New appeal to Turkish government to allow Halki Theological School to reopen, "which has contributed a lot to Christianity and culture, the Letters and humanity", New call to end the war in Ukraine, today, in his speech at the opening of the conference organized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on "The Synodal Encyclical of 1920: 100 years of significant influence"………..
In the speech on his historical synodical encyclical 1920 "To the Everywhere Churches of Christ", of an axial text, as he characterized it, for the course of the Ecumenical Movement, His Holiness reminded that the members of the subcommittee, which formed her plan, that is, Metropolitan Germanos of Seleucia, Ioannis Efstratiou, Vasilios Stefanidis, Vasilios Antoniadis and Pantoleon Komnenos, they belonged to the faculty of the Halki Theological School.
"This means that our Circular expresses the 'spirit of Halki', whose main characteristics were openness to the world and trust in the power of dialogue. You all know that the Chalki School has already been closed for five decades and that the Ecumenical Patriarchate is unable to train its staff in accordance with the ecumenical spirit of the Chalkite School. It is certain that the suspension of the operation of our School, also influenced the course of the Ecumenical Movement. The discussion about his Circular 1920, gives us the opportunity to appeal to the honorable government of the country to allow the reopening of the School, which has contributed a lot to Christianity and culture, the Letters and humanity" said Mr. Bartholomew.
Then, the Ecumenical Patriarch referred extensively to the importance and spirit of the synodical encyclical.
At the conference, which was originally scheduled to take place last year, with the opportunity to supplement 100 years since its publication, but it was then postponed due to the strict restrictive measures against the pandemic, hierarchs participated, clergymen and theologians, from different Churches, as well as from important organizations of the Ecumenical Movement.