ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW: “ECUMENISM AND MERCY: OVERCOMING HISTORICAL INERTIA”

 VILNIUS, 8 JUNE 2026

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Your Eminence Gintaras Grušas, Archbishop of Vilnius, beloved brother in the Lord,

Your Eminences, Excellencies, Graces,

Reverend Fathers,

Esteemed audience,

Conveying the fraternal blessings of the Church of Constantinople, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, to all the participants of the World Apostolic Congress on Mercy, we have a duty, touching upon the agony of divided Christianity and traversing the centuries that accumulated successive wounds upon the body of the Church, to confront reality. If we excavate the historical subsoil, attempting to understand in the end the meaning of reconciliation, we perceive that the division of the Churches was produced chiefly by the transformation of theology itself into state ideology. Suffocatingly trapped was the message of salvation within geographical and political borders. Most frequently degraded is the concept of mercy, perhaps by an imperceptible but deeply rooted habit of the centuries, into a sentimental concession in the field of ecclesiastical geopolitics, into a diplomatic courtesy among hierarchs, losing entirely its radical character. The East and the West, at various historical junctures, required alterity exclusively to define their own identity.

From Eco-Crisis to Eco-Conversion: A New Ethos for Our Common Home

By Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Throne Panagiotis Kapodistrias, 

Vicar General of the Holy Metropolis of Zakynthos

World Environment Day, observed annually on June 5, offers a valuable opportunity to reflect upon the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Our era is characterized by unprecedented scientific and technological achievements, while simultaneously confronting complex environmental challenges that affect both present and future generations. Climate change, ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss, water and air pollution, the accumulation of waste, and the depletion of natural resources collectively constitute a reality that touches every region of the planet.

What Relationship Did Saint Nectarios Have with Marcus Aurelius?

By His Eminence Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden

The works “Meditations” by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and “Know Thyself” by Saint Nectarios of Pentapolis are two autobiographical collections of reflections and life experiences written seventeen centuries apart.

Although their authors lived in completely different cultural and theological contexts, and although the works were intended for different audiences, both deal with the inner life and self-knowledge.

Studying their relationship helps highlight the convergences and divergences between Stoicism and the Orthodox tradition.

The fear to love and the love that brings life

 

Does our life revolve around our fears or around our ability to form loving relationships? This is perhaps one of the most essential questions of our existence as human beings. 

UNITY AS WOUND AND HOPE. A Reading of the Address of the Elder Metropolitan of Chalcedon in Vilnius (February 2026)

Presentation – Analysis: Archpriest of the Ecumenical Throne PANAGIOTIS KAPODISTRIAS

February 2026, at the Vilnius City Hall and the Chodkevičiai Palace in Lithuania. During the international conference “Constantinople and Moscow: Transformations of Ecclesiastical Allegiance and the Impact of Imperial Policy,” His Eminence Elder Metropolitan of Chalcedon Emmanuel delivered a weighty address entitled “The Ecclesiastical and Canonical Meaning of Jurisdictional Changes.” This discourse assumed the character of a theological reflection on the nature of ecclesiastical authority, on the significance of canonical transformations, and above all on the place of the human person within the historical conflicts of Orthodoxy.

The Ecclesiastical and Canonical Meaning of Jurisdictional Changes

CONSTANTINOPLE AND MOSCOW: 

TRANSFORMATIONS OF ECCLESIASTICAL ALLEGIANCE AND 

THE IMPACT OF IMPERIAL POLICY 

Vilnius Town Hall / Chodkevičiai Palace, Vilnius, Lithuania February 2026

CATECHETICAL HOMILY For the Opening of Holy and Great Lent (2026)

 

+ BARTHOLOMEW

By God’s mercy Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome

and Ecumenical Patriarch

To the Plenitude of the Church

May the grace and peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ;
and from us, prayer, blessing, and forgiveness.

Most honorable brother Hierarchs and blessed children in the Lord,

Filled with sacred emotion, we enter once again, by God’s goodwill, into Holy and Great Lent, the arena of ascetic struggle, the time of fasting and repentance, of humility and prayer, of spiritual vigilance and love, with the eyes of our heart directed to the life-giving Cross of the Lord, which guides us all toward Holy Pascha that opens the gates of Paradise to the human race.

“ The bread is on the table … Give Christ something to drink”

By His Eminence Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden 

The parable of the Final Judgment, as it is handed down in the Gospel according to Matthew (25:31–46), constitutes a supreme eschatological text of the New Testament, in which the criterion of salvation and condemnation is clearly defined.

Bridging the Ecclesiastical Divide in Ukraine: A Realistic Hope or an Illusion?

By Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Throne PANAGIOTIS KAPODISTRIAS

The ecclesiastical crisis in Ukraine remains one of the deepest and most complex ruptures in the contemporary Orthodox world. At the heart of this conflict lies the dispute between the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) — canonically recognized in 2019 by the Ecumenical Patriarchate — and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC‑MP), which for decades occupied the sole canonical status in the country.

Prof. Evangelos Venizelos: What is a healthy society? [video]

 6th International Conference of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

for Pastoral Health Care
Rhodes 2025

“Accessing Health and Approching the Suffering”

Is there a realistic prospect for the restoration of relations between the Phanar and Moscow?

By Archpriest of the Ecumenical Throne PANAGIOTIS KAPODISTRIAS

The course of relations between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Patriarchate of Moscow has been tested repeatedly throughout history, culminating in recent years in developments that have revealed a complex reality in which ecclesiastical diplomacy, theological principles, and geopolitical balances intersect with intensity and instability.

“I Want to Drink the Entire Bosphorus!” On His All-Holiness Bartholomew’s 35 Years as Ecumenical Patriarch

By His Eminence Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden

“The spirits return at night,

Little lights from unredeemed souls,

And if you look up there on the battlements,

You will see figures staring back at you.