LAST UPDATE 20:30
“We do not negotiate the responsibilities of our Throne. We do not give up on them. We do not abdicate them. We will not allow the alienation of blessed ecclesiology” stressed the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew after the completion of the Divine Liturgy for the Holy Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas in the Patriarchal Cathedral today during which the Ecumenical Patriarch celebrated his name day.
Elder Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, Elder Metropolitan Apostolos of Derkoi, Elder Metropolitan Demetrios of Princes Islands, Metropolitan Germanos of Tranoupolis, as well as the Metropolitans Meliton of Philadelphia, Irineos of Myriophytos and Peristaseos, Chrysostomos of Myra, Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain, Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima, Theoliptos of Iconium, Evgenios of Rethymnon and Avlopotamos, Arsenios of Austria, Athenagoras of Kydonia, Maximos of Selyvria, Makarios of Australia, Gerasimos of Petra and Heronissos, Kyrillos of Imvros and Tenedos, Chrysostomos of Symi, Andreas of Saranda Ekklisies, Joachim of Prousa, Evstratiy of Chernihiv and Nizhyn, and Melchizedek Margveti and Ubisi attended the service.
Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Throne, delegations of the Autocephalous Churches of Cyprus and of Ukraine, led by Metropolitans Vasileios of Constantia and Ammochostos and Joasaph of Ivano-Frankivsk and Galicia respectively, Hierarchs of the Church of Greece and the Georgian Orthodox Church, Abbots of the Mount Athos, Greek Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Konstantinos Vlasis, Ambassador of Greece to Ankara Michael-Christos Diamesis, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonis Diamataris, Consuls General of Greece and of Ukraine in Constantinople Georgia Soultanopoulou and Oleksandr Gaman, members of the local communities, faithful from Constantinople, and pilgrims from abroad were also present.
