News and Information

On Friday, May 17, 2013, the Ecumenical Patriarchate honored the 1700th anniversary of Emperor Constantine the Great's "Edict of Milan" by hosting an international and interfaith one-day seminar in collaboration with the Council of European Episcopal Churches at the Conrad Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. Read more...

His All-Holiness was invited to contribute a message to The Huffington Post on the occasion of Orthodox Easter. He offered “a refreshing perspective on Easter: we see an open tomb, not an empty grave. The miracle of the Resurrection then is an open invitation to a new way of living that prevails over the darkness within us and around us.” Read more...

For the first time in 22 years, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will not preside over Holy Week and Pascha services at the Patriarchal Church of St. George at the Phanar. Instead, he will be on his native island of Imvros, where he will preside over services in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Imvros and in his home village of Sts. Theodores. Read more...

His All-Holiness addressed Pope Francis during a special papal reception of inter-church and inter-religious leaders on Wednesday, March 21. Click here for the text of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Read more...

Amid the crush of news reports in the past month that followed Pope Benedict's unprecedented resignation from the papacy, one of the most intriguing was the decision by His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, to attend Pope Francis' installation as Bishop of Rome. Read more...

His All-Holiness met in private with Pope Francis on Wednesday, March 20, 2013, where he invited the Pope to commemorate and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the restoration of relations between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Read more...

His All-Holiness attended the inaugural papal mass in St. Peter's Square on Tuesday, March 19, 2013. Read more...

Immediately following the election of Pope Francis on the evening of March 13, His All-Holiness communicated the following congratulatory message to the Vatican: Read more...

The holy fathers, who arranged everything in an orderly manner, instituted a period of ascetic discipline and spiritual purification for forty days prior to the great feast of the Lord’s resurrection. This ascetic rule assumes the form of a limitation on foods through fasting, but especially an abstinence from evil. Read more...

Upon being informed on the way to his native island of Imvros of the imminent retirement of Pope Benedict from the Petrine ministry on the Throne of Rome, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew issued a formal declaration and personal statement to the media, responding with sadness to the news. Read more...