Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople

The Turkish government can ‘only benefit from recognizing the ecumenical status of the Patriarchate’ a senior official from the Fener Orthodox Patriarchate says in an exclusive interview Stopping resistance to the title “Ecumenical Patriarchate” and reopening the Halki Seminary can only elevate the reputation of Turkey as a democratic nation, according to a senior official from the Fen

By the time this article is published, Pope Francis will have left Turkey after having spent a busy weekend both as a head of state and as the head of the “Christian Church of the West,” one of two Greek Orthodox bishops, who briefed us on the pope’s visit to Turkey, explained to us.

Pope Francis wrapped up his three-day visit to Turkey on Nov. 30 with a liturgy alongside the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians and a meeting with young refugees who have fled Syria, Iraq and other conflict zones.     

Down a narrow side street, in a district of Istanbul on the Golden Horn well off the beaten tourist track, sit the relatively modest headquarters of the "first among equals" of the world’s estimated 300 million Orthodox Christian believers.

Pope Francis will be visiting Turkey this weekend. This will be his sixth trip outside of Italy after he became pope in 2013. The fact that Turkey ranks among the first countries that Pope Francis is visiting already tells us a lot.

But let’s ask simply: Why is he coming?

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden paid a visit to Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I on Nov. 23, as part of his official trip to Turkey.

Biden and his wife Jill Biden visited the Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul’s historic Fener district, where they were greeted by Patriarch Bartholomew I.

President Traian Basescu received on Saturday at the Cotroceni Palace Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, who was visiting Romania on the day of St. Demetrius the New, the patron saint of Bucharest. Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Daniel, accompanying Patriarch Theophilos, was also the president's guest.

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios was greeted by Archbishop Ieronymos at the Athens Archdiocese on Wednesday, the first day of a three-day visit to Greece by the spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Vartholomaios was expected to open a health conference in Athens on Wednesday before making his debut visit to the Saronic Gulf island of Hydra on Thursday.

A Greek Orthodox monk pours oil into the lamps at the tomb of Jesus at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday, two days ahead of a the top-level visit by Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios and Pope Francis to the Holy Land.

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, arrived in Germany for a nine-day official visit on Saturday.

The Istanbul-based spiritual head was expected to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and German President Joachim Gauck among other high-ranking German officials, as well as with leaders of other Christian churches.