Homilies, Statements, and Lectures
RSSHis All-Holiness congratulates newly-elected Pope Francis
Immediately following the election of Pope Francis on the evening of March 13, His All-Holiness communicated the following congratulatory message to the Vatican: Learn More »
2013 Catechetical Homily of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for the beginning of Great Lent
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. Learn More »
Statement by His All-Holiness at the announcement of the retirement of Benedict XVI, Pope of Rome
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. His All-Holiness closely cooperated with Pope Benedict during his papal tenure, issuing joint statements on contemporary problems facing humanity and realizing official exchange visits, but above all resuming in 2007 the conversations of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches (established in 1980 and interrupted in 2000). Learn More »
His All-Holiness congratulates newly-elected Coptic Pope
It is with sincere fraternal joy that we learned of your recent election as spiritual leader of the Coptic Church, succeeding the beloved and respected Pope Shenouda III after his long and fruitful ministry. We share with the devout faithful of the Coptic Church worldwide the profound consolation that accompanies the election and installation of a new spiritual shepherd as well as the prayerful recognition of the immense responsibility assumed by Your Holiness as you now lead the people entrusted to you by God in a time the world has been defined by turmoil and in a region that demands great discernment and sensitivity. Learn More »
His All-Holiness addresses Metropolitan-elect Antony of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA
It is with profound pleasure and sincere love that we welcome you to this sacred Center of the Orthodox Church, the courtyard of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. We receive you warmly and paternally as beloved children of the Mother Church of Constantinople, as faithful members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States of America. Learn More »
Greeting by His All-Holiness on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council
As Christ prepared for His Gethsemane experience, He prayed a prayer for unity which is recorded in the Gospel of Saint John Chapter 17 verse 11: “. . . keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are”. Through the centuries we have, indeed, been kept in the power and love of Christ, and in the proper moment in history the Holy Spirit moved upon us and we began the long journey towards the visible unity that Christ desires. Learn More »
Catechetical Homily of His All-Holiness for Holy and Great Lent
In recent times, we observe an elevated level of concern. Many challenges arise. The world is suffering and yearns for help. Indeed, we are going through a general test. Some people call it a financial decline; others refer to it as a political crisis. So far as we are concerned, it is a matter of spiritual perversion. Learn More »
Announcement about Vatopedi Monastery
The Holy and Sacred Synod convened today, January 10, 2012, under the chairmanship of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, for its regular session during which, among other matters, it discussed the issue that has arisen regarding the remand in custody of Fr. Ephraim, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi. Learn More »
His All-Holiness expresses support to Pope Shenouda on recent tragedy in Egypt
It is with heavy heart and wholehearted sympathy that we communicate with Your Beatitude – indeed, not for the first time this year! – for similar tragedies confronting our beloved and pious Coptic Christian brothers and sisters under your spiritual and pastoral protection in Egypt. Learn More »
Message of the Heads of the ancient Orthodox Patriarchates and the time-honored Autocephalous Church of Cyprus
Adhering to the injunction of the Apostle, according to which in the Church of Christ “whenever one members suffers, all members suffer with it; and when one member is honored, all members rejoice with it” (1 Cor. 12.26), we have assembled at the See of the historical and martyric Ecumenical Throne, at the invitation and under the presidency of the first among us in order and honor, in order to experience and declare the love of Christ that binds us (2 Cor. 5.14) at all times, and most especially in times of trial and tribulation. Learn More »
Announcement Synaxis of their Beatitudes the heads of the Ancient Orthodox Patriarchates and the Church of Cyprus
At the invitation of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and under the presidency of the same, the Heads of the Ancient Patriarchates and of the time-honored Church of Cyprus gathered in Synaxis at the Phanar on September 1-3, 2011. Learn More »
2011 Catechetical Homily on the opening of Holy and Great Lent
“The arena of the virtues has opened; those who desire to compete may enter, girding themselves with the good struggle of fasting.” (Triodion, Cheesefare Sunday) Or, better, the arena has always remained open, from the time that the All-Merciful Lord of Glory deemed it worthy to assume our nature. Since then, through His Church, he invites every person to participate in the boundless gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit, particularly during this blessed period of Holy and Great Lent. Learn More »
Greeting to the Most Reverend Officers of the Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America
It is indeed a delight for us to welcome you to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and to the courtyard of the Church of Constantinople, New Rome. We are deeply touched by the extensive spiritual journey that you have undertaken from the western shores of the United States of America through renowned historical cities of Christianity in Europe, a journey that has brought you here through distinguished centers of prominence from the earliest Apostolic times through the golden age of the Fathers. Learn More »
Religion and the Environment: The Link Between Survival and Salvation
Last October, the Ecumenical Patriarchate convened an international, interdisciplinary and interfaith symposium in New Orleans on the Mississippi River, the eighth in a series of high-level conferences exploring the impact of our lifestyle and consumption on our planet’s major bodies of water. Similar symposia have met in the Aegean and Black Seas, in the Adriatic and Baltic Seas, along the Danube and Amazon Rivers, and on the Arc Learn More »
Greeting to the Most Reverend Officers of the Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America
It is with great joy that we welcome you to the Ecumenical Patriarchate as brother hierarchs and officers of the blessed Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America. We are particularly delighted to receive all of you here at the Sacred Center of Orthodoxy, the First-Throne and Mother Church of Constantinople, and we warmly greet you, as brothers accompanying our esteemed Exarch in America, His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, and as hierarchs ministering in the United States: Your Eminence Archbishop Justinian of Naro-Fominsk (serving as vice-chairman of the assembly), Your Eminence Archbishop Antony of Hierapolis (serving as treasurer of the assembly), and Your Grace Bishop Basil of Wichita (serving as secretary of the assembly). Learn More »
Sins Against Nature and God: We Are All Accountable for Ignoring the Global Consequences of Environmental Exploitation
Once again, in a matter only of a few years, the eyes of the world are turned with suspense toward the Gulf Coast. Sadly, the oil spill is following a path similar to Hurricane Katrina and threatening the coast of Louisiana as well as neighboring states. Learn More »
Catechetical Homily On the Commencement of Holy and Great Lent
Beloved brothers and sisters, children in the Lord, Tomorrow, we enter the period of Holy and Great Lent. In the Lenten vespers of Forgiveness chanted this evening, we shall hear the sacred hymnographer urging us to "begin the time of fasting with joy, submitting ourselves to spiritual struggle" in preparing to welcome the great Passion and joyful Resurrection of our divine-human Lord. Learn More »
At the Patriarchal Chorostasia of the Doxology on the Occasion of the 18th Anniversary of His Enthronement as Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch
This evening we are brought together by the Holy Spirit in great joy and supreme love, as we celebrate with the community of Saints Constantine and Helen Church here in Annapolis, along with many faithful of the God-saved Metropolis of New Jersey. It is with profound humility and paternal love that we share with you this day as the observance of the eighteenth anniversary of our enthronement as the successor of the First-Called Apostle Saint Andrew as Archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch. Learn More »
At the Luncheon in Honor of His All Holiness Hosted by His Excellency Vassilis Kaskarelis, Ambassador of the Hellenic Republic to the United States of America
Here at the Embassy of the Hellenic Republic, we are reminded of the living universal and transformative ideals of Hellenism, with which the Orthodox Christian Faith shares the entirety of its two thousand year history. Among these universal ideals are the formative concepts of democracy, human rights, and the transcendent nature of the human person. Long before the world spoke of a “philosophia perennis” the Ancient Hellenes were mapping out the metaphysical and natural world across a broad philosophical landscape that is unmatched for its originality, precision, truthfulness, and humanity to this very day. Learn More »
At the Patriarchal Divine Liturgy and Archon Investiture
The New Testament readings that we heard this morning provide us with a unique image – not only of the faithful in general within the Church – but also of the relationship that you enjoy as members of the Order of St. Andrew with the Apostolic See of Constantinople founded by the First-Called Apostle Andrew. What we have before us is an icon of the bond that we share, of the affiliation with which you are invested as Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Learn More »
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Latest News
Edict of Milan Seminar
Friday, May 17, 2013
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...
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