CWN - Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has written a message to the Orthodox faithful on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his accession to the See of Constantinople.
The 76-year-old prelate, who holds a primacy of honor in Eastern Orthodoxy, recalled the recent Orthodox synod in Crete and said that all of the Orthodox churches—even those that did not send representatives—were bound to accept its decisions.
Praying for the Middle East’s persecuted Christians as well as for refugees, the Ecumenical Patriarch also recalled his visit with Pope Francis at the Greek island of Lesbos earlier this year.
The Ecumenical Patriarch also lamented the widening gap between rich and poor and decried environmental damage, calling for a “radical change of mentality, the transition from a possessive and consumerist state to a Eucharistic and ascetic use of creation.”
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