The challenges faced by the Orthodox Church in the modern globalized world, the need to end all warfare and preserve peace, as well as the importance of dialogue as the only means of resolving disputes, were amid the issues mentioned by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in his speech on Thursday, June 1, 2023. The speech was delivered at the beginning of a two-day conference organized in Constantinople, under the auspices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, called “Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion & Diplomacy”.
On the first day, diplomats and university professors from the USA, Canada and many European countries participated in the conference. In addition, Elder Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon delivered a speech and referred to the importance of inter-Christian, interreligious dialogue and the relevant initiatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain, together with distinguished Dr. Elisabeth Prodromou, referred to the efforts of the Orthodox Church to address the international issue of human trafficking and modern slavery and to the initiatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to raise awareness. Grand Ecclesiarch Aetios, Director of the Private Patriarchal Office, referred to the legal status of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
On Friday, the delegates visited to the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, in Chalki, where the historic Theological School of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is housed, and had the opportunity to be informed about its history and its contribution to the Theological Letters by Bishop Kassianos of Aravissos, Abbot of the Monastery. At noon, the Ecumenical Patriarch went to the School, accompanied by Bishop Massimiliano Palinuro of the Roman Catholics in Constantinople, and had a brief meeting and lunch with the delegates, as well as with a group of graduates of the Theological School of the Holy Cross in Boston, who went on their standard pilgrimage to Constantinople. In the afternoon, the closing session of the two-day conference was held.
