The article in the link above about the last Greeks of Constantinople is very good. This is what the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Orthodox Church of Greece should be focusing on. Very sadly, the Greek Orthodox world has been led to disaster as a result of the collaboration of Patriarch Bartholomew and some Bishops in Greece with the State Department.
Patriarch Bartholomew had one major challenge confronting him when he was enthroned as Ecumenical Patriarch in November 1991. That was to save the Ecumenical Patriarchate and its remaining flock in Constantinople and the islands of Imbros and Tenedos. For a long time it appeared that Patriarch Bartholomew was in fact proceeding to revive the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
A major Pan Orthodox synaxis was held in Constantinople in March 1992 that was unprecedented. Patriarch Bartholomew showed a good deal of courage in surviving nearly a dozen assassination attempts or bomb attacks at the Patriarchate. It can still be said that he faced down Turkish-Islamic terrorism with great bravery.
Alas, with the convening of the problematic pseudo-council of Crete and the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s intervention in Ukraine much damage was done to Constantinople’s prestige in addition to the damage done to Orthodox unity. The plight of the Greek communities in Constantinople and the islands of Imbros and Tenedos is tragic. Quite noticeable is the fact that the Patriarch’s allies have done nothing to alleviate their plight.
The theological school of Halki remains closed and Hagia Sophia and the Chora Church of the Savior are being used as Mosques. The Greek speaking Churches need to end the crisis in Orthodoxy. Any Greek who believes that the Ecumenical Patriarchate ended the schism in Ukraine is deluded. Constantinople has in fact contributed to the persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Church and created a major schism throughout the universal Church.
As an old admirer of the Great Church of Constantinople I am now a profound critic of the Patriarchate and its policies. What the Patriarch needs is criticism and opposition and not blind obedience. This is the Orthodox way. In earlier centuries, the spiritual children of the Church of Constantinople criticized and rebuked their Patriarchs when they strayed from the truth as occurred during the iconoclastic crisis and after the convening of the false Council of Florence. The Patriarchate has an important function to play but not the function Patriarch Bartholomew wants it to play.
The Patriarch has the responsibility to protect itself, its important shrines that remain in Constantinople, and its remaining flock. The Patriarchate cannot fulfill these aspirations if it is defying the precepts of Orthodox ecclesiology and inventing a non existent role for itself and claiming to be “first without equals” in the worlds Eastern Orthodox hierarchy.
One reply on “The Orthodox Way and Constantinople”
Bartholomew may be too old to do the job, he has definitely made some poor decisions recently. The Church has survived poor Patriarchs before, they’ll survive this period as well. But Bartholomew may have marginalized himself beyond redemption.