The Service of the Holy Passion of the Lord at the Phanar

On Great and Holy Thursday afternoon, 17 April 2025, at the venerable Patriarchal Church of Saint George, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew officiated at the service of the Holy Passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

According to the tradition of the Church, the Ecumenical Patriarch read the first of the twelve Passion Gospel readings while following in reading were Their Eminences, Metropolitan Meliton of Philadelphia, Metropolitan Irinaios of Myriophytos and Peristasis, Metropolitan Chrysostom of Myra, Metropolitan Theoliptos of Iconium, Metropolitan Ioakeim of Bursa and Metropolitan Theodoros of Seleucia, and then the Grand Protosyncellus Archimandrite Gregorios, Archimandrite Bosporios, Chief Secretary of the Holy and Sacred Synod, Grand Ecclesiarch Archimandrite Aetios, Director of the Personal Patriarchal Office, and Grand Archimandrite Iakovos, while the twelfth gospel was read, according to the Church order, by Grand Archdeacon Alexandros.

The Patriarchal Church and the entire Patriarchate were shrouded in darkness during the procession of the Crucified One, with everyone’s emotion reaching its peak.

A large number of believers from Constantinople and abroad attended the Matins Service.

On the morning of Great and Holy Thursday, the Grand Protosyncellus celebrated, in the venerable Patriarchal Church, Vespers and the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great, and was assisted by the Third Patriarchal Deacon, Father Barnabas.

Photographs: Nikos Papachristou