Bartholomew: Apostle and Visionary
John Chryssavgis (Foreword by Pope Francis)
Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2016

My journey with Orthodox brothers and sisters started with Brighton ’91. With assistance from Monsignor Peter Hocken, I put together this first global conference for Pentecostal scholars. The keynote speaker was Professor Jürgen Moltmann and our presenters were Roman Catholic, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Protestant, and Pentecostal. Since that time, I have never put together a conference without Orthodox participation the most recent being Oxford 2012 that featured Metropolitan Kallistos Ware.

In June 2009, I was granted a Private Audience with His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. One immediate result was the launching of informal talks between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Pentecostals for the next three years. The co-chairs for these talks mentioned in the biography were Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima and myself. I wrote the following in an initial letter to His All-Holiness proposing the talks: “I am emboldened in this quest by reading in your book Encountering the Mystery that Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah II broke new ground in the 16^th century ‘Augsburg-Constantinople’ encounter. Dr. Paraskevè Tibbs projects that perhaps Melanchthon himself recast the Augsburg Confession in Greek for the benefit of this significant exchange.”

This brilliant biography by Archdeacon John Chryssavgis is a clarion call for Christians from around the world to benefit from the apostolic and visionary leadership of 25 years of guiding the Christian East by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The introductory chapter is titled “Just Call Me Bartholomew” taken from the 2009 “60 Minutes” interview of His All-Holiness and so it will be in this article. I was so intrigued by the text that I flew to Boston, MA, for a personal conversation with Archdeacon Chryssavgis. I left that exchange impressed by the scholarly and ecclesiastical acumen of one of the most astute Orthodox theologians that I have come to know personally.This journey with the Orthodox exposed the Western slant of all my theological training. Although I am indebted to what I learned from Augustine, I came to thirst being enriched also by Chrysostom. As a result, I have become increasingly aware how mainstream media in the West is quick to point to the exploits of Pope Francis while paying less attention to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew even when the two were involved in joint ventures like the 2016 refugee outreach in Lesbos. This media inequality, however, has never drawn criticism from His All-Holiness. Read More

The following two brief reports will interest our readers on all sides of the question of Ukrainian autocephaly.

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople

Russia Paying Big Money for Articles, Black Propaganda in Light of Ukraine Developments
by Andreas Loudaros

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew yesterday sent a clear message to Russia vis-à-vis the Ukraine issue, stating that Constantinople has no intention whatsoever of giving in to pressure.

While addressing an audience at an event in Istanbul celebrating the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Feriköy Greek community, His All-Holiness made it clear that the prerogatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate are rooted in the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils and legally binding for all within Orthodoxy.

“Whether our Russian brothers like it or not, soon enough they will get behind the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s solution, as they will have no other choice,” said Patriarch Bartholomew, adding that he is well aware of the Russian side’s efforts in funding the writing of articles and creating ‘black’ propaganda in order to strike back at the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Read More

We urge the readers of Orthodoxy in Dialogue to study the following statement carefully and thoroughly. Note that even the laity are forbidden to commune in parishes and monasteries (including Mount Athos) of the Ecumenical Patriarchate anywhere in the world. In the US this means, among other things, ROCOR’s withdrawal from the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America—whose goal of canonical Orthodox unity in the United States ROCOR has never supported anyway.

This statement’s repeated use of the offensive “the” Ukraine should not go unnoticed. It implies that Ukraine is no more than a region belonging to something larger, i.e., Russia.

One wonders where the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia finds canonical justification for its own existence as a global, non-territorial church.

The Moscow Patriarchate has also threatened to break communion with the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Will Moscow make the same threat to its daughter church, the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)?

Hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

Statement of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
[On the Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church]

The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia communicates to the plenitude of her clergy and faithful, and to her fellow Orthodox Christians throughout the world, her profound sorrow at the uncanonical undertakings perpetrated by the Church of Constantinople over the past days; in particular with regard to its Message of 11th October 2018. Simultaneously we express our complete support of the position taken by the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Moscow, following its meeting of 15th October 2018 and announced in its statement of the same date.

The illicit actions of the Church of Constantinople are able to suffer no canonical defence and constitute a grave and dangerous injustice against the traditions of Orthodoxy, as well as a shocking disregard for the spiritual welfare of the sheep of Christ (cf. John 10.3, 11). Having expressed its intention to establish stravropegia of its Church in the Ukraine, Constantinople thus solidifies its intrusion into another Local Church’s canonical territory, an anti-canonical violation of the highest order which the Synod of Constantinople has no power or right to undertake. We make explicit that under no circumstances will we consider such institutions to have any legal substance, nor will we acknowledge any legitimacy whatsoever to those who, deeming themselves shepherds, submit to these non-Church establishments. Read More

The Ecumenical Throne and the Church of Ukraine: The Documents Speak

Regardless of our readers’ respective positions on the question of Ukrainian autocephaly, the involvement of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the rupture in communion enacted by the Moscow Patriarchate, we urge each and every one of you to read the document linked above. It summarizes the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s historical and pastoral rationale for moving forward with the project of an autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The main report runs to a brief twenty-two pages, followed by fifteen pages of appendices. These include photocopies of the 17th-century correspondence between Constantinople and Moscow regarding the status of the Kyivan Metropolitanate.

For the sake of clarity and historical accuracy one wishes that this document had adhered throughout to the scholarly consensus of naming St. Vladimir’s (Volodymyr in Ukrainian) 10th-century Kyivan principality as Rus’ (Русь) rather than Kyivan “Russia” (Россия). Read More