Third Pre-Conciliar Pan-Orthodox Conference of the Ecumenical Patriarch, as primus inter pares On the one hand, he had to appease his Turkish master who was Islamic and on the other hand, seek to nourish the faith among the Orthodox faithful. 2014) to conclude the preparatory process even WebThe concrete aim of this Encyclical was to promote the cause of Church unity by creating an organism called the League of the Churches of Christ, modelled after its manner of proclamation; 3) Autonomy and its The chief inspiration for the Iconodule (pro-icon) party was provided by the efforts of two remarkable monk theologians, John of Damascus and Theodore of Studios, who were primarily responsible for formulating the official Orthodox doctrine on the icons -- that the grace from the original prototypes of the icons (Christ, the Virgin, or the Saints) filters down from the original to their copies, the icons. The Holy and Great Council is the first meaning the Bishops who were residing Over the next ten years, work would proceed WebHis All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, in the presence of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, presided at the Investiture of thirty-five new Archons from throughout the United States, following the Divine Liturgy at the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, on Sunday, October 31, 2021. To be sure some scholars believe that the patriarchs, perhaps unwisely, adhering primarily to the old Byzantine (or "Roman") imperial heritage in the manner of the so-called Megali idea, always sought a restoration of all the Greek-speaking areas, in contrast to the idea held by such heroes of the Greek Revolution as Koraes, of a modern Greek nation. Ecumenical Patriarch Under Empress Irene. In 1923, one year later, as a result of the intervention of the great powers, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, according to which all of the Greeks in Asia Minor and most of the Turks of Greece were expelled. It should not be overlooked that one of Cyril's primary aims was to enlighten and uplift the educational level of his clergy and flock, which in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century had sunk to an extremely low point because of the long Turkish oppression. Of course the Christian devotee is forbidden to actually worship the icon (a practice termed latreia). This pentarchic theory was firmly established by the time of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the mid-sixth century, as is clearly reflected in his nomocanones (combined civil-ecclesiastical law codes). honor and status to the Metropolitan of Moscow by The school in Halki was to retain its theological importance for the patriarchate until its forced closing by the Turks in 1972. And, not least, he saved for Christianity the precious legacy of classical pagan Greek literature and philosophy by reconciling it with Christian doctrine and showing how a discriminating knowledge of classical Greek writings was indispensable for a deeper understanding of the Christian faith itself Hence he is considered the patron saint of education in the Orthodox Church. Opposed to this latter theory is the Eastern concept of the "Pentarchy." For those within the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, cultural identity functions on the basis of the sacred canons and a healthy ecclesiology, without (Some scholars believe that among other reasons motivating the emperors was their belief that the monks, the chief protectors of the icons, were becoming too numerous and an increasingly "unproductive" element in society. Endemousa Synod of Constantinople, The Churches differed over the dogma of the filioque, and in the liturgical question of the azyma -- that is, the use by the Orthodox of leavened bread in the Eucharist in contrast to the unleavened bread of the Roman Church. removal of racial discrimination. True, the emperor alone of all laymen could cross before the iconostasis, cense and preach to the congregation, summon ecumenical councils and even administer Holy Communion to himself But noteworthily the Communion had first to be consecrated by a priest. This was not only because of the parade of external enemies constantly attacking the empire's territory (often simultaneously on three or even four fronts) but because of internal unrest and decay. But the patriarchs of these "lost" Eastern centers continued in the Byzantine period to be represented at Constantinople by legates (or in person) and sat with the Synodos Endemousa (standing or permanent synod). Sacred Synaxis of the Primates at the Phanar Aside from decisions regarding doctrine and disciplinary matters taken by the Councils, it is significant to point out that it was the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople which ratified the canon affirming that "the Bishop of Constantinople shall have the primacy of honor (presveia times) after the Bishop of Rome, because Constantinople is the 'New Rome' " (a fact which granted Constantinople primacy of honor over the three other eastern patriarchs). Originally from the patriarchate of Antioch, he became one of the most celebrated patriarchs of Constantinople. The synod first developed from what was referred to as the resident synod, composed of the patriarch, local bishops, and any Orthodox bishops who were visiting in the imperial capital of Constantinople. Moreover, however successful some emperors seemed temporarily to be (in the Iconoclastic struggle, for example), they could never unilaterally pronounce on dogma without the sanction of an ecumenical council at which all five patriarchs had to be present. As we have seen, the Patriarch during the earlier Turkish period preserved the patriarchal school, and there trained many of the subsequent prominent Greek hierarchs. Greater Councils. It was clear that the Turkish government now wished to be rid of the Patriarchate entirely. Another title of honor, granted to laymen as recognition of special service to the Church, was that of Ostiarios, the person in charge of the great doors of Hagia Sophia. During this first period the authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople gradually increased, though he seemed sometimes to be under the thumb of the emperor. The late fourth century Patriarch of Constantinople, the Cappadocian St. Gregory the Theologian of Nazianzos, rendered inestimable service to the Christian Church against the first great heresy, Arianism. It was this combination of the Orthodox Church and ancient Greek culture, that they were now consciously reviving, which acted together to strengthen their growing sense of Greek ethnicity. The preparatory process of the Holy and Great Sometimes they would punish the Greek population for alleged violations of the Sultan's will by putting to death a patriarch through strangulation or other violent means. document on the Orthodox Diaspora. This was around the world which happened in 2010. So much so that the Sultan had the Patriarch Gregory V hanged from the grand door of his Patriarchate. received the mandate from the Sacred Synaxis of the shadow of the now collapsed iron curtain.. The then Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, probably the outstanding Orthodox patriarch of modern times, had long believed reconciliation was possible between Greeks and Turks. Not only were they instrumental in establishing the official dogmas of the entire Church of East and West against the heresies of Arios, Nestorios, Dioscoros, Eutyches, and others, but their dedication and loyalty to the faith and to their office of patriarch (or bishop) has forever served as an inspiring example to their successors. Translation and commentary of original sources. So now, (Chambsy, June 6-12, 2009) Thus from its place of exile in Nicea, the Patriarch ate was once more reestablished in its traditional center at Constantinople. Athenagoras and the subsequent The actions of the sultans, especially the successors of Mehmet II, were often unpredictable and inconsistent. template for a list of its basic agenda items. Finally, there was the difference in the epiklesis, different beliefs as to the moment when the miracle of metavole -- the change of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ -- occurs in the liturgical service. Hagia Sophia and the Patriarchate were noted in the medieval world of both East and West for the enormous number of relics preserved there and in the church of the Holy Apostles, dating from the time of Christ or shortly thereafter: the true cross, the crown of thorns, the Virgin's girdle and robe -- the latter two in particular looked upon by the Byzantine populace as the palladia (protectors) of Constantinople. [16] [17] Christianization of Serbs Churches (January 21-28, 2016), the agenda was fixed. These titles originally had some significant historical association either with the Byzantine Church or with the Byzantine imperial court, both of which played closely related roles in the formation of Byzantine civilization. In 1883, after the winning of Greek independence in more of the Greek-speaking areas, a new phase be~an for the Patriarchate, the modern period. (Chambsy, January 10-17, 2015) with certain Log In Fasting and its application today; and 6) This meant that Bishops from any part of the The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is the most striking manifestation of the continued viability, over 1500 years, of the most creative of Byzantine institutions, the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the Ottoman period, nevertheless, the Patriarch managed to present a good deal of his authority (though always under the Sultan), while maintaining and sustaining the Orthodox ecclesiastical tradition. But with the end of World War I and especially the debacle of the Greek army at Smyrna in 1922 after the Greco-Turkish War and the Megale Katastophe (destruction of Hellenism) in Asia Minor, the fate of the Patriarch of Constantinople hung precariously in the balance. Cyril himself as an individual may well have been attracted by certain Calvinist beliefs, but that he wished to impose these beliefs on the Orthodox Church is doubtful. At any rate, in the period of the deepest cultural darkness for the Greek people during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, it was to the Church, headed by the Patriarch in Constantinople and represented by the local parish priests, that the chief credit goes for the preservation of the Greek "ethnos" and the Orthodox Church ("ethnos kai ecclesia"), two institutions and concepts that were now becoming more intertwined than ever before. In this first century A.D., Christianity was outlaw ed by the still pagan emperors of Rome. task has been achieved, not only for the In the later centuries of the Byzantine Empire (1261-1453), when the Emperor seemed willing to pay the papal price (religious union of the Greek Church with Rome) in order to secure military assistance against the Turkish threat, the Byzantine populace, led especially by the monks, lower clergy and of course, the Patriarch, refused to dilute the purity of their faith to secure such aid. Holy Council on the Island of Crete June 16 -27, 367 Bishops were present. If there are two sources, there would in effect be two Gods. Thus, under Mehmet II the patriarch was given authority not only as the religious but also as the supreme head of all the Orthodox peoples subject to the Turks, including Serbs, Bulgarians, and Albanians, as well as Greeks. For his scholarship the Greek government in 1966 awarded him the Gold Cross of the Order of King George I. According to the Roman Catholic concept of the Church, the pope, himself one of the five patriarchs (the word "pope" means simply in Greek, "father" or "papas") holds not only titular primacy as primus inter pares (first among equals) over all the patriarchs (a claim always recognized, incidentally, by Byzantine Constantinople), but, from the view of authority and jurisdiction, the right even to intervene and to act as supreme judge in the internal affairs of all other churches. The Ecumenical Patriarchate, both due to its leading status within Orthodoxy, and its residency in Istanbul, has been able and motivated, respectively, to additions and deletions, approved the Rules of WHY the condemnation of extreme expressions of 1054, are founded on the WebThe honorary title of ecumenical patriarch was given to the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople in the 6th century because his see was located in the capital of the At a solemn ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica, the patriarchs of East and West together recited, in Greek, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of the Church as originally expressed without the filioque. But he is perhaps best known for his leading role in the conversion of the Slavic peoples. In this period the popes at tempted to Latinize the Orthodox people there, a fact which led to the famous events of 1054, when the so-called "definitive schism" occurred between the churches of Rome and Constantinople. Pan-Orthodox Council service, and brings his brethren to Christ, in the The Establishment of the Foundation Moreover, he was in all political matters directly subject to the will of the Sultan. Actually, the Greek people soon became split into two factions, the pro-unionists and the far larger group of anti unionists, over the question of whether aid from Rome should be accepted. In addition, Photios established, or reorganized, the patriarchal school in Constantinople for the education of priests in literature and philosophy as well as in theology. WebThe Archbishops concern focused on four issues: 1) The rejection of the title Ecumenical by the Turkish government, which denies the Patriarchate any role apart from the But the contrast can certainly be overdrawn when one considers the aim of both to preserve both the Orthodox faith and the Hellenic tradition. and Great Council, as well as its agenda. What were his functions and privileges and what in particular was his relationship to his fellow patriarchs, in particular the Pope (and bishop of Rome)? This tendency of the emperors to seek to interfere in the "inner life" of the Church reached its climax in the acts of the Isaurian Emperors during the famous Iconoclast struggle (726-43). He had headed the great Orphanage in Constantinople, which had a hospital attached to it, then the most advanced in Europe, with special doctors and wards for various diseases. Position of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Orthodox Church namely: 1) Orthodox Diaspora; 2) Autocephaly and All These anti-icon rulers sought to destroy all the icons (representations of Christ, the Virgin and the Saints) on the grounds (they declared) that they were not being properly venerated but instead worshiped by the people virtually as idols. Approximately 500 individuals will be part churches) of "First among equals.". Many, if not most, of the traditional Byzantine imperial and ecclesiastical titles were preserved. Councils referring to matters of faith were The Apostles tended naturally to carry out their mission in the densely populated urban centers of the Roman Empire. Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople - Wikipedia At the of the most holy Orthodox Churches (Phanar, Not only did he appoint their chief bishop (the Metropolitan of Kiev and later Moscow) and sent to Russia the chrism when their bishops were ordained, but he was also looked upon by all Slavs of both the Balkans and Russia as the true leader of the Orthodox Christian world. Nevertheless, each patriarch without exception performed his duty to the Church while at the same time always working for preservation of a sense of community among the Greeks of Constantinople and those of the mainland. Lukaris had constantly to be wary of his volatile Turkish masters who in fact removed him from office several times, only to reinstate him again and again. emergence of the many Autocephalous Churches from structure, organization, and operation of the Holy continued in the form of the nationalism and ethnophyletism (1872). So to insure the survival of the Patriarchate in Constantinople, he thought it best to exercise great restraint vis-a-vis the Turks in measures he pursued with regard to the Greek community and Patriarchate. second marriage of widowed clergy. The great importance in this early period of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem was, however, soon to be diminished by their permanent conquest by the Islamic Arabs in the seventh century. Megas Hartophylax was an old title which by the fourteenth century designated the chief patriarchal official who, along with his other duties, administered the patriarchal chancery (that, is kept the records). Conference the office of the ecumenical patriarch See the full definition Hello, Username. A fiery man, uncompromisingly Orthodox, he managed to secure concessions for his church from the Sultan who respected him. WebWritten by Vladimir Moss TEN REASONS WHY THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE IS NOT ORTHODOX I. In the post-byzantine period, the With the tragic fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the fourth period, that of the "Tourkokratia," begins. Relations between the Latin West and Byzantium became worse and worse, not only ecclesiastically but politically, economically, and psychologically. With the more overt, moral support the Patriarchate inevitably began to give the new nation of "Hellas" and, more importantly, with the emergence of a secular Turkish state under Kemal Ataturk in 1921, the position of the Patriarch in Constantinople (soon to be renamed Istanbul by Kemal) became more precarious than ever. And the process of the accretion of power in the hands of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople actually accelerates. Bartholomew convened the fourth Ecumenical Patriarch