CONSTANTINOPLE – Three major ecclesiastical events marking the life and the journey of the Church at the Ecumenical Patriarchate recently took place: The Synaxis of the Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Throne around the World, the Blessing of the New Ecclesiastical Year known as Indium, and the reorganization of the synthesis of the Patriarchate’s Holy and Sacred Synod.
His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew presided at the Synaxis, at the Holy Trinity magnificent church at Taxim Square in Constantinople. More than 130 hierarchs participated, including our own Archbishop Demetrios of America.
The hierarchs of the Metropolises, of the so-called New Lands of Greece, were also invited for the first time to participate in the Synaxis. Up to now only a representative committee was invited to the Synaxis, which in turn, informed the 37 hierarchs archpastoring the Metropolises. It is a unique situation instituted in 1928 with an official Act by Patriarch Vasilios. They belong administratively and synodically to the Autocephalous Church of Greece.
Patriarch Bartholomew explained that he called the Synaxis in order to have the opportunity to meet with the hierarchs in person, emphasizing the dynamics of the communion of persons and to also inform them about the work and challenges that the Mother Church faces.
Actually, the Hieratical Synaxis is not a Synod. Rather, it is an unofficial gathering of the Hierarchy for the purpose of seeing each other, exchanging ideas, and sharing experiences, pastoral challenges, and problems in their perspective Metropolises.
Patriarch Bartholomew made reference to the upcoming Holy and Great Synod of Orthodoxy next year and discussed the problems that arise from time to time on behalf of some local Churches due to the political pressures and nationalist mentalities.
Bartholomew presided over the Service of the beginning of the Ecclesiastical Year and singed the codex of the New Indiums followed by all the hierarchs.
Archimandrite Bartholomew Samaras, the Synod’s Chief Secretary, read the special encyclical issued by Bartholomew about protecting of the environment, which is one of the patriarch’s top priorities. “We suppress nature in such a manner that unforeseeable and undesirable changes occur to the climate and environment, which are negatively affected in their normal functions with consequent implications for life itself,” the encyclical conveyed.
The patriarch also reorganized the Holy Synod by calling the following hierarchs to be on it: Ioannis of Pergamon, Ambrosios of Karpathos and Kasos, Cyril of Imvros and Tenedos, Apostolos of Militos, Isaiah of Denver, Alexios of Atlanta, Nikitas of Dardanelles, Nicholas of Detroit, Theoliptos of Ikonion, Tarasios of Buenos Aires, Cleopas of Sweden and Maximos of Cylibria.
PHOTOS Nicholas Manginas
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