Comments on: Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the White House

By: George Michalopulos

George Michalopulos — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:01:46 +0000

I’m curious how the more traditionalist Orthodox (like ROCOR, monstics, etc.) feel about all this globalism.

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:36:21 +0000

If this doesn’t have Cloak & Dagger written all over it, I don’t know what does.

Monday of last week the EP had dinner with the Greek Ambassador to the UN. Wednesday of last week the EP met with the UN Secretary General. On Saturday the EP met with the Turkish Ambassador to the UN. (International level note passing maybe?)

In the next week things really started moving fast. On Monday the EP met first with the Turkish Ambassador to the US, and then had lunch with the Greek Ambassador to the US. On Tuesday the EP again met with Turkish Ambassador to the US (this time for lunch), and then met with the President.

Talk about hiding in plain sight.

By: John Couretas

John Couretas — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:29:27 +0000

In reply to George Michalopulos.

Yes.

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos meets with UN chief Ban Ki-moon in New York, US

New York (ANA-MPA/P. Panagiotou) — Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, on a visit to the US, was received on Wednesday night (local time) in New York by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon at the UN headquarters, for talks that included environmental issues ahead of December’s international UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen.

Bartholomew, who was accompanied by Archbishop Demetrios of America and Greece’s permanent representative to the UN, ambassador Anastasis Mitsialis, told reporters after the 20-minute meeting, said they discussed environmental issues in light of the Copenhagen conference, and that he briefed the UN chief on his own “environmental initiatives” and the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s “humble activities” regarding the “interfaith and inter-cultural dialogue”.

The Ecumenical Patriarch said he had also made not to his three visits to Ban’s country of descent, Korea, and his previous visit to the UN during the tenure of secretary general Kofi Annan. He further briefed the UN chief on his upcoming visits to London next week for a conference on cooperation among religions and cultures being organised by Prince Charles, and afterwards to Athens, and noted that he will be in Copenhagen for the climate change conference.

Bartholomew further said that he stressed to Ban that the SecGen was working for the unity of nations and cultures while the Ecumenical Patriarchate was contributing in that direction through the interfaith dialogue and the Patriarchate’s initiatives for environmental protection, “and consequently we can be considered collaborators in the same direction, for the good of humanity”.

http://www.ana-mpa.gr/anaweb/user/showplain?maindoc=8091319&service=142

By: George Michalopulos

George Michalopulos — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:02:38 +0000

hmmm….this worries me. Was there any meeting with the Greek ambassador or UN delegation?

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:31:58 +0000

Turkish Ambassador's met 3 times with the EP. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that the really important meetings on this trip took place when the EP had lunch with Ertugrul Apakan, Turkey’s Representative at the U.N., and then met twice (twice!) with Nabi Sensoy, Turkey’s Ambassador to the U.S. I looked on the EP's site, the Turkish Embassy site, and Turkey's U.N. site. Nothing. No mention of the meetings, no mention of who said what to who. EP's Apostolic Visit to the U.S. Turkish Embassy to the U.S. Permanent Mission of Turkey to the U.N. * Saturday, Oct 31st. Lunch with Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, Turkey’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. * Monday, Nov 2nd. Met with Nabi Sensoy, Turkey’s Ambassador to the U.S. * Tuesday, Nov 3rd. Lunch with Nabi Sensoy, Turkey’s Ambassador to the U.S.

By: George Michalopulos

George Michalopulos — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:46:23 +0000

Well, looks like I was wrong. I predicted that there would be no visit to the WH by the EP. I hope that this visit wasn’t part of some quid pro quo for the Turkish government. There seems to have been a lot of nice-talk by the EP on behalf of the Erdogan regimes wherever he went.