Yesterday Mr. Pantelis Vingas, President of the Community of Neochori and representative of minority institutions in the General Directorate of Vakoufia, Ankara, was declared “Chief of the Great Church of Christ”, by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. After the service held in the church of the Annunciation in Vafeochori, Bosporus, there was a special ordination ceremony during which Patriarch Bartholomew handed the emblems over to the new “chief”. He noted his important role to the revival of Greek elements in Istanbul. The ceremony was attended by many Greeks of the area and former chiefs, like Evangelos Chronis. Talking to the historic community of Vafeochori, the Patriarch referred to the “cultural” activity of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which he separates from its religious mission. He underlined that this activity has been unfairly judged in a negative way. For example, when historian Konstantinos Paparigopoulos said that the Patriarchate didn’t “Hellenize” the populations of the empire that were “Christianized”. “We are proud of Patriarchate’s sensibility over each people’s personality”, the Patriarch said.
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