Turkish Forum

Tag: Ecumenical Patriarchate

  • John Kerry Wants More Seminaries . . . in Turkey

    John Kerry Wants More Seminaries . . . in Turkey

    Tristyn K. Bloom | @tristyn_bloom
    US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, on April 21, 2013, in Istanbul (AFP, Ozan Kose)
    US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, on April 21, 2013, in Istanbul (AFP, Ozan Kose)

    AFP:

    US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Turkey on Sunday to re-open Orthodox clergy schools near Istanbul that authorities have kept closed for more than 40 years.

    “It is our hope that the Halki seminary will open,” Kerry said during a press conference in Istanbul after two days of talks on the Syrian crisis and the Mideast peace process.

    Kerry said he discussed religious freedom in overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey and the possible re-opening of the theological schools in talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

    The Halki seminary, where Orthodox clergy used to train, is located on an island off Istanbul and was closed in 1971, after Turkey fell out with Greece over Cyprus.

    Those wishing to learn more about the state of religious freedom in Turkey can do so here (though I do not endorse HALC on all issues).

    On Sunday, Kerry met with His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. From the transcript:

    SECRETARY KERRY: It’s such a privilege to talk with somebody who has been such a voice for tolerance, a voice for interfaith understanding, who most recently visited with His Holiness Pope Francis and was at his investiture, and who has consistently talked out about protecting rights of minorities, protecting religious rights, and who is struggling for larger understanding in the world. . . .

    PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW: Thank you, Your Excellency.

    SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you for my reception. And he gave me a beautiful rosary that the Pope gave him that’s been blessed by the Pope and by him, and I will carry that with great, great privilege. . . . Thank you, Patriarch.

    PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW: Thank you. So have a nice life.

  • UN seeks religious support in fight against global hunger

    UN seeks religious support in fight against global hunger

    By: AFP | September 15, 2012 |

    ROME – The UN food agency Friday said it was looking for support from world religious leaders in the fight against global hunger as the agency’s chief met the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople.

    “Eradicating hunger not only makes economic and political sense, it is also a moral issue,” Food and Agriculture Organisation director-general Jose Graziano da Silva was quoted in a FAO statement as saying at the meeting. The FAO chief met Bartholomew I, a noted environmentalist, in Istanbul.

    FAO said Graziano da Silva had actively sought “to involve the world’s religions more closely in the fight against hunger” and this month also wrote to Cairo’s Al-Azhar mosque.

    In his letter to the mosque’s Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, Graziano da Silva asked for support in efforts to eradicate global hunger and informed him of FAO’s activities in the drought-prone Horn of Africa.

    “We must achieve global food security in order to have a more secure world,” Graziano da Silva was quoted as telling the grand imam.

    Similar letters will be sent to other religious leaders, the FAO said. In June, Graziano da Silva was received in a private audience by Pope Benedict XVI in which he called for “renewed support of the Catholic Church in the fight against hunger at the global and local levels”.

    This news was published in print paper. Access complete paper of this day.

    via UN seeks religious support in fight against global hunger | The Nation.

  • Ecumenical Patriarchate wins landmark court ruling in Turkey

    Ecumenical Patriarchate wins landmark court ruling in Turkey

    Prompted by the European Court of Human Rights, a Turkish tribunal has given the Ecumenical Patriarchate legal title to a disputed orphanage.

    The ruling is a major victory for the Orthodox patriarchate because for the first time, the Turkish government is recognizing the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a legal institution with international standing. The orphanage– like many other Christian institutions in Turkey– had been taken over by the government on the basis of an earlier ruling that the rejected the legal claims of the Patriarchate.

    via Catholic Culture : Latest Headlines : Ecumenical Patriarchate wins landmark court ruling in Turkey.