Congressmen Steve King from Iowa and Wally Herger from California, accompanied by the Consul General of the US Embassy in Istanbul Mr. Scott Kilner, their assistant Mrs. Sara Blocher, Marshal John O’ Shea and Mrs. Hannah Draper, political officer responsible for religious freedom  in the Consulate General of USA in Turkey, visited His All Holiness Bartholomew on Friday and discussed matters of high importance for both the Patriarchate and the Greek Community of Istanbul.

Other topics for discussion were the initiatives of the Patriarchate to promote a more substantial dialogue amidst the three monotheistic religions and to inform people about the protection of the environment.

What is worth mentioning is that the American politicians have agreed on religion playing a very critical role in securing peace around the world. The Ecumenical Patriarch highlighted that this is the cause everyone in the world should fight for and sounded optimistic about the future.

The two U.S. Congressmen have already visited Athens, Nicosia and Ankara before visiting the Patriarchate in Fanari.

Cathedral of Agia Sophia in Istanbul | Photo Credit: Rachel Portele

Constantinople, Byzantion, Poli, Istanbul. These are the names that Greeks usually use to refer to the once capital of Byzantium and today’s largest city in Turkey. Istanbul is a multicultural, modern city, and an attractive tourist destination that offers everything from ancient history to fabulous nightclubs. Turkish Airlines connects Istanbul with almost 200 destinations around the Globe, transporting millions of tourists to Turkey’s most diverse city.

A tourist destination for many Greeks or admirer’s of Greek ancient history, Istanbul is home till this day to about 3,000 Greeks.

In 685 B.C., settlers from the ancient Greek town of Megara chose to colonize the town of Chalcedon, in today’s Kadıköy district. Some years later, in 667 B.C., famous Greek King Byzas went on colonizing the European side of the Bosporus further, thus founding the city of Byzantion.

As Today’s Zaman mentions, two prominent examples of ancient Greek architecture are the Serpentine Column and Leander’s Tower.

Approximately 2,500 years-old, the Serpentine Column is said to be İstanbul’s oldest remaining Greek monument. Erected to honor the triumph of the Greeks over the Persians at Plataea, it originally stood at Delphi and was moved to İstanbul in 324 B.C. by Constantine the Great to mark the declaration of the new capital city of the then-founded Roman Empire under the name of Constantinople.

Surrounded by no fewer stories is Leander’s Tower, often referred to as Maiden’s Tower and located offshore in the Bosporus in the Üsküdar district. It was actually built in 408 B.C. by an Athenian general to control Persian ships sailing along the Bosporus.

Although the Greek footprints exist around every corner of the city some major sights that have great Greek interest include Hagia Sophia (Αγια Σοφία), Topκapi, the Patriarchate and Saint George Church, Halki School and Princess Islands.

Agia Sophia

Hagia Sophia or Saint Sophia (from the Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, “Holy Wisdom”) is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it served as the Greek Patriarchal cathedral of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople of the Western Crusader established Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from the 29th of May 1453 until 1931, when it was secularized. It was opened as a museum on the 1st of February 1935.

The Church was dedicated to the Logos, the second person of the Holy Trinity, its dedication feast taking place on 25 December, the anniversary of the incarnation of the Logos in Christ.

It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. The current building was originally constructed as a church between 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and was the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site, the previous two having both been destroyed by rioters. It was designed by the Greek scientists Isidore of Miletus, a physicist, and Anthemius of Tralles, a mathematician.

Topkapi Palace

The palace complex is located on the Seraglio Point (Sarayburnu), a promontory overlooking the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara, with the Bosphorus in plain sight from many points of the palace. The site is hilly and one of the highest points close to the sea. Topkapi includes a lot of Greek treasures including ancient artifacts, books and unique architecture.

View of Topkapi Palace from Bosphorus Sea

During Greek and Byzantine times, the acropolis of the ancient Greek city of Byzantion stood here. There is an underground Byzantine cistern, located in the Second Courtyard, which was used throughout Ottoman times, as well as remains of a small church, the so-called Palace Basilica on the acropolis have also been excavated in modern times. The nearby Church of Hagia Eirene, though located in the First Courtyard, is not considered a part of the old Byzantine acropolis.

The library is a beautiful example of Ottoman architecture of the 18th century. The exterior of the building is faced with marble. The library has the form of a Greek cross with a domed central hall and three rectangular bays. In 1928 the books of the Enderûn Library, among other works, were moved here as the Palace Library (Sarayı Kütüphanesi), housing a collection of about 13,500 Turkish, Arabic, Persian and Greek books and manuscripts, collected by the Ottomans. Located next to the mosque to the northeast is the Imperial Portraits Collection.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

Patriarchate – Saint George Church

Constantinople has been the center of the Eastern Christian Church since Constantine moved the Roman capital there in the 4th century. To this day, the city remains the home of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, who is recognized as the “first among equals” of all Orthodox spiritual leaders. The Patriarchate’s church is Saint George.

St. George

St. George had been part of a monastery before it welcomed the Orthodox Patriarchate. Over the centuries, it has been periodically damaged, the last time during the fire in 1941. Repairs began in 1989 and were completed in 1991.

The church’s main boast, aside from its association with the Patriarch, are its artifacts and relics, which include: the patriarchal throne, believed to date from the 5th century; three rare mosaic icons; the Column of Flagellation to which Jesus was tied and whipped; relics of Sts. Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom; and the tombs of three female saints.

The Patriarchate complex includes the Authorization Offices, the Patriarchate Library, the Financial offices, the public enterprises of Patriarchate and the Patriarchate Cathedral Church of Saint George.

Princess Islands

During the summer months the Princes’ Islands are popular destinations for day trips from Istanbul. In the past Princess Islands used to be home for thousands of Greeks but till this day there are a lot of Greeks living there. The largest island is Prinkipos where is also located the Orphanage of Saint George. As there is no traffic on the Islands, the only transport being horse and cart, they are incredibly peaceful compared with the city of Istanbul. They are just a short ferry ride from both the Asian (at Bostancı and also Kartal) and European sides (from Sirkeci/Eminönü, Kabataş and Yenikapı) of Istanbul. On the island of Halki there is the famous Greek Orthodox Theological School

Theological School of Halki

The Halki seminary, formally the Theological School of Halki (Greek: Θεολογική Σχολή Χάλκης), was founded on 1 October 1844 on the island of Halki (now called Heybeliada), the second-largest of the Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmara. It was the main school of theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church’s Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople until the Turkish government stopped its use in 1971. The theological school is located at the top of the island’s Hill of Hope, on the site of the Byzantine-era Monastery of the Holy Trinity. The premises of the school continue to be maintained by the monastery and are used to host conferences. Visitors can see the school and wander around the campus.  As of January 2011, an international campaign to reopen the theological school is entering its 40th year. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople is among the schools alumni.

How to get there:
Turkish Airlines offers many daily flights from Athens and Thessaloniki Airport. The award winning air carrier also offers international flights that connect most major international cities directly with Istanbul. New York, Los Angeles, London and Tokyo are only some of the cities that Turkish is flying directly. Turkish Airlines is flying in more than 200 destinations worldwide with an excellent fleet and unique services.

Where to stay in Istanbul:
Armada Hotel, is one of the best hotels in the neighborhood of Sultanahmet, inside the walls of the old city. The Hotel is situated  afew minutes away from the Blue Mosque and Agia Sophia. The hotel’s terrace often hosts wedding parties and offers breathtaking views of the old city, Bosphorus sea, Blue mosque and Agia Sophia.

Where to eat: Near Istanbul’s Taksim square at the neighborhood of Pera, there is Krependeki Imroz, a family restaurant owned by Greeks. The restaurant offers great ‘meze’ dishes in a great environment.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew conducted the divine liturgy in the morning hours. The liturgy was attended by the patriarchs of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria, and Archbishop Hristostomos II of Cyprus.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew issued the followed statement regarding the Day of the Protection of the Environment.

†BARTHOLOMEW
By the Mercy of God
Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarchate
To the Plenitude of the Church
Grace and Peace from the Creator, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

* * *

Beloved children in the Lord,

God’s grace renders us worthy today to commence yet another ecclesiastical year, one more festive cycle, within whose blessed opportunities we are called to struggle spiritually in order better to evaluate the potential that we have been granted for growing “in the likeness” of God so that we also might become His saints.

However, today, on September 1st, the first day of the church year, is also dedicated – at the initiative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate – to prayer for the natural environment. This pioneering decision is by no means unrelated to the beginning of the new ecclesiastical year inasmuch as the spiritual struggle that brings about the good transformation of the human person contributes to the improvement of our relationship with the environment and the cultivation of our sensitivity for its protection and preservation.

Therefore, today, we praise the holy name of God for granting to humanity the gift of nature, which he preserves and sustains, as the most suitable environment for human beings to develop in body and spirit. A the same time, we cannot remain silent about the fact that humanity does not properly honor this divine gift and instead destroys the environment through greed and other selfish ambitions.

As we know well, our environment consists of land, water, sun, air, but also of fauna and flora. Humankind can take advantage of nature for its own benefit, but only up to a certain point, so that it may blossom and so that it may have the opportunity to propagate the consumed energy resources as well as the living, animal creatures. In any case, the proper exploitation of nature comprises a commandment of God both before and after the fall of Adam. Yet, the extreme exploitation – which is, unfortunately, a phenomenon of the last two centuries in human history – destroys the balanced harmony of nature and leads to the exhaustion and destruction of nature as well as of humanity itself, since we cannot survive in an ecosystem whose balance has been irreversibly injured. The result of this phenomenon is the appearance and proliferation of illnesses caused by the pollution of nutritional goods through human actions.

In our time, there is appropriate emphasis on the vast significance of forests and generally of plants for the flourishing of the earth’s ecosystem as well as for the protection of water resources. But we cannot undermine the crucial importance of animals, too, for the orderly function of the world. Animals have always been friends of humanity and servants of human needs, providing food, clothing, transportation but also protection and affection. Man’s relationship with animals has been very close, as demonstrated by the fact that they were created on the same day as Adam and Eve (Gen. 1.31) and by God’s commandment to Noah to save each species of the animals in pairs before the great flood (Gen. 6.19). It is characteristic that God reserves special care for the preservation of the animal kingdom. In the lives of the saints, there are numerous stories about the excellent relations between saints and wild beasts, which would not normally be associated with friendliness toward human beings. This, of course, is not due to an evil nature on the part of animals but to our resistance to God’s grace and the consequences of this for our relationship with the elements and animals. After all, one of the results of Adam and Eve breaking their relationship to their Creator God was the disruption of their relationship with the environment: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken.” (Gen. 3.17-19) Man’s reconciliation with God results in man’s reconciliation with nature.

After all this, it is clear that our good relationship with the environment develops parallel to our proper relationship with God. We all know the story from the lives of the saints about the experience of St. Anthony the Great, who at the age of ninety decided, with the guidance of the Lord’s angel, to enter the deeper desert of the Nile in search of another hermit, St. Paul of Thebes, in order to benefit spiritually from the latter. After walking for three days and following the tracks of animals, he came across a lion that bowed before St. Anthony and turned around to lead him to St. Paul’s cave, where he found the hermit being served by animals. A crow would bring him his daily bread! In fact, on the day of St. Anthony’s visit, the crow brought a double portion so as to provide for the visitor!

These saints developed a good relationship with God, which meant that they also enjoyed a good relationship with all of nature. The creation of such a good relationship with God should become our foremost priority, while the attending good relationship with the animal, natural and inanimate world should flow spontaneously from this. In this perspective, love for animals will not simply comprise a sterile social expression of compassion for our favorite animals, which might even sadly be accompanied by indifference for suffering human beings, who are created in the image of God, but the result of our good relationship with the Creator of all.

May the Creator of the “very beautiful” universe (Gen. 1.31) and the wonderful earthly ecosystem inspire all of us to treat all the elements of nature with affection, with a compassionate heart for all human beings, animals and plants, just as Abba Isaac the Syrian once replied to the question: “What is a merciful heart?” “It is a heart burning for the sake of the entire creation, for men, for birds, for animals, for demons and for every created thing; and by the recollection and sight of them the eyes of a merciful man pour forth abundant tears. From the strong and vehement mercy gripping his heart and from his great compassion, his heart is humbled and he cannot bear to hear or see any injury or slight sorrow in creation.” (Ascetic Treatise 81)

Through such compassion toward the natural creation we shall honor our divine dignity as stewards of creation, concerned with paternal love for all its elements, which will obey us when they discern our benevolent disposition as they realize their own commission to serve our needs.

September 1st, 2011
Your fervent supplicant before God,
+BARTHOLOMEW of Constantinople

+ B A R T H O L O M E W
By the Mercy of God
Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch
To the Plenitude of the Church Grace, Peace and Mercy From the Savior Christ Risen in Glory

Beloved children in the Lord,Once again, in a spirit of joy and peace, we address you with the delightful and hopeful greeting: “Christ is Risen!”

The occurrences and events of our time may not seem to justify the exultation of our greeting. The natural destruction caused by seismic tremors and oceanic swells, together with the lurking devastation from possible nuclear explosion, as well as the human sacrifices resulting from military conflict and terrorist action, reveal our world to be in horrible torment and anguish from the pressure of the natural and spiritual forces of evil.

Nevertheless, it is indeed real and grants to faithful Christians the certainty – and to all humanity the possibility – of transcending the adverse consequences of natural calamity and spiritual perversity.

Nature rebels when the arrogant human mind endeavors to tame its boundless forces endowed by the Creator it its seemingly insignificant and inactive elements. In considering from a spiritual perspective the grievous natural phenomena that plague our planet repeatedly and successively in recent times, we appreciate and acknowledge the belief that these are inseparable from the spiritual and ethical deviation of humanity. The signs of this deviation – such as greed, avarice, and an insatiable desire for material wealth, alongside an indifference toward the poverty endured by so many as a result of the imbalanced affluence of the few – may not be clearly related to the natural occurrences in the eyes of scientists. Yet, for someone examining the matter spiritually, sin disturbs the harmony of spiritual and natural relations alike. For, there is a mystical connection between moral and natural evil; if we wish to be liberated from the latter, we must reject the former.

Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, the new Adam and God, constitutes the model for the beneficial influence of a saint on the natural world. For Christ healed physical and spiritual illness, granting comfort and healing to all people, while at the same time bringing calm and peace to stormy seas, multiplying five loaves of bread to feed the five thousand, thereby combining the reconciliation of spiritual and natural harmony. If we want to exert a positive impact on the current negative natural and political conditions of our world, then we have no other alternative than faith in the Risen Christ and fulfillment of his saving commandments.

Christ has risen and given new life to the perfect ethos of humankind, which had darkened this ethos. Christ became the first-born and pioneer of the regeneration of the world and the whole of creation. The message of the Resurrection is not empty of meaning for the quality of human life and the balanced function of nature. As we completely and profoundly experience the Resurrection of Christ in the depth our heart, our existence shall favorably impact upon all humanity and the natural world. The natural sciences may not yet fully have underlined the relationship between the regeneration of humanity and the renewal of creation, but the experience of the saints – which should be the aim our own experience – confirms the experientially proven fact that, indeed, a person reborn in Christ restores the harmony of the natural world disturbed by sin. In Christ, the saint can move mountains for the good of the world, while the sinful person, who opposes the ways of God, can shake the earth and raise destructive waves.

Let us approach the sanctity of the Risen Christ in order, through His grace, to calm the natural and moral waves that trouble our world today.

May the grace of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, beloved children in the Lord. Amen.

Holy Pascha 2011
+ Bartholomew of Constantinople
Fervent supplicant for all
before the Risen Christ

On an exclusive interview with Turkish news channel NTV Mrs. Bakoyannis said EU/Turkey relations will improve as long as Turkey keeps working for integration. When asked about the recent anti-government demonstrations in Greece, Dora Bakoyannis said people of Greece are free to express their dissatisfaction with their lives: “we are the cradle of democracy. But don’t forget we have invented both democracy and demagogy. Greece knows how to deal with her problems and will rise from her ashes eventually. And people will contribute to this process all the way.”

Mrs. Bakoyannis stressed the fact that Ecumenical Patriarchate resides in Istanbul: “Patriarch could serve as the best ambassador for Turkey in the EU. But Turkey must solve problems concerning Christian minorities, especially the restrictions on Christian Foundations and Chalki Seminary”.

Earlier today Dora Bakoyannis visited His Holiness Barthalomew, the Ecumenical Patriarchate with Greek Ambassador to Ankara, Mr. Fotis Xidas. After the meeting she reiterated her hope for an immediate solution to the problems with Ankara government.

Turkey has a small group of Greek minority left living in Istanbul and two Turkish islands in the Aegean. Istanbul is the residency of Ecumenical Patriarchate of Orthodox Christian Church. Since 1970′s minority foundations are stripped off their real estate belongings and Chalki Seminary on Princess Islands was forced to close and religious education is not allowed for Christians in Turkey.

Elected Ecumencial Patriarch in 1991, Bartholomew was born Demetrios Archontonis on the Aegean Island of Imvros (Turkey) on February 29th,1940. He studied at the renowned Orthodox Theological School of Halki, graduating with high honors in 1961. He holds a doctorate from the Institute of Eastern Studies of the Gregorian University in Rome, and completed further studies in Switzerland and Germany. He is fluent in seven languages, including Greek, English and Turkish. He is the 270th Successor to the Apostle Andrew who brought the Christian faithful to the shores of the Bosphoros, ancient Constantinople, now Istanbul. Constantinople eventually became the seat of the Church in the East.

(Photo credit: Rachel Portele)