BARTHOLOMEW I HOLDS GREAT SWAY IN TURKEY
By Brian Murphy, AP Religion Writer

Associated Press
Nov 29 2006

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I is the spiritual
leader of the world’s more than 250 million Orthodox Christians and
is often called the "first among equals" of the Orthodox religious
leaders.

He has no direct authority over the various autonomous Orthodox
churches, which are mostly broken down along national and cultural
lines. But Bartholomew carries great sway as caretaker of Orthodox
spirituality in Istanbul, which was the capital of the Christian
Byzantium and known as Constantinople before the city fell to Muslim
armies in 1453.

The Orthodox branch of Christianity — centered largely in Eastern
Europe, the Balkans and Russia — split from the Vatican nearly 1,000
years ago amid disputes that included the extent of papal authority.

Smaller Orthodox communities can be found throughout the world, notably
in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Australia and North America.

Bartholomew, 66, was born on the Turkish island of Gokceada, known
as Imvros by Greeks, and became a deacon in 1961 and a priest in 1969.

He was elected as ecumenical patriarch in 1991.

He has led many religious-based initiatives, including environmental
trips to focus attention on the state of the world’s seas and rivers.

Those excursions, which bring together religious leaders, scientists
and researchers aboard ships, have earned him the nickname "the
Green Patriarch."

Bartholomew also has fostered talks between Muslims and Roman Catholics
aimed at improving relations between the groups, and has been a strong
supporter of expanding Orthodox ties with the Vatican.

Bartholomew’s role, however, is complicated by Turkish views that
reject his global status and declare him only the head of the tiny
Greek Orthodox community in Turkey. He has also pressed Turkish
authorities to change rules governing non-Muslim religious institutions
that led to the closure of a Greek Orthodox seminary near Istanbul
more than 20 years ago.

Turkey requires that the patriarch be a Turkish citizen, which
has sharply limited the pool of potential successors because of the
dwindling Orthodox population in Turkey. There are an estimated 2,000
Greek Orthodox among Turkey’s nearly 90,000 Christians, which include
about 65,000 Armenians and 20,000 Roman Catholics.