The leader
of the Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of
Constantinople, is officially in Germany for a ten-day pastoral visit. However,
political dimensions of his trip are evident.
Patriarch
Bartholomew I, who has been the leader of Orthodox Christians since 1991, has
earned a reputation for being reform-minded. Just a few weeks ago, he was able
to win over 11 national Orthodox churches for a pan-Orthodox council in 2016 -
the first of its kind since the East-West Schism in 1054.
The intent
of the 2016 meeting will be to strengthen Orthodox unity and discuss the future
of the church. That goal could come into play during the patriarch's visit in
Germany, when he meets with representatives of Orthodox branches that do not
have Greek roots. It's possible that meeting with the members of Germany's
association of Orthodox bishops could serve as a kind of test case for the
broader congress in two years.
Recognition
from the ecumenical movement
 |
| The Patriarch will visit the Greek Orthodox Church in Esslingen |
Might the
Orthodox Church's planned synod have a positive impact on dialogue with
Catholics and Protestants? Bartholomew I has shown a pro-ecumenical approach
since assuming the role of patriarch, and that is reflected in the list of
visits he will make in Germany. In Bonn, he will meet for discussions with the
German Bishops' Conference, whose chairman, Reinhard Marx, will also receive
the visiting patriarch twice in his function as archbishop of Munich and
Freising in the Bavarian capital.
The Faculty
of Catholic Theology at Munich's Ludwig Maximilian University, where the patriarch
once studied, will award him an honorary doctorate. That could signal
appreciation on behalf of Catholics for the Orthodox leader's work in favor of
ecumenicism. Together with Pope Benedict XVI, Patriarch Bartholomew I pursued
unification talks after centuries of silence between the two churches.
In March
2013, Bartholomew also became the first of his church's patriarchs to travel to
Rome for the Roman Catholic papal inauguration since the division of the two
churches 959 years prior. At the end of May, the patriarch will once again meet
Pope Francis for discussions during the latter's trip to the Holy Land.
The 270th
successor to Andrew the Apostle can also look forward to similar tributes when
meeting with Protestant church leaders. His agenda includes encounters with
various heads of churches at the state level in Germany and with Nikolaus
Schneider, the chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD),
as well as a public speech in the Berlin Cathedral.
 |
| Pope Francis and the patriarch have reached out to one another |
The
Evangelical Academy Tutzing will honor the patriarch with its Lion of Tutzing
award on May 17 for Bartholomew's engagement on behalf of "worldwide ecumenicism,"
representatives of the Protestant think tank said.
Meeting
leading politicians
The head of
the Orthodox Church will meet for separate conversations with the head of the
German parliament, the German president and with Chancellor Angela Merkel - an
honor that very few guests receive. They will have plenty of topics on the
agenda, such as Christians being driven out of the Middle East and Northern
Africa, the situation facing Christians and Christian refugees in light of the
Syrian civil war as well as the conflict between Ukrainians and Russians, in
which members of Orthodox churches are fighting against one another.
In the
patriarch's Easter address, he wrote, "In our times, the drums of death
and darkness beat frantically."
Turkish
repression
 |
| Merkel met the patriarch in Turkey in 2004 |
The
Patriarch of Constantinople has his seat in Istanbul, but the relationship
between his church, officially known as the Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople, and the Turkish state is deeply strained. The few thousand
remaining Orthodox Christians in Turkey face discrimination and repression.
In 1971,
the Turkish government at the time closed an Orthodox seminary at Halki, an
organization essential to the patriarchate's continued existence. Since priests
could no longer be trained there, believers and the church as a whole
eventually lack the leaders they need. Patriarch Bartholomew has fought for the
seminary's reopening - so far without success.
It's
possible that he will discuss this and other issues of state repression with
Turkey's ambassador to Germany, who is also among the many to receive the
Orthodox Church's highest dignitary.
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