ISTANBUL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW MEETS GAREGIN, URGES SOLIDARITY
By Benjamin Harvey, Associated Press
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 21 2006
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I urged the world’s Orthodox churches
to minimize differences and seek solidarity as he met with the head
of Armenian Apostolic Church on Wednesday.
Deep divisions are prevalent throughout the Orthodox Church. Although
Bartholomew controls several Greek Orthodox churches around the
world, including the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and is
considered the spiritual leader of some 250 million Orthodox worldwide,
relations with two of the largest churches, in Russia and Greece,
remain tense. The Armenian Apostolic Church also operates independently
and is not under his jurisdiction.
The two spiritual leaders met under heavy security and after a
brief religious ceremony in Istanbul, the formerly Greek Byzantine
city of Constantinople that is the seat of Bartholomew’s Orthodox
Patriarchate. Garegin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, was accompanied
by clerics wearing long black robes and black hats. His hat bore a
jeweled cross and he held a staff with a golden handle.
"We must always keep in mind that we aim only for the glory of God,"
Bartholomew said in a speech to Garegin II in which he touched on the
ancient split between the two churches. "He himself taught us this:
‘May they all be one.’ It is a sacred goal." Bartholomew praised what
he called the ongoing "unofficial theological meetings" between the two
churches, saying the dialogue between them began in the fifth century.
Armenian Christians pride themselves on being descendants of the first
people to adopt Christianity as their official national religion. The
Armenian national church was established in A.D. 301.
That predates the Roman Empire’s edict of A.D. 313 tolerating
Christianity, which was previously illegal, and was 94 years before
it became the official religion of Rome and the Orthodox lands of
the East.
Garegin arrived in Istanbul on Tuesday for a weeklong visit to the
Armenian community here and to hold talks with Bartholomew. He is
expected to visit several Armenian churches in Istanbul, as well as
Armenian graveyards and other religious sites including the Haghia
Sophia. Both Armenians and Greeks had huge roles in the history of
the city, though their numbers have dwindled to just a few thousand
combined.
Police tightened security to protect the visiting cleric from
Turkish nationalists who protested his arrival on Tuesday night,
prompting the police to accompany Garegin out of the airport through a
separate entrance. Garegin has angered Turks by saying their ancestors
committed genocide against Armenians around the time of World War I,
an allegation vehemently denied by Turkey.
Turkey, which has no diplomatic relations with Armenia, denies that
Turks committed genocide, saying Armenians who lived under the Ottoman
Empire were killed in internal fighting among ethnic groups as the
empire collapsed.