, which houses the historic Theological School of Halki discussed with the Ecumenical Patriarch issues regarding the ministry of the Mother Church of Constantinople, both locally and internationally, the Greek Diaspora, and the status of Christians in Turkey. The Ecumenical Patriarch, in turn, made reference to his future visit to the United States this coming May and his planned meeting with…
Source: Orthodox Christianity Jerusalem – Following his recent trip to Moscow, His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem has reportedly come under serious pressure from hierarchs from the Patriarchate of Constantinople and elsewhere, according to the Telegram channel “PravBlog,” with reference to its sources in the Holy Land. The Patriarch traveled to Moscow to last month to receive the Patriarch Alexei II Award for working towards Church unity from the International Public Foundation for the Unity of Orthodox Peoples. In his speech upon receiving the award, the Patriarch invited all the Orthodox primates to gather in Jordan to discuss the sensitive issue of…
Source: Orthodox Christianity Mt. Athos, November 27, 2019 – On November 12, Patriarch Bartholomew participated in the Vespers service at the Catholic Abbey of Our Lady of St. Rémy in Rochefort, Belgium, together with Archimandrite Alexios, the abbot of Xenophontos Monastery, and Hieromonk Theophilos of Pantocrator Monastery, both on Mt. Athos. According to a new report from the Union of Orthodox Journalists, during his trip to Mt. Athos the previous month, Pat. Bartholomew attempted to convince several Athonite abbots and monks that there are no dogmatic differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, and that reunion with the Catholic church is inevitable. Pat. Bartholomew…
Source: Public Orthodoxy by His Eminence Metropolitan Ignatius of Demetrias (Volos, Greece) The following are excerpts from the intervention of His Eminence Metropolitan Ignatius of Demetrias, Chairman of the Synodal Committee for Inter-Orthodox and Inter-Christian Relations, during the Extraordinary Session of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece (12th October 2019). The Synodal Committee for Inter-Orthodox and Inter-Christian Relations, which I am honored to chair, explicitly followed the mandate of the Standing Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. In this light, I would like to summarize the prevailing perspectives during the Committee’s discussions, drawing your attention to the following five points: The…
Source: Orthodox Christianity CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO Thessaloniki — Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece and Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople concelebrated the Divine Liturgy in Thessaloniki today together with a number of hierarchs from their respective Local Churches. The Liturgy was celebrated in the 5th-century Byzantine Church of the Acheiropoietos, reports Romfea. Most significantly, “Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko, the primate of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” created by Pat. Bartholomew and ex-President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, was commemorated in the service as a primate of a Local Church. This marks the first time Epiphany was commemorated and entered into…
Source: The Russian Orthodox Church On 17th October 2019, during a session of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, a statement was adopted concerning the situation that arose in the Greek Orthodox Church after it convened on 12th October 2019 the extraordinary Council of Hierarchs on the Ukrainian church issue (Minutes No. 125). Members of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church have acquainted themselves with the published in the mass media documents of the extraordinary Council of Hierarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church held on 12th October 2019, in particular, with the communiqué of the Council and the report…
Source: Orthodox Christianity Kiev – Patriarch Bartholomew’s relations with the primates of the Local Orthodox Churches around the world have turned tense thanks to the Ukrainian issue, says His Grace Bishop Victor of Baryshev, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s representative to European international organizations. In particular, things have turned sour between the Phanar and His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Albania and His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos of Cyprus. The former has even received insulting letters from hierarchs in the Patriarchate of Constantinople because of his position on the Ukrainian crisis, Bp. Victor said on the program “Right to Faith” on the First…
Source: Orthodox Christianity [Paris] The Archdiocese of Russian Churches in Western Europe, which largely voted to follow its hierarch, His Eminence Archbishop John of Dubna, into the Moscow Patriarchate recently, is already experiencing the fruits of this new life. Yesterday, Abp. John, who was unceremoniously released from the Patriarchate of Constantinople without warning and soon thereafter received by the Russian Church, published an address to his flock, announcing the upcoming Archbishop’s Council and General Assembly of the Archdiocese and the election of two vicar bishops. Abp. John lamented in an interview in February that while he is getting older, Constantinople never permitted the Archdiocese to elect and consecrate new…
Source: Orthodox Christianity [Athens] As they have already done several times, the hierarchs of the Greek Church have again postponed discussion of the Ukrainian ecclesiastical issue, according to sources within the Greek Orthodox Church. Yesterday, the Telegram channel of the Moscow Patriarchal press service, “Church Today,” reported, citing its own sources within the Greek Church, that the hierarchs would not discuss Ukraine at the upcoming session of the Bishops’ Council, which will open on October 8. This report comes after the Permanent Holy Synod of the Greek Church met in Athens on October 1, and, according to Greek sources, was “seeking…