Holy Synod of Ecumenical Patriarchate continues sessions in Switzerland

Sessions of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople continued on Thursday, under the chairmanship of the Ecumenical Patriarch, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, at the Orthodox Center of Chambesy, outside Geneva.

As we reported on Wednesday, the Holy Synod this week announced the canonization of reposed Metropolitan of Edessa, Pella and AlmopIas, Kallinikos.

Also on Wednesday, His All Holiness conducted a trisagion memorial service at the graveside of reposed metropolitan of Adrianople, Damaskinos – the Orthodox Church’s first Metropolitan of Switzerland.

Photos: fanarion.blogspot.com

The Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and St. Vlassios, His Eminence Ierotheos, spoke to the Orthodoxia News Agency this week on the life, works and testimony of the Church’s newest saint.

In another Patriarchate-related item, an interview with the Ecumenical Patriarch was circulated this week by the respected US newspaper Washington Post.

Among others, the spiritual leader of roughly 300 million Orthodox Christians around the world expressed his grief over pressure by the Turkish government to reconvert the iconic Hagia Sophia back into a so-called “conquest mosque.”

The Ecumenical Patriarch said “…What can I say as a Christian clergyman and the Greek patriarch … Instead of uniting, a 1,500-year-old heritage is dividing us. I am saddened and shaken …we have survived for 17 centuries and we will stay here forever, as God wills – a reference to the centuries of Orthodoxy and Hellenism in the imperial city of Constantinople, whose name was changed by the Turkish Republic in the 1920s to Istanbul.

The greatest of all cathedrals in eastern Christendom was built in the sixth century. Today, it serves as Turkey’s most visited museum and as an UNESCO World Heritage Site,

It was then turned into a museum in 1935 shortly after the collapse of the Ottoman empire and the establishment of Turkish Republic.

H αναδημοσίευση του παραπάνω άρθρου ή μέρους του επιτρέπεται μόνο αν αναφέρεται ως πηγή το ORTHODOXIANEWSAGENCY.GR με ενεργό σύνδεσμο στην εν λόγω καταχώρηση.

Ακολούθησε το ORTHODOXIANEWSAGENCY.gr στο Google News και μάθε πρώτος όλες τις ειδήσεις.