✠ Bartholomew

By God’s Mercy

Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch

To the plenitude of the Church

Grace, mercy and peace from the newborn Savior Christ in Bethlehem

Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Having once again arrived at the great feast of the Lord’s Nativity, we glorify with hymn and spiritual song the One who emptied Himself for our sake and assumed our flesh so that He might redeem us from captivity to evil and open the gates of paradise to the human race. The Church of Christ rejoices as it liturgically experiences the whole mystery of Divine Economy and receives a foretaste of the glory of the eschatological kingdom, offering a good and godly witness to faith, hope and love in the world. Read More

The irony will not be lost on Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s readers that a certain kind of socially and politically ultraconservative American convert to Orthodox Christianity glorifies the very things in Russia’s repressive church-state “symphonia” that Russia’s own most conscientious Orthodox priests and laity deplore in growing numbers.

The involvement of Russian Orthodox priests in political dissent is not without historical precedent. See the case of Father Georgy (ghe-or-ghee) Gapon on the Revolution of 1905’s Bloody Sunday.

Russian-style “Byzantine symphonia”

As Vladimir Putin prepared to return to the Kremlin for a third term of office in 2012, Patriarch Kirill, the powerful head of the Russian Orthodox Church, described the ex-KGB officer’s rule as a “miracle of God.”

The patriarch’s comments, made during a pre-election televised meeting with Putin, were a stark illustration, critics said at the time, of the erosion of the separation of church and state, as stipulated by Russia’s much-abused post-Soviet constitution. Over the following years, Putin, who professes a deep Orthodox belief, would shift to ultra-conservatism, positioning himself as a defender of traditional Christian values.

Flash forward to 2019, and while the institution of the Russian Orthodox Church remains broadly loyal to the country’s secular authorities, the Kremlin’s relations with some grassroots believers — once viewed as a bedrock of support for Putin — are increasingly tense. Read More

Our Saviour, the Dayspring from the East,
has visited us from on high,
and we, who were in darkness and shadow,
have found the Truth,
for the Lord is born of the Virgin!

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Today Christ is born of the Virgin in Bethlehem!
Today He Who knows no beginning begins!
Today the Word is made flesh!
The powers of heaven greatly rejoice!
The earth makes merry with men!
The Wise Men offer gifts, the shepherds announce the wonder,
and without ceasing we cry aloud:
Glory to God in the highest,
peace on earth, good will to men!

Read More

As a priest, His Eminence, Metropolitan Petros of Accra, has been a friend to Orthodoxy in Dialogue for almost two years. We were thrilled to learn of his ordination to the episcopate on December 6, 2019, the Feast of St. Nicholas, by Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa. We are deeply honoured to collaborate with His Eminence in sharing his Ordination Speech with our readers. In it, he calls for a Church “that is not afraid to debate, not only with other churches, confessions, and religions, but with the contemporary world and the sciences,” a Church “that is the voice and the harbour of the underprivileged, the persecuted, the forgotten, the marginalized, those that have need of compassion and humanity.”

Ἄξιος! Ἄξιος! Ἄξιος! 

Εἰς πολλὰ ἔτη, Δέσποτα!

Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa (L), Metropolitan Petros of Accra (R)

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Your Beatitude, our Father and Master, Revered Hierarchs, co-presbyters and fellow-deacons, my respected and beloved parents, dear relatives and friends from my birthplace South Africa, but also from Greece and specifically from Ithaca, my island of origin.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (Lk 4:18-19) Read More