Ecumenical Patriarchate

ISTANBUL, TURKEY -- As part of the government’s “democratic initiative” to extend minority rights, Turkey’s Education Ministry has been working on two formulas to re-open the Greek Halki seminary on Heybeliada, one of the Princes’ Islands off Istanbul. Read more...

JOHNSTOWN, PA -- His Eminence, Metropolitan Nicholas has been invited and will take part in liturgical celebrations and meetings with His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I during his upcoming Archpastoral Visit to the United States from October 20 - November 6, 2009. Read more...

JOHNSTOWN, PA - His Eminence, Metropolitan Nicholas has announced our diocese has been invited to participate in an International Youth Conference which will take place From July 11-16, 2007 in Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey). Hosted by His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the conference will include young men and women from all of the Holy Metropolitanates of the Ecumenical Throne from all around the world, from sister Orthodox Churches, from various Monastic Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods, form other Christian Churches and Confessions, from Orthodox Theological faculties, Academies, Institutes and Seminaries, from International Ecclesiasical Organizations, from International Youth Associations and Cultural Institutions, as well as from the local Christian Churches. The theme of the conference will be "Members of the Church - Citizens of the World." Read more...

BOSTON, MA - In a confidential letter to Recep Tayyip Erdogan dated August 28, 2003 (Protocol Number 801), just a few months after Mr. Erdogan was elected prime minister of Turkey, His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople importunes the Turkish Government to change its policies and political stance towards the Patriarchate. In his letter, the Patriarch noted that, "in the year 1927, 100 thousand Greeks lived in Constantinople. Today, that number has been shrunk to 2,000 and even less," and refers to the "extermination" of the Greek Orthodox population in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). Read more...

This past September 7, I attended a lecture at the University of Utah, "Perspectives on Turkey-E.U. Relations," the ninth panel discussion of the University's 2006 Middle East & Asia: Politics, Economics & Society Conference in Salt Lake City. The first speaker, Dr. Sadeq Rahimi, professor of Trans-Cultural Psychiatry at Harvard, addressed an issue he considered mandatory when discussing Turkey and the European Union. Read more...