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the ecumenical patriarchate:
A brief note on its history and its role in the world today
The Ecumenical Patriarchate is also
known as the Patriarchate of Constantinople or the Great
Church of Christ in Constantinople. Its creation goes back
to the year 38, the year in which the Church was founded
in the ancient city of Byzantium by Saint Andrew, the "First-called
among the Apostles".
Located for centuries next to the great
and masterful Cathedral of Saint Sophia (and for this reason
also called the Great Church), the Patriarchal See was moved
to various parts of the city following the Fall of Constantinople
in 1453. Since 1601, the headquarters of the Patriarchate
have been in the ancient district of the Phanar.
The Patriarchate of Constantinople is
the spiritual center of the Orthodox Church. It is seen
as the Mother Church by the ancient Patriarchates of Alexandria,
Antioch, Jerusalem, by the younger autocephalous Churches
of Russia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Cyprus, Greece,
Poland and Albania,and by the autonomous churches of Czechoslovakia,
Finland and Estonia.
The Patriarch of Constantinople is considered
as the highest authority of the Orthodox Church. Since the
sixth century he bears the title of Archbishop of Constantinople,
the New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch. As "primus" (first)
bishop of the Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarch
undertakes various initiatives of Pan-Orthodox character,
while coordinating relations between the other Churches
of the Orthodox Communion, as well as relations between
Orthodoxy as a whole and other Christian Churches or World
Religions. Thus, he convokes and presides over councils
and Pan-Orthodox meetings; consecrates the Myrrh (chrism)
for all Orthodox Churches; grants autocephalous status to
local churches which have become mature enough to be elevated
to that ecclesiastical rank.
The ecumenicity of the Patriarchate of
Constantinople has been ratified by two Ecumenical Councils:
the second (Constantinople, 381) and the fourth (Chalcedon,
451). The primatial privileges of the Patriarch of Constantinople
were also solemnly reconfirmed by the Council of Trullo
in 691. These primatial prerogatives grant the Patriarchate
of Constantinople the jurisdiction over all Orthodox Christians
who live in countries where there is not a canonical, autonomous
or autocephalous, Orthodox jurisdiction.
Other than the Archdiocese of Constantinople,
the Ecumenical Patriarchate today comprises four other dioceses
in Turkey (Chalcedon, Derci, Princes' Isles, Imbros and
Tenedos). In Greece, the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate extends today over the Islands of the Dodecanese,
Crete, Mount Athos and, spiritually, over the dioceses of
Northern Greece. Moreover, following the recent emigration
of Orthodox Christians from their native countries, this
jurisdiction extends over various new dioceses created in
Western Europe, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate has performed
a notable missionary task over the centuries, stretching
from the conversion of Kievan Russia in the tenth century
to the many missionary initiatives undertaken in the Far
East during this century.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate is one of
the most active centers of the modern ecumenical movement.
As soon as 1902, it took the initiative of inviting all
Orthodox Churches to take a stand on the possibility of
renewing their contacts with other Christian bodies, including
the Church of Rome, the Anglican Church and other Protestant
denominations. As of then, contacts between the Patriarchate
of Constantinople and non-Orthodox Churches have become
both numerous and frequent. This attitude of openness culminated
in the historic Encyclical of 1920 sent by the Ecumenical
Patriarchate to all Christian Churches, calling their leaders
to establish a closer relationship with each other. The
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 the League of
Nations. It is generally recognized that the Encyclical
of 1920 constituted one of the major factors which later
brought to the creation of the World Council of Churches
in 1948.
In the last decades the Ecumenical Patriarchate
has promoted in particular the dialogue with the Church
of Rome. Thus, today the Patriarchate, among other dialogical
initiatives, leads the theological dialogues in progress
with the Ancient Oriental Churches, the Church of Rome,
the Churches of the Anglican Communion, the Churches of
the World Lutheran Federation, the Reformed Churches, as
well as with the monotheistic Religions of Judaism and Islam.
Moreover, the Ecumenical Patriarchate
performs an intense activity within the framework of the
recent ecological-environmental movement through the promotion
of noteworthy Pan-Orthodox and ecumenical initiatives aiming
at sensitizing its own faithful, and the world as well,
on this important issue.
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