By Efi Efthimiou
Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem was in Turkey yesterday. And he met with the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In Constantinople. At the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In the Phanar.
He posed for photographs and issued a statement regarding his meeting with the Turkish president. Yet there was no mention whatsoever of the Phanar, the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The head of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, himself a Greek, visited Constantinople—but not the seat of the First-Throned Church.
According to orthodoxtimes.com, Patriarch Theophilos had only “formally and superficially” notified the Ecumenical Patriarchate of his visit to the City. Does this make Patriarch Theophilos “covered” in canonical terms? Technically, yes. But the impression created by his action is, at the very least, deeply negative.
The sight of a Primate of an Orthodox Church visiting the city where the Ecumenical Patriarchate resides, but not the Patriarchate itself, is unprecedented. No other head of an Orthodox Church who visited Istanbul ever avoided going to the Phanar. Patriarch Theophilos did.
The disrespect shown by Patriarch Theophilos toward the Ecumenical Patriarchate is remarkable—and he surely knows it himself. It is not the first time he has done so, but it is certainly unique in terms of symbolism.
Much has preceded this, such as his “initiative” to convene the Primates in Amman, Jordan (which ended in fiasco), and numerous statements and actions through which he never missed an opportunity to take a stand against the Ecumenical Patriarchate. A willing “ally” in this endeavor was always the Moscow Patriarchate, especially after the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Since then, Patriarch Theophilos’ alignment with the Moscow Patriarchate and Patriarch Kirill has been complete. References of support to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Metropolitan Onuphry are frequent on the part of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, while the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and Metropolitan Epiphanius are consistently ignored.
Characteristic, too, is the way the Russians refer to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem as the “mother of all Christian Churches,” a designation that Patriarch Theophilos appears to welcome.
Russian interest in the Holy Land has never ceased and has never weakened for a moment. But the stance of Patriarch Theophilos in this critical period for the Orthodox Church will be judged by the Orthodox world—and by history.
Translated by Ioanna Georgakopoulou
