The Ecumenical Patriarchate Today

By Peter Marudas

When His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, 51, was enthroned in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) on November 2, 1991 there was great hope in Orthodox circles that this relatively young, well-educated and energetic hierarch would restore the Ecumenical Patriarchate's role and lead world Orthodoxy to a new era of spiritual rebirth and secular status.

Nearly 15 years have elapsed since that event, and this expectation has evaporated like wisps of smoke from a flickering church candle.

Many political and ecclesiastical factors have contributed to this development, but a major influence has been a series of missteps and miscalculations by the Ecumenical Patriarch - serious mistakes in judgment which have alienated the Patriarchate from longtime supporters, as well as from important segments of world Orthodoxy.

The Patriarch is certainly not responsible for all these many contentious issues - although he has done his share - but he and his agents are culpable for handling them in a heavy-handed and counter-productive manner, responses and decisions which have steadily undercut the Ecumenical Patriarchate's international prestige and status. A brief listing is instructive:

Read the rest here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: I am not endorsing the above linked editorial in its entirety. But some of the points made in it strike me as valid. Ad Orientem