Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew departed for the Netherlands on Tuesday morning to attend the worship events of the Metropolis of Belgium on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its founding, at the invitation of Metropolitan Athenagoras.
During his stay in the Netherlands, the Ecumenical Patriarch will meet with King Willem-Alexander and with the country’s political authorities.
In Belgium, he will meet with King Philippe and the new European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas, and in Luxembourg he will meet with Grand Duke Henri.
He will also travel to Venice on November 14 to speak at a conference of the Hellenic Institute for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies on “Ecumenical Hellenism and Venice”.
The Ecumenical Patriarch is accompanied by the Metropolitans Alexandros of Mantineia and Kynouria, Joseph of Proikonissos, Damaskinos of Kydonia and Apokoronos, and Archimandrites Ioakeim, Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod, and Alexios, abbot of the Xenophontos Monastery.
The Ecumenical Patriarch will return to Constantinople on Saturday, November 16.