Turkey to reopen Orthodox school shut 38 years ago: report

28 June 2009, 13:54 CET
— filed under: Turkey, religion, Greece

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(ANKARA) - Turkey is planning to re-open a Greek Orthodox seminary that was shut down nearly four decades ago, Turkey's culture minister was quoted as saying Sunday.
The European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join, and the United States have long pressed Ankara to re-open the theology school on the island of Halki, off Istanbul, to prove respect for the rights of its tiny Christian minority.
Culture Minister Ertugrul Gunay said the government was inclined to re-open the school, even though a final decision was not yet made, the mass-selling Milliyet daily reported.
"Both my personal conviction and the general inclination I see is that the school will be opened," Gunay was quoted as saying.
"The school does not currently fit into our university system, but another formula will be worked out... There is no political problem," he said.
The minister explained the authorities were grappling with "the technical problem" on whether the seminary should have the status of a university or a vocational high school.
The century-old seminary was closed down in 1971, depriving the Eastern Orthodox Church, seated in Istanbul since Byzantine times, of its only facility to train clergy in Turkey.
The closure was the result of legislation bringing institutions of higher education under state control, an arrangement into which the seminary did not fit.
Gunay conceded that Turkish-Greek tensions over the island of Cyprus at the time were also a prominent factor behind the move.
"What happened in the past is left behind... We need to say new things now," he said.
Keen to boost its struggling EU membership bid, Ankara has in recent years moved to improve the rights of its tiny non-Muslim minorities, mainly Greeks, Armenians and Jews.

Role of bishop of Rome key to Catholic-Orthodox progress, pope says

POPE-ORTHODOX Jun-29-2009 (460 words)

xxxiRole of bishop of Rome key to Catholic-Orthodox progress, pope says

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A common understanding of the role the bishop of Rome played in the united Christianity of the first millennium is essential for resolving the question of the primacy of the pope in a united church, Pope Benedict XVI said.The pope met June 27 with Orthodox Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, Bishop Athenagoras of Sinope, who serves as the assistant metropolitan of Belgium, and Deacon Ioakim Billis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.The three Greek Orthodox represented Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople at the evening prayer service closing the year of St. Paul June 28 and at the pope's Mass for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29.Meeting the delegation privately before the festivities began, the pope said the year of St. Paul was a year "of prayer, of reflection and of exchanging gestures of communion between Rome and Constantinople."The pope said the joint activities were the best way to honor St. Paul, who urged Christians "'to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace,' teaching us that there is 'only one body and one spirit.'"The participation of the Orthodox delegation in the late-June liturgies "reminds us of our common commitment to the search for full communion," Pope Benedict said."You already know this, but I am pleased to confirm today that the Catholic Church intends to contribute in every way to making it possible to re-establish full communion in response to Christ's will for his disciples," he said.Pope Benedict said the international Catholic-Orthodox dialogue commission would meet in October in Cyprus "to face a theme crucial for relations between the East and West, that is the 'role of the bishop of Rome in the communion of the church in the first millennium.'"Ecumenical experts believe agreement on how the pope, the bishop of Rome, exercised his ministry before Christianity split into East and West is essential for discovering the way the papacy could be exercised in the church if Catholics and Orthodox successfully reunite."I want the participants in the Catholic-Orthodox dialogue to know that my prayers accompany them and that this dialogue has the complete support of the Catholic Church," Pope Benedict told the Orthodox delegation."With all my heart, I hope that the misunderstandings and tensions encountered by the Orthodox delegates during the last plenary session of the commission have been overcome in fraternal love so that this dialogue will be more broadly representative of Orthodoxy," the pope said.At the last plenary gathering, held in Italy in 2007, the Russian Orthodox delegation walked out to protest the presence of a delegation from the Estonian Orthodox Church, recognized as autonomous by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople but not by the Russian Orthodox Church.END

Interfax Patriach Kirill will visit Turkey

01 July 2009, 18:10
Patriarch Kirill hopes to improve relations with the Constantinople Patriarch during his visit to Turkey
Moscow, July 1, Interfax – The Russian Orthodox Church says the main objective of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia’s visit to Turkey is restoring relations with the Constantinople Patriarchate and discussing moot points.“His Holiness Patriarch Kirill wants this visit to open a new page in relations with the Constantinople Patriarchate. We need to give up confrontation and conflicts and create a system of mutual trust as the local Orthodox Churches make one family,” head of the Department for External Church Relations Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk has told journalists on Wednesday commenting on Patriarch Kirill’s meeting with Turkish Ambassador in Russia Halil Akinci. According to Archbishop Hilarion, future relations of the two Churches should exclude a situation similar to the one developed in Estonia in 1996. The Archbishop noted, then “Constantinople unilaterally proclaimed its jurisdiction and it resulted in a conflict situation, which still remains unsettled.” “We hope that Patriarchs of the two great Churches in fraternal communication will find the way to agree over the format of relations, format that will exclude such misunderstanding and be based on total mutual trust and fraternal love,” Archbishop Hilarion said. He also reminded that Patriarch Kirill had more than once pointed out that “victory” in the inter-Orthodox dialogue is impossible for only one of its participants. According to the Archbishop, such a dialogue should be aimed at victory, at achieving the result acceptable for all. “Patriarch Kirill will go to Constantinople with the warmest feelings and kind intentions. We hope this visit will also help the Constantinople Patriarch settle his inner problems and we expect this visit to be a success,” the Russian Church official said. Patriarch Kirill plans to visit Turkey on July 4-6, 2009.

Questioning Ecumenical Patriachate Openly Contradicts Christ's Calling

The welfare of the Ecumenical Throne is the sign post of the unity of the Church. Without unity among the brotherhood of bishops and therefore a coalition from canonical jurisdictions of the faithful the credibility of the Faith is questioned. Any division within the Church or disregard for the Ecumenical Patriarch and his role as First Among Equals, openly contradicts Christ's calling and scandalizes the Church. Even within the Trinity there appears to be a First Among Equals: God the Father does not to diminish God the Son, or God the Spirit. The OCA and Metropolitan Jonah in his short time in 'command' has created an unhealthy rivalry with the Mother Church while in his attempt for ecumenicism with the Anglican Church he seems to speak with an conventional indifference to the theological differences.

This is indicative of the OCA's continued misunderstanding of what is evangelical. The tendency is to underplay and dismiss the pastoral care and missionary work within an Orthodox parish. It doesn't legitimise such care to the flock which the Greek Orthodox Church has done so effectively. Rather it slanders the GOA calling such evangelical or missionary work ethnocentric on the mild end and prejudice and discriminatory on the other end. (Let's not forget the Saints Cyril and Methodios were Greeks sent out by the Mother Church to preach the Good News to the Slavs). The position of the OCA is largely due I believe because envy of the great success the Greek Church has had in the United States. Could anyone honestly imagine the state of the Church in the Americas without the GOA? Hardly. The OCA begrudges the Greeks with their huge numbers, support of the Ecumenical Throne and financial success and political influence. All this while the OCA has spent the last 20 plus yeas misappropriating church donations to such a degree that its corruption could pale in comparision any ponsey scheme.

The OCA has tried to make its position about language and ethnic division but the OCA with all of its English services and ethnic cleansing is not flooded with the faithful. While the Greek Orthodox Church raises and cultivates clergy from among the faithful, the OCA seems bent on transplanting them from other faiths. Another reason why the OCA is off track is because it seems to misunderstand the holistic and complete understanding of evangelism. Failing to recognize that you cannot separate missionary work within the parish or among the faithful with evangelism outside of the community. They forsake the faithful in other jurisdictions of course for the promise yet to come in their own. They dismiss totally the ancient churches Constantinople, Anticoch, Alexandria, Jerusalem which have maintained the Faith until modern times no small task and not without great expense to the Martyrs. You cannot rationally put on par any of the more modern saints on any continent with the Church Fathers. Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Basil, Saint Gregory the Theologian, Saint Gregory of Nyssia, Saint John Climacus ...etc because it is from their teachings and legacy all others spring from.

Lastly, we are all called to live according to the Faith. We must to take up our cross daily and to witness and fully proclaim our faith among believers and non believers. What if the salt loses its saltiness? It may if we follow the path laid out by the OCA and other splinter groups. True evangelicalism is possible only when the faithful are living the Orthodox life not only in name. Only in knowledge which comes from cultivation and tending to the vineyard of the priest can we hope to being Orthodoxy as it was intended to the unbelievers. The current state of confusion and chaos demonstrated in the OCA is antithetical to the Orthodox Order. Remember Liturgy is a Taste of Heaven not an expression of ourselves. We cannot try and impose some affirmative action within the Church.