As the state of emergency continues in the world, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and in view of Holy and Great Week and Pascha, today, 8 April, the Hierarchs of the Throne in the City gathered at a meeting, during which the following was decided:

1. From the Saturday of Lazarus and onwards, divine services will be held in one Church of each Archdiocesan District of the Archdiocese of Constantinople and in each of the adjacent Metropolises, always behind closed doors, under the care and supervision of the local hierarch and the Patriarchal representative in each District.

2. Modern technology facilitates the pastoral work of the Church, especially under these present, difficult conditions. However, abuse of this cannot be permitted. Therefore, it is recommended that the online broadcasting of these divine services be done only from one Church of each Diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, so as to prevent a new ethos of converting ecclesiastical rites into yet another televised spectacle. At the See of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, televised and online broadcasting will only take place from the Patriarchal Church of the Phanar, where the services will be celebrated by His All-Holiness and the members of the Patriarchal Court.

3. In the Dioceses abroad, all remaining issues will be decided by the local hierarchs, always within the framework of the decisions and directives of the local Governments and Health Authorities.

4. At the Patriarchal Monasteries, as has been decided, all divine services will be celebrated normally by their Brotherhoods, without the attendance of pilgrims from outside.

The Ecumenical Patriarch and the Hierarchy around Him wish a solemn Holy and Great Week and blessed Holy Pascha to all.

Phanar, 8 April 2020

From the Grand Chancellery

After more than 30 years as a pastor, ecumenist and church leader, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit firmly believes that the Church can change the world. As general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) for the past ten years, he has witnessed what Jesus Christ means to people of faith around the globe. On 31 March 2020, he returned back home to lead the Church of Norway as presiding bishop of its bishop’s conference.

A special farewell will be organized at the next WCC Central Committee meeting where he will present his report.

Rev. Dr Prof. Ioan Sauca (Orthodox Church of Romania) has been appointed acting WCC general secretary beginning 1 April. Sauca has served as Professor of Missiology and Ecumenical Theology at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey since 1998 and as its director since 2001. He has served as a WCC deputy general secretary since 2014. In that capacity, he oversees a variety of WCC programmes in the areas of unity, mission,  ecumenical relations, youth, interreligious dialogue and cooperation, worship and spirituality, as well as ecumenical formation.

As this Coronavirus crisis continues to spread and intensify on a global scale, the Ecumenical Patriarchate is monitoring the situation with an urgent sense of responsibility towards its faithful and all people without exception, and, following the Communiqué of 11 March 2020, upon deliberation of its Hierarchs in the City, announces the following:

1) The Ecumenical Patriarchate emphatically reiterates its appeal to everyone to limit their outings and travels to what is necessary, remaining in their homes for their own safety and the protection of the general public.

The Holy and Great Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, convened under the presidency of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and among other issues, thoroughly deliberated upon the events of the COVID-19 (Corona) virus and with a feeling of pastoral responsibility, points out the following:

1) Despite the seriousness of the situation, prudence, patience, and the avoidance of panic are advised.

On 8 March 2020, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus (Primate of the Church of Cyprus), together with many hierarchs, celebrated the Sunday of Orthodoxy at the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the Patriarchal Church of Saint George.

In his address, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew welcomed at the Center of Orthodoxy the Primate of the Church of Cyprus, His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos and his suite, expressing his own warm greetings and congratulations as well as on behalf of the members of the Holy and Sacred Synod, the Patriarchal Court and the pious people of God.

“Any opposition to the matter of the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is not canonical. However, there are some who intend to harm the newly-established Orthodox Church of Ukraine with the aim of creating a secular institution, which, on the one hand, will be operating in contrast with ecclesial principles and tradition and, on the other hand, will be serving foreign interests in clear contradiction with Orthodox ecclesiology and the synodical character of the Orthodox Church”, stated Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in his speech, at the end of the Divine Liturgy. Patriarch Bartholomew made it clear that the decision to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine “brought to light the canonical responsibility of the Ecumenical Throne and gave prominence to the canonical decisions taken by the Ecumenical Councils”. “The recognition of the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the other Orthodox Churches is the basic precondition for achieving unity within the Orthodox world,” he concluded. Continue reading →

Fr Prof. Ioan Sauca has been appointed acting World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary beginning 1 April 2020. Fr Ioan Sauca, who currently serves as deputy general secretary for the WCC programme on Ecumenical Formation and Bossey Ecumenical Institute, will hold the general secretary post until the WCC Executive Committee meets in June 2020.

The leadership of the WCC Central Committee decided to postpone the full WCC Central Committee meeting, once slated for 18-24 March, along with the Executive Committee meeting that was to precede it in light of concerns about and implications of the current international spread of COVID 19 (coronavirus). Postponing the meetings incurs its own costs, both institutional and financial. The executive committee must appoint an acting general secretary to fill the vacant position as of 1 April, for the time after the departure of the present general secretary. The leadership of the central committee decided to appoint WCC deputy general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca as acting general secretary for the period from 1 April until the Executive Committee meets in June. Continue reading →

His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew sent an austere letter to Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem, a few days after the meeting with the delegation of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem at headquarters of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the Phanar (Istanbul), and on the eve of the “fraternal gathering of primates and delegates” taking place in Amman (Jordan) on 26 February 2020 with the participation of the primates of the Churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia and of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, and of the delegates of the Churches of Romania and Poland.

“We cannot understand how you overlook or even ignore the magnitude of the negative effects of this initiative,” wrote the Ecumenical Patriarch to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, while stressing that this “familial gathering” initiative only aims at “subverting the established norms and alienating the Orthodox Church from its ecclesiastical foundations.” Continue reading →

In preparation of the Lambeth Conference to be held between 22 July and 2 August 2020, a once-a-decade event gathering bishops of the Anglican Communion convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury for prayer, study and dialogue on Church and world issues, Westminster Abbey has organized an Ecclesiology Seminar on 17 February 2020 entitled: “Harvesting the fruits of bilateral dialogue”.

In partnership with the Anglican Communion Office, the Abbey is hosting a series of day events between November 2019 and April 2020. The international panels examine a range of themes from the fundamentals of Anglicanism to conflict and reconciliation. Canon Theologian at Westminster Abbey, Dr Jamie Hawkey, said, “The seminars will reflect on a specific theme related to Anglican identity, and the nature and mission of the Anglican Communion in the twenty-first century. Each day will include a number of papers and discussion, and conclude with insight from a distinguished ecumenical guest.” Continue reading →

A special working group of the World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and Evangelism met in Istanbul, Turkey on 16 February 2020 to further explore the place and profile of transforming discipleship in the life and work of churches globally. During the meeting the group on “Transforming Discipleship” worked on a document drafting that could best depict the shape of discipleship in the light of the Arusha Call.

The group was hosted and advised by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew who discussed with its members the procedure of drafting a statement on transforming discipleship. Among key aspects addressed were the de-centering of discipleship, the search for good news under colonial shadows, and the spirituality of discipleship. The group also addressed, from a missional perspective, the theme of the upcoming WCC assembly, “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.”

The draft statement will be going through revisions and editing in the next few months. The document will be used primarily – but not only – as a springboard to the planning of different parts of the 11th WCC Assembly.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) launched of a new journal at the Ecumenical Centre on 7 February 2020: Current Dialogue, the pioneering World Council of Churches periodical on interreligious dialogue.

The journal, a biennial publication produced since 1980 by the staff of the WCC’s office for Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation, is now available through WCC’s journals publishing partner, Wiley, as an annual supplemental issue to The Ecumenical Review. Continue reading →