Month: November 2009

Fox News contributing editor Mike Emanuel catches up with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew after his Nov. 3 meeting with President Obama:

… I asked His All Holiness about his priorities during his time here in Washington, and he said meeting with the highest representatives of the Obama administration is part of that — noting that he just met with Mr. Obama, he’ll meet with Vice President Biden tomorrow, and will have dinner with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday. The Ecumenical Patriarch is also due to meet with Congressional leaders on Wednesday.

“This is an honor for us, for our Church, and it is a concrete sign of the respect the American administration has for institutions with long history and valuable service to the human kind such as the Ecumenical Patriarchate,” Patriarch Bartholomew said. “The Ecumenical Patriarchate is not simply the religious center, the center creating civilization, it has contributed much to the European culture and civilization. It is there. We must not forget it. It is there in Istanbul, the former Constantinople for 17 entire centuries. This interest of the White House is well understood.”

From Voice of America: Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of close to 300 million Orthodox Christians around the world, recently visited Washington, D.C. to speak about environmental issues. The Patriarch met with U.S. leaders to encourage them to push for environmental initiatives. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT3pN48GNDE[/youtube]

The Zenit news service interviews Fr. Peter Mescerinov, vice-director of the Center for the Spiritual Formation of Children and Adolescents of the Moscow Patriarchate, about the “new and enduring challenges of Russian monasticism.”

ZENIT: What is the reality of these [monastic] communities today?

Father Mescerinov: The principal tragedy of our ecclesial life today is the absolute lack of community. There are communities that are born in contrast to the position of the Church in a general sense; however, there are no communities as such as a norm of community life.

This is linked no doubt to the Soviet legacy, because in that period every aggregation was regarded with suspicion and in danger of being repressed; in fact, an anti-solidarity instinct has been created in the very conscience of many generations of persons.

When people enter the Church today, educated according to this mentality, it is very difficult [for them] to feel and even to understand that it is a Christian community, because any form of aggregation suffers the influence of Soviet collectivism, whereas the Christian community and Soviet collectivism are two things that have nothing to do with one another.

Because of this, Russians today do not have a predisposition to community life, and this is also reflected in monastic life. We do not have true communities and our own monastic communities; we have formally organized monasteries, there are some monks, some individuals alone with a straight and sincere vocation, but they are not able to insert themselves well in the community.

This is no doubt a task for the future, or perhaps our ecclesial and social life has arrived at a point of no return in which it is practically impossible to return to genuine solidarity. But the future will show this.

Read the interview on Zenit.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHpfiMGtDBI[/youtube]

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew tells the Secretary of State that she holds within her “extensive world-view a remarkable comprehension of global political, economic and religious circumstances. In addition to understanding what is power and might, you know as well what is holy and right.”
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Address of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the Dinner Honoring Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Benjamin Franklin Room, The State Department, Washington, November 5, 2009:

Good evening, and please be seated. I want to welcome all of you to the Ben Franklin Room here on the eighth floor of the State Department for such a special occasion. It is indeed an honor for me to welcome His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, whom I have had the great honor and personal pleasure of getting to know over the years. And I know we have a number of other very distinguished representatives, His Eminence Geron Metropolitan Athanasios of Chalcedon, His Eminence Metropolitan Ambrosios of Korea, and, of course, a personal friend of mine, His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, who is celebrating his 10th anniversary here in America.

His All Holiness and I have had the pleasure of meeting a number of times since I first visited him as First Lady at the Patriarchate in 1995, but one of our most memorable times together came when Archbishop was enthroned in New York 10 years ago. A lot has happened in the intervening decade, but one thing that has not changed is his All Holiness’s commitment not only to his church and to the people of the church, but to the world, and the work that he has done, which is so important to us all. Continue reading →

Remarks and Toast of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the Dinner in his Honor Hosted by Vice President Joseph R. Biden at the Residence of the Vice President, Number One Observatory Circle, Direct Archdiocesan District, Washington, November 4, 2009
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Mr. Vice President and Dr. Biden, Your Eminence Archbishop Demetrios and Brother Hierarchs, Honored guests and friends, Beloved spiritual children in the Lord,

We return to the Naval Observatory and to this historic residence after twelve years, to be among friends of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and yet, more than friends.

Mr. Vice President, you are a person who has sought justice and fought for liberty throughout a lifetime of public service. Through tragedy and triumph, you have persevered with a constant awareness of those most in need, of those who are powerless, and those who live without hope. Your life story is truly an American story, filled with peaks of exemplary achievement, and valleys of loss and despair. But through them all, as you yourself have so movingly written, you have risen to every challenge and every occasion. Continue reading →