Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew highlighted climate concerns to visiting Greek youth

On Friday afternoon, 28 March 2025, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew warmly welcomed, with paternal love, groups of teachers and students from schools across various regions of Greece to the Patriarchal Church of Saint George, where they prayed together during the Service of the Fourth Stanza of the Salutations to the Most Holy Theotokos.

Addressing the young men and women, along with their teachers, who were participating in an environmental conference held at the Zografeio Lyceum, the Ecumenical Patriarch emphasised, among other things, that the natural environment is under threat today as never before in human history.

“The ecological crisis has a negative impact on fauna and flora, the atmosphere and the seas, on both current and future generations, and its social consequences are incalculable. The climate crisis is the culmination of the modern ecological problem and is already a tangible and painful reality,” he noted.

The Ecumenical Patriarch stated that the Ecumenical Patriarchate has been a pioneer in the struggle for the preservation of the natural environment and recalled several of its numerous initiatives in this direction.

Immediately afterward, Christos Roumbidis, Director of Secondary Education of Western Thessaloniki, addressed the congregation.

The Fourth Stanza of the Salutations was attended by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, Yannis Loverdos; His Excellency Ambassador Konstantinos Koutras, Consul General of Greece in Constantinople; Archons of the Holy Great Church of Christ; and numerous pilgrims.

Photographs: Nikos Papachristou