Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew described the conversion of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople as an “unjust” and “unfortunate” decision following the Doxology at All Saints Church in Weirton, West Virginia, on Wednesday, October 27.
In the address of Metropolitan Savvas of Pittsburgh, who spoke about the “small” Parish of All Saints, the Ecumenical Patriarch stressed with emotion that there were no small and large communities, small and large parishes, small and large churches.
“And the smallest church in your villages in Greece or in my village in Imvros, where the Divine Liturgy takes place, this church is as big as the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, which, unfortunately, as you know, became a mosque last year,” added the Ecumenical Patriarch.
He stressed that this famous Cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarch and of Christianity was a museum that was open to all the people who came to admire the City of Cities and the Hagia Sophia, “this immortal monument of our Fathers that endures for centuries, now that it has been turned into a mosque, it is only for our Muslim brothers and we regret this unjust and unfortunate decision of the government of the Turkish Republic.”
