Elene Mironidis

Senior Project

meeting between Greeks and Jesus

4 Stages of Development:

1) Age of Constantine the Great

2) Medieval Period

3) Age of Captivity

4) Modern Period

The Ecumenical Patriarchate has a membership of 5 million people alone.

Worldwide= 300 million

Four other patriarchates exist that are known as sister patriarchates, the Ecumenical Patriarchate is the head of them all.

dates back to 6th century

381 A.D. Council of Constantinople-“Constantinople is the new Rome”

Refers to Byzantine Empire

“Sacred See”

Believed to be 269th Ecumenical Patriarch in direct succession to first-called Apostle Andrew

451 A.D. Council of Chalcedon

28th Canon of the Fourth Ecumenical Council

861 A.D. Council of Constantinople

Initiates tensions between Greeks and Turks

1453 fall of Constantinople

Agia Sophia Cathedral of Constantinople…turned into a mosque by sultan Mahmud II and Ecumenical Patriarch reluctantly stepped down

Sultans v. Ecumenical Patriarchs

The sultans would forcibly dethrone, exile, or put to death any Ecumenical Patriarch who disobeyed him.

Joachim I, Parthenios III, Neophytos, Agathagelos

Demanded wealthy presents of each new Ecumenical Patriarch and monetary dues

Heavy taxation placed on Christians

Sultans confiscated houses of worship and property

Christians forced to convert to Islam

Expected persecuted civilians to look to foreign leaders because they were weak…

“The fall of the Eastern Europe Empire and the low state to which the persecuted Greek Church fell, and from what it is little less than a miracle that it should now be recovering, is a chapter of dishonor and disgrace in the history of Western Europe.”

-A.H. Hore of Trinity College, Oxford

1923 Population Exchange

1955 anti-Greek riots

There once were 70,000 Greeks, today a quarter of that ceases to exist.

1) restrictions on the election of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

2) Non-recognition of Ecumenical Patriarchate and Patriarchs status

3) Closing of Theological Halki School

4) No Legal Identity or Personality

5) No work permits for foreigners

6) No property rights

*7) Confiscation of the Boys’ Orphanage

8) Confiscation of monasteries on Princes’ Islands

9) Jeopardy of administration of churches

10) Confiscation of properties from island Imvros and Tenedos

11) Confiscation of Churches of Galata

12) problem of education for Rum community

13) NO DIALOGUE between the Turkish government and State and the Ecumenical Patriarchate

Enter the European Union…

In 2009, a secret organization of diplomats “ultra-national Turks” called Kemalists plotted an assassination of the Ecumenical Patriarch.

“Have we not suffered enough, without being at all to blame, except that we are Greek by origin and Orthodox in faith? Do we not honor the name of the country in which we live with honesty, diligent work, our high degree of civilization, our beautiful customs and traditions, and our rich history? Is it not enough that so few of us have remained here? Should we be expected to endure more?” (His All Holiness Bartholomew).

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew believes in the power of dialogue, communication, and reaching out to unite all Christians

“Come and look into one another’s eyes.” Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras (1964)

1) Dialogue among Christians

2) Inter-religious dialogue

3) Universal call to all for the reconciliation of environment and us

United States

House Resolution No. 876 Session of 2006 of General Assembly of Pennsylvania

110th Congress Committee of Foreign Affairs Letter (May 11th, 2007)

Senate of Pennsylvania Resolution No. 188 (March 10th, 2008)

Religious Freedom Resolutions

Order of St. Andrew (Archons)

OSCE

ECHR Confiscation Case of Boys’ Orphanage

European Parliament

Religious Freedom: Turkey’s Bridge to the European Union

September 2010: 17 Foreign Clerics

April 5th, 2011

Return of Boys Orphanage

The Greek Communities around the world and the European Archives will engage themselves more in depth into this movement…as of now they are not taking any kind of action.

Greece will set up a second chapter (Order of St. Andrew).

Great Britain will follow with a third chapter.

Episode: “Meeting the Ecumenical Patriarch” (2009)

Bob Simon, CNN correspondent asked Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew,

“Do you feel personally Your All Holiness that you are being crucified sometimes?”

“Yes I do.”