Steven,

I think it is simply a statement that can be readily observed. While I appreciate your triumphalist take, it is somewhat difficult for some people to actually LIVE that truth. For example, the EP is in a very very desperate situation. His flock is now down to less than 2000 people – he is a living anachronism – “Patriarch of Constantinople”, (not correctly referred to the reality of Islamic Istanbul) a city which has not existed for what, 500 years?

He is trying so desperately to be “relevant” in liberal western European society (that means he has to be relavant to the RC elites) because he falsely believes that this society will be part of the salvation of his Byzantine glory. He is also trying desperately to retain some of his privilege against Moscow and other Orthodox Churches that actually have living flocks.

It is a truly tragic and sad spectacle and we should pray that Gods will be done in it (I for one, pray that He ends the EP as we know it in the next council – its time for this to end)…

Why would an Orthodox Christian feel inferior to the Latin Church, when they — Orthodox Christians — possess the true, unchanged Church of Christ? How can one be inferior if they possess the True Faith? What is superior to the True Faith? What could one possibly lack if they are a member of the Church of Christ?

I don’t know from whom this “Anonymous” draws this generalization, but such a vague, blanket statement not backed by any actual reportage — not to mention being untrue at its root — is a sign of lazy writing. No wonder he didn’t attached his name to it!

God created the Earth and all its inhabitants. Man is killing over 130 species per day and changing the climate to make even human civilization more difficult. This will cause enormous suffering. For anyone, a Pope, an unemployed house painter, or a Rabbi, ANYONE, to ignore these facts is not responsible. I thank the Patriarch for his highlighting our duties to honor the Creator by ceasing to destroy His creation. His is a noble and correct endeavor. To complicate the matter is foolish. God so loves us that he gifts us creation in which to learn and love and not to make garbage. First, clean the heart. Second, bring goodness into the world. Different traditions might emphasis different aspects of the Gospel to accomplish this but there is no salvation without a clean heart and clean hearts to not sully God’s world. Love is God. Jonathan

However, in the meantime, it may be that the Patriarch is so concerned with environmental degradation and what it reveals of a civilization with a sad inability to practice a disciplined modesty with regard to a gifted yet finite world that he feels he ought to share platforms with people whose genuine concern for the natural order may not be wholly balanced with orthodox tradition (either Catholic or Orthodox) and all of whose policy prescriptions might not be valid.

I hope he does so with more charity than displayed here.

Likewise a greater ability to separate theological difference from ideological freight might be called for. After all there is nothing theologically wrong with asking for petrol prices to rise per se or to enjoy the support of George Soros or indeed to imagine that steps might be taken to slow the rate of population growth. In this latter category, the most effective way is to educate girls and allow them to make informed choices most notably about delaying one’s marriage age. I cannot find anything anti-human about that or is there?

The only thing I come away with from reading this article is that the author is full of fear and has a need to project his anxieties onto leaders in order to find his own equilibrium in these matters that he somehow finds personally threatening.

Mr. Bauman, may I ask, who are we to judge that Patriarch Bartholomew is a leftist hypocrite after a power grab? Have you spoken with him? Have you ever seen interviews with the EP? Do you find a power hungry authoritarian ever coming from his spirit? I have only ever seen him humble and meek in heart. There is only one spirit I see alive in this leader, who is one of many in our Church, and that is the Holy Spirit.

Where he is misguided it is up to the Lord’s conviction and direction not our judgments to change. Be glad it is not your cross to bear to try to lead on the global stage in our world today that faces huge problems that none of our ancestors has ever had to cope with before. If he is leading then let him lead and if he is not then pray for him, but for the Lords’ sake, do not judge him or the cross he has been asked to carry.

And if our Ecumenical Patriarch was not embracing these “Environmental extremists” what Christian would? Or should we also condemn Christ who embraced sinners, “of whom I am chief”? Never.

I for one, am thankful that the EP has created, at the very least, an opportunity to speak to my environmentalist friends about the importance of our faith in Christ concerning real world matters. He is a bridge-builder by his very office in his attempt to live out the Good News and I stand with him in his struggle to do so.

That’s a good question macedonianreader. We know his economic ideas fit the European socialist model for the most part, and he was feted by the Center for American Progress, a Progressive think tank in Washington, DC. His ideas on life in the womb are decidedly liberal as well as he revealed in his book, and his refusal to reprove politicians like Paul Sarbanes and Olympia Snowe. It might be that he really believes it.

I would clarify that my comment was not intended to disparage the Patriarch Bartholomew personally. I know nothing in regard to his motivations or how he might view himself in the context of the Orthodox ethos. My objection was to this author casting the Ecumenical Patriarch as a “moral authority” in order, as I see it, to potentiate the intended disparagement.

Birds of a feather.

Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he held the offices of head justice and private secretary (protasēkrētis) to the emperor, but after Alexios’ death, he retired to the monastery of St Glykeria, where he spent the rest of his life in writing books.

His most important work, Extracts of History (Greek: Ἐπιτομὴ Ἱστοριῶν, Latin: Epitome Historiarum), in eighteen books, extends from the creation of the world to the death of Alexius (1118). The earlier part is largely drawn from Josephus; for Roman history he chiefly followed Cassius Dio up to the early third century. Contemporary scholars are particularly interested in his account of the third and fourth centuries, which depend upon sources, now lost, whose nature is fiercely debated. Central to this debate is the work of Bruno Bleckmann, whose arguments tend to be supported by continental scholars but rejected in part by English-speaking scholars.[1] An English translation of these important sections has recently been published: Thomas Banchich and Eugene Lane, The History of Zonaras from Alexander Severus to the Death of Theodosius the Great (Routledge 2009). The chief original part of Zonaras’ history is the section on the reign of Alexios Komnenos, whom he criticizes for the favour shown to members of his family, to whom Alexios entrusted vast estates and significant state offices. His history was continued by Nicetas Acominatus.

Various ecclesiastical works have been attributed to Zonaras — commentaries on the Fathers and the poems of Gregory of Nazianzus; lives of Saints; and a treatise on the Apostolical Canons — and there is no reason to doubt their genuineness. The lexicon, however, which has been handed down under his name (ed. J. A. H. Tittmann 1808) is probably the work of a certain Antonius Monachus (Stein’s Herodotus, ii. 479 f.).

The first ecclesiastical denunciation of the game of chess on the part of the Eastern Church was voiced by Zonaras. It was during his retirement as a monk to the monastery of Mt. Athos that he wrote his commentary on the canons of the Eastern Church. The early list of rules known as the Apostolic Canons required both clergy and laity to give up the use of dice (Canon 50). Zonaras wanted chess to also be included for clergy and laity to give up. Zonaras, commenting on Canon 50, wrote, “Because there are some of the Bishops and clergy who depart from virture and play chess (zatikron) or dice or drink to excess, the Rule commands that such shall cease to do so or be excluded; and if a Bishop or elder or deacon or subdeacon or reader or singer do not cease so to do, he shall be cast out: and if laymen be given to chess-playing and drunkenness, they shall be excluded.”
Another writer in his times that wrote about the abuses of the Byzantine monarchy and a great historian. Also, works on the church as well.

Write, argue, and stay informed. Discourse is important.

So, what can be done other than make our opinions known?

Excellent point, Cynthia, and this is not by mistake.