On Monday morning, 23 October 2023, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, marked the opening of the work of the Second International Scientific Conference of Chalcedon, which takes place under his auspices. The topic of the conference is the following: “Ecumenical Patriarchate, XV – XVI Centuries – The Era of Reconstruction”. The conference is co-organised by the Metropolis of Chalcedon, the Department of Social Theology and Religion of the University of Athens and the Department of Theology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and is taking place at a central hotel in Constantinople.
Hierarchs of Constantinople, clergymen, the Consul of Greece in Constantinople, Mr. Stavros Christodoulides, University Professors, as well as academics attended the opening.
In his speech, the Ecumenical Patriarch pointed out, among other things, that “the Church fought vigorously to safeguard the religious and national identity of the enslaved and education, an upward trend of which is observed during the last decades of the 16th century. This development contributed substantially to the revival of the self-consciousness of the Greek Nation as the heir and successor of the ancient Greek and Christian-Byzantine spiritual and cultural heritage”.
His Eminence Elder Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon welcomed the Ecumenical Patriarch and the attendees to the Conference. He referred to the importance of that period and the importance of its essential investigation, while he pointed out that it was very important that academics dived into the matter.
Photos: Nikos Papachristou / Ecumenical Patriarchate