End Of Byzantium: Profile Of The Patriarchate Of Constantinople

[Era Might]

Thought you all might like this, retweet elsewhere if you are so inclined:

 

http://www.aeonmagazine.com/living-together/helena-drysdale-end-of-byzantium/

 

My meeting took many weeks and some string-pulling to arrange. It is not an interview, as such, insists Father Nephon, a Patriarchal archimandrite, or senior abbot, but an ‘audience’. I feel slightly daunted. Both the Dalai Lama and the Pope are known as ‘His Holiness’, but Bartholomew I, 270th Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and spiritual leader of some 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide, is ‘His All-Holiness’. There are other ancient Patriarchs in the Eastern Church, in Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria, but he is ‘first among equals’.

 

It's an interview but also a social / political / cultural profile of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and modern-day Turkey. It's a really well-written piece.

Edited December 23, 2012 by Era Might

[Basilisa Marie]

That part you quoted is interesting, because I always thought the Eastern Patriarchs considered themselves among equals, with no one being "first" except over his own jurisdiction.  I wonder us Westerners put the emphasis on "first" while they put the emphasis on "equals."  

 

 It's a really great article.  

[qfnol31]

First among equals is the title given to the "Ecumenical Patriarch", i.e. the Pope of the East.

The Orthodox often consider Patriarch Bartholomew similarly to how we consider the Pope, though without the claim to ultimate authority or infallibility. However, his authority is linked to political power and not based on Apostolic succession.

[Selah]

That part you quoted is interesting, because I always thought the Eastern Patriarchs considered themselves among equals, with no one being "first" except over his own jurisdiction.

 

Yes, the Patriarch of Constantinople is the First Among Equals, or the "Primus Inter Pares." It just means that he is the most senior of the group of equals in the Pentarchy. 

[Apotheoun]

First among equals is the title given to the "Ecumenical Patriarch", i.e. the Pope of the East.

The Orthodox often consider Patriarch Bartholomew similarly to how we consider the Pope, though without the claim to ultimate authority or infallibility. However, his authority is linked to political power and not based on Apostolic succession.

 

There is no "Pope" - at least in the Roman Catholic sense - of the East.  The Ecumenical Patriarch is not the leader of all of Eastern Orthodoxy; instead, an Orthodox Christian would say that Christ is the head of the communion of Orthodox Churches, while each Patriarch is the primus within his particular Holy Synod.

Edited December 31, 2012 by Apotheoun