Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople

On October 31, 2019 Theodore Kalmoukos reported for The National Herald that the Trump administration has invited “Green” Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to speak at a conference on “the protection of the Natural Environment” in May 2020. (Read the report at the source.) Surely this move must come as one of the greatest twists of irony—or sheer cynicism—in a presidency that has done everything in its power to sabotage decades of progress in…”the protection of the Natural Environment.” 

The report goes on to say, “His All Holiness will be granted a private audience by President Donald Trump at the White House between May 12 and 14.”

While in the Orthodox Church the Ecumenical Patriarch possesses neither the authority nor the role invested in the Pope of Rome by the Catholic Church, in some indefinable, antinomical sense he can be said to represent in his person, and to speak for, the Orthodox Church.

We believe that His All-Holiness possesses the humility to listen and to learn from all of us. We also know that the Phanar follows Orthodoxy in Dialogue regularly.

What message, on any topic, would you like the Ecumenical Patriarch to convey to Donald Trump when they meet?

Send a one- or two-sentence reply to editors@orthodoxyindialogue.com with your name and country of residence. Maintain the respectful tone due to His All-Holiness by virtue of his position as our Church’s primus inter pares. After we have received several responses, we will publish them in an open letter to the Patriarch, to be updated as we continue to receive them.

To His All-Holiness we exclaim:

Many years, O Master! Εἰς πολλὰ ἔτη, Δέσποτα!

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