33 years since the election of Patriarch Bartholomew to the Ecumenical Throne
“We promise before God and the people that our humble Patriarchate will be filled with the effort to build the body of the Church with reflections and decisions and works of love alone.”
This promise was made by Patriarch Bartholomew exactly 33 years ago; in comparison, on the day of his election (22 October 1991) as the 270th Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch.
On this day, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, was called to nominate the successor of the Late Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios, saw in the person of the then Elder Metropolitan Bartholomew of Chalcedon, the ecclesiastical personality who embodied the necessary qualifications and charisms in order to guide the Orthodox Church through the challenges of the 21st century. The illustrious Patriarchy of His All-Holiness, during the next three decades, completely justified the members of that Synod for their unanimous decision.
And the promise of the then newly elected Patriarch – about reflections and decisions and works of love – resonates today as a lived experience and reality in the consciousnesses of his spiritual children everywhere and all people, regardless of religious background, who evaluate in good faith and objectively the efforts made by His All-Holiness and the work he has accomplished during his Patriarchal tenure; let alone in the minds of the plenitude of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia, who still have fresh memories of the recent Apostolic visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the fifth continent and his intimate communication and interactions with His loving heart.
Therefore, on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the election of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the Ecumenical Throne, it is the prayer of all of us that the All-Good and Loving God will grant him health and strength, so that he may continue unhindered to set an example of love in a troubled world, in a world that is so in need of reflection and decisions and works of love.
From the “Vema” editorial team
