BY GOD’S MERCY

ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE – NEW ROME

AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH

TO THE ENTIRE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH:

GRACE, PEACE, AND MERCY FROM CHRIST, RISEN IN GLORY

* * *

Most honourable brother Hierarchs and blessed children in the Lord,

Having arrived, through fasting, prayer, and solemnity, at the radiant and all-festal day of Holy Pascha, we hymn and glorify the world-saving Resurrection of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, which marks the manifest victory of life over death, renews all creation, and opens to humanity the way of deification by grace. The Church of Christ preserves the paschal experience in her liturgical life, in the labours of the Saints and Martyrs of the faith, in the eschatological impulse of monasticism, in the proclamation of the Gospel “to the ends of the earth,” in theology and the ecclesial arts, in the good witness of the faithful in the world, in the culture of love and solidarity, and in the immovable certainty that evil does not have the final word in history.

The Resurrection of the Lord is lived as a Christ-bestowed freedom, which inspires, nourishes, and strengthens the creative powers of the human person and the good struggle for “whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable,” while reminding us all that the journey toward the Resurrection is inseparably bound to the Cross. The joy of the Cross and the Resurrection has preserved the people of God from identifying themselves with the spirit of this world, while at the same time safeguarding them from barren insularity and a spirituality devoid of dynamism and hope-bearing breath. The life of the faithful, in the crucified and risen Christ “for us men,” still today refutes every alien narrative of Christian ethos as a “morality of the weak,” supposedly embodied in humility, forgiveness, sacrificial love, asceticism, the Lord’s saying “but I say to you, do not resist the evil one,” and other principles and dispositions that belong to the very core of our identity. Nothing could be further from the truth than this reading of the ethos of Christianity — of sacrificial love that “does not seek its own,” a love interwoven with courage, boldness, and existential authenticity. Pascha is a hymn to this freedom, to faith “working through love,” which is not our own achievement but grace and a gift from above, and which is lived in the holy Sacraments of the Church and in the “mystery” of service to one’s neighbour. Indeed, “love for God does not in any way tolerate hatred toward one’s fellow human being.”

The Church of Christ — the “salt of the earth,” the “light of the world,” the city “set on a hill,” the lamp placed “on the lampstand” — bears active witness in the world, before the signs of the times, about the grace that has come and “the hope that is in us.” The message of the Cross and the Resurrection resounds today as a Gospel of peace, reconciliation, and justice. War, hatred, and injustice stand opposed to the fundamental Christian principles for whose realization and establishment the people of God pray and labour each day. In the light of the Resurrection, we beseech the Lord on behalf of the victims of wartime violence, the orphans, the mothers who mourn their children, and all those who bear in body and soul the effects of human cruelty and callousness. “Christ is risen” is a denial and condemnation of violence and fear and an invitation to a life of peace. War brings forth lamentation and death; the Resurrection conquers death and bestows incorruptibility.

Before the daily images of the cruelty of war, the Church raises her voice and proclaims the sacredness of the human person — of every concrete human being anywhere on earth — and the duty of absolute respect for that dignity; and she calls upon us to “know our own worth, honour the Prototype, recognise the power of the mystery, and understand for whose sake Christ died.” The Resurrection of the Lord is the restoration of the human being to his pre-eternal calling. As the “beginning of another eternal life,” it heals alienating relationships and establishes the peace “which surpasses all understanding” — a peace that encompasses worldly reconciliation and pacification.

Inspired by God, the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church — the tenth anniversary of whose convocation we honour this year — underlined the duty of the Church “to encourage whatever truly serves the cause of peace (Rom. 14:19) and opens the way to justice, brotherhood, true freedom, and mutual love among all the children of the one heavenly Father, as well as among all peoples who make up the one human family.”

Holy Pascha is the whole of our spiritual civilization, the very core of our piety. The Resurrection of the Lord is also our own resurrection in the present age, and at the same time a prefiguration and foretaste of the “common resurrection of all human beings” and of the renewal of the whole creation. Illumined by the all-radiant light of the face of the Risen Christ, and glorifying in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs His all-holy Name — the Prince of Peace, who is with us “always, unto the end of the age” — we wish you a blessed Resurrection, a paschal season filled with divine gifts, and every day of your lives likewise, crying out the universal proclamation of joy: “Christ is risen! Truly the Lord is risen!”

Phanar, Holy Pascha 2026

† Bartholomew of Constantinople

fervent supplicant for you all 

to the Risen Lord

The post PATRIARCHAL ENCYCLICAL ON THE OCCASION OF HOLY PASCHA appeared first on Pisidia.

+ BARTHOLOMEW

By God’s Mercy

Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome

and Ecumenical Patriarch

To the Plenitude of the Church:

grace and peace from God

✦  ✦  ✦

“To You, our Champion Leader, we, Your City, ascribe hymns of victory and thanksgiving, for having been delivered from calamities, O Theotokos!”

This year marks fourteen hundred years since, in honour of the Theotokos, the Kontakion now universally known as the “Akathist Hymn” was solemnly chanted in church, with all the faithful standing. It is an exalted and triumphant poem which, with singular richness and elegance of expression, refers both historically and theologically to the divine economy of the Incarnation and to the unique role of the All-Pure Mother of God within it.

Through this Kontakion, the faithful at prayer reverently greet the Panaghia with the repeated echo of the first salutation addressed by the Archangel Gabriel, herald of grace and joy, to the one full of grace: the word “Rejoice.” Through this word, the “mystery hidden from all ages” is made manifest, and “the sum of our salvation” is brought to fulfilment. The repetition in this hymn of the word “Rejoice” one hundred and forty-four times in address to the All-Blessed Virgin clearly bears a mystical meaning. It recalls the one hundred and forty-four thousand pure saints of the Revelation, who sing the “new song” with their harps before the throne of God and “follow the Lamb wherever He goes.” As the people of God are purified in both life and doctrine, wholly devoted to the incarnate Word of God and indissolubly united with Him, they hymn the saving divine economy and at the same time salute, in songs of praise and sacred melody, the All-Glorious Mother of the Lord and Mother of the Church, as well as her mighty protection over the Church’s devout flock.

The opening of the Kontakion, its Prooimion (prelude), was originally the well-known hymn, “Having mystically received the command in knowledge…,” which refers exclusively to the Annunciation of the Theotokos. This shows that the entire hymn properly belongs to that great feast, for which, even to this day, the whole service of the Salutations forms a beautiful and richly flowered crown of forefeast and afterfeast. In the course of time, a new introductory hymn became established — “To you, our Champion Leader, we ascribe hymns of victory” — in order to express the grateful thanksgiving of the people to her “through whom trophies are raised” and “through whom enemies are overthrown.”

The salvation of the City and of the whole Empire from the terrible assault of the Avars and the Persians, during the absence of Emperor Heraclius and his army, who were far away striving to recover the precious Cross of Christ, was rightly attributed to the mighty protection and help of the Most Holy Theotokos, to whom the founder, Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine the Great, had reverently dedicated New Rome. Receiving the unceasing and anguished supplication of clergy and people from the depths of their hearts, the Mother of God not only strengthened the resolve of the few defenders, but also wrought a great miracle: by the swirling of storm winds she brought about the total destruction of the besiegers’ fleet, after which they were driven into disorderly flight, and thus the City was saved. Rightly, therefore, “having been delivered from calamities,” the City of the Theotokos inscribed its hymns of victory to the Panaghia, whom it thenceforth named its “Champion Leader,” and as such it called upon her again and again throughout the turbulent history of Orthodoxy, each time tasting sweetly her love and her mighty protection.

The historic Church of Blachernae, where, according to ancient tradition, an all-night vigil was celebrated each week in honour of the Mother of God, often in the presence of the Emperor, received on the night of 7 August 626 the crowds of the God-fearing people who had been saved. Deeply moved and with tears of gratitude, they offered her veneration and chanted the Kontakion with its new prooimion, as fitting thanksgiving and a debt of glorification to God and to her who, in the words of Saint Andrew of Crete, “holds the second place after the Trinity” — the Deliverer and Protectress of the City and of the whole realm.

From that hour, the “Akathist Hymn” — this radiant masterpiece of ecclesiastical poetry, this incomparable monument of the Greek language and most intricately woven work of art of God-inspired theology — became the most beloved hymn of our liturgical life, the Christians’ sweetest delight. Long ago, it was translated into many languages. Bishops and priests chant it with compunction. Monastics recite it daily, and the faithful often throughout the year. Theologians analyze its lofty dogmatic ascents. Scholars of language and literature plunge into the beautiful depths of its expressive refinement and poetic grandeur. Poets and painters draw inspiration from its luminous lyrical images. Iconographers depict lovely scenes from its abundant content. Masters of ecclesiastical music clothe it in elaborate sacred melodies. Yet the “Akathist Hymn” always remains, above all, the God-befitting prayer of the Church — the voice of the devout heart of Christians, at once glorification, thanksgiving, supplication, and entreaty to Him who “for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man”; and at the same time, an appeal to her who possesses maternal boldness before God and who, in manifold ways and at all times, abundantly bestows her mighty help and protection upon the devout Orthodox faithful.

The Akathist Hymn calls every believer to vigilance, to remain upright and steadfast, in humility and prayer, before the great challenges of our age, in these grievous days of upheaval and war through which humanity is now passing. Let us pray fervently that the Mother of the “Peace of God,” moved by the prayerful offering of her “Akathist Hymn” by all the faithful in compunction and reverence, may once again act as “Champion Leader” of all who are wronged and endangered, and as the mighty Protection of the children of the Church throughout the world, granting to the human race the true Peace of her Son, that peace “which surpasses all understanding.”

On the 27^th day of the month of March 2026 A.D.

Indiction III

Bartholomew of Constantinople

supplicant in Christ

+ Emmanuel of Chalcedon, supplicant in Christ

+ Ambrosios of Karpathos and Kasos, supplicant in Christ

+ Apostolos of Miletus, supplicant in Christ

+ Joseph of Proikonnesos, supplicant in Christ

+ Meliton of Philadelphia, supplicant in Christ

+ Athanasios of Koloneia, supplicant in Christ

+ Theoleptos of Iconium, supplicant in Christ

+ Joseph of Buenos Aires, supplicant in Christ

+ Cleopas of Sweden and All Scandinavia, supplicant in Christ

+ Kyrillos of Imbros and Tenedos, supplicant in Christ

+ Constantine of Denver, supplicant in Christ

+ Grigorios of Ankara, supplicant in Christ

The post Patriarchal and Synodal Encyclical on the occasion of the celebration of the 1400th anniversary of the solemn chanting of the Akathist Hymn while standing for the deliverance of the Queen of Cities from the siege of the Avars and the Persians appeared first on Pisidia.

By God’s mercy Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome

and Ecumenical Patriarch

To the Plenitude of the Church

May the grace and peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ;
and from us, prayer, blessing, and forgiveness.

Most honorable brother Hierarchs and blessed children in the Lord,

Filled with sacred emotion, we enter once again, by God’s goodwill, into Holy and Great Lent, the arena of ascetic struggle, the time of fasting and repentance, of humility and prayer, of spiritual vigilance and love, with the eyes of our heart directed to the life-giving Cross of the Lord, which guides us all toward Holy Pascha that opens the gates of Paradise to the human race.

This blessed period now opening before us constitutes an opportunity to comprehend once more the truth of asceticism according to Christ and its inseparable association with the Eucharistic realization of the Church, whose every expression and dimension is illumined by the light and joy of the Resurrection. The spirit of asceticism is hardly a foreign element introduced into Christianity, nor is it the result of influence by dualistic ideologies outside the Church. Asceticism is another word for the Christian existence, connecting it with absolute trust in Divine Providence, with the inexhaustible spiritual gladness of a life dedicated to Christ, with self-transcendence and self-offering, with charitable love and respect for all creation.

Asceticism is not a matter of self-willed choices and subjective particularities, but of submission to the rule and the “catholic experience” of the Church. It has been described as an “ecclesiastical” rather than an “individual” event. Life in the Church is indivisible. Repentance, prayer, humility, forgiveness, fasting, and philanthropic deeds are interconnected and interwoven. In the Orthodox tradition, there is no asceticism as an end in itself, for that only leads to an overestimation of individual effort and feeds tendencies of self-justification.

Great Lent is the appropriate time to experience the Church as the place and the manner in which the gifts of divine Grace are revealed, always as a foretaste of the joy of the Lord’s Resurrection, the cornerstone of our faith and the all-radiant horizon of “the hope within us.” It is by divine inspiration that the Church honours on Cheesefare Saturday the sacred memory of saintly men and women who have shone brightly in asceticism, for they are the supporters and companions of the faithful in the long course of asceticism. In the arena of spiritual struggle, we have the benevolence of the Triune God with us, the protection of the All-Holy Mother of God and Mother of us all, and the intercessions of the saints and martyrs of the faith.

Healthy Christian asceticism is the participation of the whole human being—as a unity of spirit, soul, and body—in the life in Christ, without undervaluing matter and the body, and without a Manichaean reduction of spirituality. As it has been written, Christian asceticism is ultimately a struggle “not against, but for the body”; as the Gerontikon affirms: “We have been taught not to destroy the body, but to destroy the passions.”

Unfortunately, and inaccurately, Christian asceticism has been labelled by contemporary thinkers as a denial of the joy of life and as a restriction of human creativity. Nothing could be further from the truth! As release from “having” and from attachment to the possession of things, and especially as liberation from the ego, from “seeking one’s own,” and from the “having of our being,” asceticism is the source and expression of genuine freedom.

What can be more truthful than the exodus from the captivity of “individual right” and the openness and love for our fellow human beings, the inner “good change” and steadfastness in fulfilling God’s commandments? What could be more creative than fasting, when it is a holistic attitude of life and expresses the ascetic and Eucharistic spirit of the Church, when it is a “common struggle” and not an “individual feat”? What could be more existentially striking than repentance and internal conversion, as a vital direction toward the truth and a renewed discovery of the power of divine Grace, of the depth of life in Christ and the hope of eternal life?

It is truly impressive that, when the early Christian character of Holy and Great Lent as a period of preparation for Holy Baptism in the Divine Liturgy of the Resurrection was replaced by the “ethos of repentance,” there nevertheless remained its experience as a “second baptism.” For this reason, the period of fasting and repentance is not sorrowful. Our hymnology speaks of the “spring of fasting,” while theology calls Great Lent a “spiritual spring” and a “period of joy and light.” All of this assumes special timeliness and significance in the face of the anthropological confusion of our time, as well as the new alienations rooted in contemporary civilization.

With these sentiments and thoughts, reminding all the children of the Holy Great Church of Christ throughout the Lord’s dominion, that on the day of the Akathist Hymn, the festivities will culminate, marking the 1400th anniversary of the year 626—when, in expression of gratitude to the Theotokos for the deliverance of the City of Constre from a perilous siege, the Akathist Hymn was chanted standing in the sacred Church of Blachernae—we wish you all a smooth course of the Fast, with asceticism and patience, with thanksgiving and doxology.

May we all, speaking the truth in love and being sanctified in the Lord, travel this way toward the fullness of joy in His radiant Resurrection.

Holy and Great Lent 2026

✠ BARTHOLOMEW of Constantinople

Your fervent supplicant for all before God

The post Catechetical homily for the Opening of Holy and Great Lent appeared first on Pisidia.

By God’s Mercy Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch to All the Plenitude of the Church

Grace, Mercy and Peace from the Savior Christ Born in Bethlehem

Most honorable Brother Hierarchs,

Beloved children in the Lord,

Having once again been found worthy of reaching the great feast of the Nativity in the flesh of the Son and Word of God, we glorify the “inexpressible and incomprehensible condescension” of the Savior of the human race and Redeemer of all creation from corruption, even as we proclaim with the angels “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill to all people.” 

Christ was revealed as “Emmanuel,” as “God with us” and “for us”, as God beside each of us and “closer to us than ourselves.” The pre-eternal Word of God, who is “consubstantial with the Father,” as formulated in doctrine by the First Ecumenical Council, whose 1700^th anniversary was appropriately celebrated by the Christian world over this year, “becomes like His own creature,” being incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary “in order to render human beings into gods.”

The Apolytikion (Dismissal Hymn) for Christmas declares that the Nativity of Christ “has shone to the world the Light of knowledge” and revealed “the transcendent and universal meaning” of life and history, namely the truth that only the Christian faith can fully satisfy the deeper pursuit of the mind and thirst of the heart, that “salvation is found in no one else” but Christ. Thenceforth, the “knowledge” that “puffs up” is being judged by the words of the Lord, that “You will come to know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” 

The suprarational event of the Incarnation is experienced and repeated spiritually in the life of the faithful, who love the epiphany of the Savior Christ. As St. Maximus the Confessor writes: “The Word of God was once born in the flesh, but desires always to be born in the spirit out of love for those who desire it.” In this sense, the Feast of the Nativity, of the divine Incarnation and the deification of humankind by grace, does not direct us to an event of the past, but guides us to the “future city,” to the heavenly kingdom of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

In a world, where the echo of war and noise of weapons prevail, the angelic “peace in the world” is resounded and the Lord’s voice blesses “the peacemakers” while His Holy Church prays during the Divine Liturgy “for the peace from above” and “for the peace of the whole world.” Genuine faith in the living God strengthens our struggle for peace and righteousness, even when we are faced with humanly insurmountable impediments. As the Message of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church—whose tenth anniversary we shall celebrate next year—inspiringly states: “the oil of religious experience must be used to heal wounds and not to rekindle the fire of military conflicts.”

The Gospel of peace especially concerns us Christians. We consider it impermissible to remain indifferent before the fragmentation of Christendom, particularly when this attitude is accompanied by fundamentalism and explicit rejection of inter-Christian dialogue that ultimately aims at transcending division and achieving unity. The obligation of striving for Christian unity is non-negotiable. The responsibility to continue the efforts of the pioneers of the Ecumenical Movement along with the justification of their vision and labor rest on the younger generation of Christians.

We belong to Christ, who is “our peace” and “the fulfilment of joy” in our life, the “goodwill” that springs from the conviction that “the truth has arrived” and “the shadow has passed,” that love is stronger than hatred and life stronger than death, that evil does not have the final word in the life of the world, which is directed by Christ, who is “the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.” This faith must shine and be revealed in the way we honor Christmas and the other feasts of the Church. The joyous celebration of the faithful should bear witness to the transformative power of our faith in Christ. It should be a time of goodwill and spiritual delight, the experience of that ineffable “great joy” that is “synonymous with the Gospel.”

Most honorable Brothers and beloved children,

In 2026, the Holy Great Church of Christ will honor the completion of 1400 years since August 7, 626, when the Akathist Hymn was chanted “upstanding” during the Sacred Vigil in the Church of Panagia Vlachernae, as an expression of gratitude to the All-Holy Mother of God, for the safeguarding of the City of Constantinople from the attack of hostile forces. On the occasion of this historic milestone, the 2026 Yearbook of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will be dedicated to the commemoration of this important event for our tradition and identity, which are inseparably and profoundly associated with the honor reserved for our ever-blessed and most pure Mother of God, the defender and protector of our people.

In this spirit, as we bow before Mary who holds the infant Jesus in her arms, and as we worship the Divine Word who assumed our form, we wish upon all of you a blessed Holy Twelvetide, and a fruitful in good deeds and filled with divine gifts new year of the Lord’s favor, to Whom belong all glory, honor and worship, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Christmas 2025

+Bartholomew of Constantinople

Your fervent supplicant of all before God

The post Patriarchal Encyclical for Christmas appeared first on Pisidia.

By the Mercy of God

Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch

Grace, Peace, and Mercy unto the Plenitude of the Church

From the Fashioner of All Creation

Our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ

* * *

 Most honorable brother Hierarchs and blessed children in the Lord,

By the good pleasure of God the giver of all, we embark today upon a new ecclesiastical year, glorifying His heavenly name for the uninterrupted and bounteous fruitfulness of the initiatives of His Holy Great Church in the field of creation’s protection. The Ecumenical Patriarchate not only highlighted the seriousness of environmental issues from an early stage, but also focused attention on their foundational causes—which are inner, spiritual, and moral—and proposed solutions based on an Orthodox eucharistic and ascetic ethos.

Orthodoxy, in her faith, divine worship, and witness to the world is, one could say, the eco-friendly form of Christianity. Thus, the proclamation of the Feast of the Indiction as a day of prayer for the protection of the natural environment was not merely a reaction to the contemporary ecological crisis, but a natural extension of the Church’s life as “applied ecology.” From the beginning, we declared the inseparability of respect for creation and the human person, revealing the common root and interconnection of environmental and social problems. Alienation from God breeds a possessive and exploitative attitude and behavior toward creation and fellow human beings, while life in and according to Christ is a source of environmental sensitivity and philanthropic action. As the Lord said: “Every good tree bears good fruit, but a corrupt tree bears evil fruit. A good tree cannot bear evil fruit, and a corrupt tree cannot bear good fruit” (Matthew 7:17–18).

Respect for spiritual values sharpens our discernment of what is good and what must be done. Indifference toward the Transcendent and the “anthropomonism” that follows lead to the entrapment of the human being in the earthly, that is, to a shrinking of his freedom into pragmatic choices and decisions, always intertwined with superficial views of reality and with the identification of the good with “what happens to be useful.” The timely call for “ecological repentance”—beyond the call to remorse for the ecological damage already inflicted—and to a radical change in mindset and behavior toward creation, also points to the need to transcend the erroneous stance that upholds the view of the environmentally destructive “self-regulating economy” as the only path to development. This stance further fuels the naive belief in nature’s alleged ability to regenerate itself indefinitely, despite the human-induced burdens it suffers, such as the intensification of climate change and its devastating global consequences. Today, in addition to all this, is added the pandemonium of war cries, bombings, missiles and explosions, which drowns out the cry of the innocent victims of merciless violence and the groaning of creation. The future of life on our planet will either be ecological and peaceful—or nonexistent.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate, alongside its struggle for peace, justice, and solidarity, will continue to lead in protecting nature, upholding ecological themes as central issues in inter-Christian and interfaith dialogue, and promoting the significance of Christian eco-friendly principles and traditions within international institutions, environmental organizations, scientific foundations, and civil society. We are confident that cooperation in the field of ecology strengthens our sense of shared responsibility for the future and opens up new and favorable prospects.

Returning to what we stated in a previous Message, we once again call upon the Metropolises of the Mother Church around the world, parishes, and monasteries to develop coordinated actions and specific interventions to mobilize the faithful, with emphasis on educating the younger generation. Applying the ecological implications of our faith in practice is a defining aspect of our Orthodox identity.

In this spirit, we wish you all a blessed and fruitful ecclesiastical year in good and God-pleasing works. We call upon the children of the Holy Great Church of Christ across the globe to live in a true eco-friendly manner and in brotherly love, to pray for creation and for peace, to strive for the integrity of the natural environment and sustainability, and to cultivate a culture of solidarity. Through the intercession and protection of the Most Holy Theotokos Pammakaristos, we invoke upon you the life-giving grace and great mercy of the Almighty Creator and All-Merciful God of love.

Blessed Ecclesiastical Year, brothers and children in the Lord!

                                                                                            September 1, 2025

                                                                                          † Bartholomew of Constantinople

Fervent supplicant for all before God

The post MESSAGE FOR INDICTION appeared first on Pisidia.

By God’s Mercy, Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome
and Ecumenical Patriarch

To the Plenitude of the Church: May God’s Grace and Peace be with you!

We offer a hymn of thanks to the almighty, all-seeing, and benevolent God in Trinity, who vouchsafed that His people reach the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, which bore spiritual witness to the authentic faith in divine Word born without beginning and truly consubstantial with the Father, “who for us and for our salvation descended, was incarnate and became human, suffered and arose on the third day, and ascended to the heavens, who will come again to judge the living and the dead.”

The Council of Nicaea constitutes an expression of the synodal nature of the Church, the culmination of its “earliest conciliarity,” which is inseparably linked to the eucharistic realization of church life as well as of the practice of assembling together for decisions “with one accord” (Acts 2:1) on current matters. The Council in Nicaea also signifies the emergence of a new conciliar structure, namely of Ecumenical Councils that would prove definitive for the development of church affairs. It is noteworthy that an Ecumenical Council does not comprise a “permanent institution” in the life of the Church, but an “extraordinary event” in response to a specific threat to the faith, aiming at restoring the ruptured unity and eucharistic communion.

That the Council of Nicaea was convened by the Emperor, that Constantine the Great attended its deliberations and embraced its decisions with the status of imperial law, does not render it “an imperial synod.” It was an unquestionably “ecclesiastical event” whereby the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, decided about its internal affairs, while the Emperor implemented the principle “Render unto Caesar the things that belong to Caesar and to God the things that belong to God” (Mt. 22:21).

In the face of the Arian heresy, the Church, in council, formulated the essence of its faith, which is experienced uninterruptedly. The pre-eternal Son and Word of God, “consubstantial to the Father . . . true God of true God,” through His incarnation, saves humankind from enslavement to the enemy and opens up to us the way of deification through grace. “He became human so that we might become divine.” The Symbol of Nicaea proclaims the sure conviction that the ongoing heretical deviation constitutes a denial of the potential for human salvation. In this sense, it is not simply a theoretical declaration, but a confession of faith, just like all the dogmatic texts of the Church, a genuine articulation of the living truth within it and through it.

What is of particular theological importance is the fact that the basis of the Sacred Symbol “We believe . . .” comprises a local baptismal Symbol or group of such Symbols. As the genuine bearer of the perennial self-conscience of the Church, the Council recapitulates and reaffirms the Apostolic deposit preserved by the local Churches. Athanasius the Great mentions that the Synodal Fathers “on matters of faith, do not write “It seemed to us . . .” but rather “This is what the catholic Church believes; and at once they confessed what they believe, in order to demonstrate that nothing novel was discovered in what they wrote, but that their mindset is apostolic, in other words exactly as the Apostles had taught.” The conviction of the divinely-instructed Fathers was that nothing was added to the faith of the Apostles and that the truly ecumenical Symbol of Nicaea comprises a proclamation of the common tradition of the catholic Church. The Conciliar Fathers, whom the Orthodox Church worthily honors and hymns as “precise protectors of the apostolic traditions,” adopted the philosophical term “essence” (and its derivative “of one essence”) to express the Orthodox faith about the divinity of the Word, which Arius denied, and along with this denied the entire mystery of the universally salvific incarnate Divine Economy by becoming embroiled in Hellenistic concepts, thereby rejecting the “God of our Fathers” in the name of the “God of the philosophers.”

Another vitally important matter, which the Council of Nicaea was called to resolve for the sake of enhancing ecclesiastical unity in liturgical practice, was “when and how we should celebrate the Feast of Pascha.” The 1700th anniversary of the convening of this Council has brought back the timeliness of the matter of a common celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection. The Holy Great Church of Christ prays that Christians all over the world will return, in accordance with the decrees of the Council of Nicaea, to a celebration of Easter on a common day, as by a blessed coincidence this current year. Such a decision would serve as evidence and as a symbol of genuine progress in the struggle for our ecumenical co-sojourn and co-understanding through theological dialogue and the “dialogue of life,” as a tangible witness of our practical respect for what we have received from the undivided Church. The achievement of such a goal, in the context of this year’s anniversary, was the joint vision of the late Pope Francis of Rome and our Modesty. His passing immediately after all of Christendom celebrated Easter emphasizes our responsibility to continue in this direction without wavering.

Moreover, the canonical work of the Council of Nicaea was also significant, formulating and affirming synodally the perennial canonical conscience of the Church, establishing the beginning and elevating the status of the metropolitan system, as well as of the prominent position and expanded responsibility of certain Thrones, out which gradually emerged the system of the Pentarchy. Inasmuch as the canonical legacy of Nicaea is a common inheritance for the entire Christian world, this year’s anniversary is called to function as an invitation to return to the sources, namely to the primeval canonical regulations of the undivided Church.

The Ecumenical Throne of Constantinople has perennially served as the guarantor of the decisions of Nicaea. This spirit of the Great Church was also described through the Patriarchal and Synodal Encyclical on the 1600th anniversary of the Council “as the first Ecumenical and truly greatest Council of the Church.” The decision to celebrate the anniversary with “a festive and, indeed, joint, if possible, event of all Orthodox Autocephalous Churches, in order altogether to manifest the faith and persistence to this day of our Holy Orthodox Church in the teaching and spirit of that Council, whose inspired decision on the one hand established and sealed the one faith of the Church, while on the other also splendidly presenting the unity of the structure of the church through the presence of delegates from all ends of the world.” Unfortunately, however, this event did not prove feasible due to exceptional circumstances and the vacancy of the Ecumenical Throne. On July 19, 1925, the first Sunday after the enthronement of Patriarch Basil III, the “delayed commitment” was fulfilled with the celebration of “a special Patriarchal and Synodal Liturgy” in the venerable Patriarchal Church. What is of particular ecclesiological importance is that the Encyclical underlines the value of adopting the obligation of the Church of Constantinople—“as more directly associated with and responsible for the feast”—to celebrate this anniversary “which is immense for all of Christendom . . .”

The Council of Nicaea constitutes a milestone in the formation of the doctrinal identity and canonical structure of the Church. It remained the model for handling problems of faith and canonical order on an ecumenical level. The 1700th anniversary since its convening reminds Christianity of the traditions of the ancient Church, the value of mutual struggle against misconceptions of the Christian faith, and the mission of the faithful to contribute to the multiplication of the “good fruits” of the life in Christ, according to Christ, and directed toward Christ in the world.

Today, we are called to highlight the enduring message of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, the soteriological dimensions and anthropological implications of the term “homo-ousios,” the inseparable link between Christology and anthropology in an age of anthropological confusion and intense efforts to emphasize the “meta-human” as an open horizon and self-divinizing perspective of human evolution, with the contribution of science and technology. The principle of “divine-human reality” comprises the answer to the impasse of the contemporary vision of a “man-god.” Therefore, reference to the “spirit of Nicaea” presents an invitation for us to turn to the essential aspects of our faith, the nucleus of which is the salvation of humankind in Christ.

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the full and perfect revelation of the truth about God and man. “Whoever has seen me has seen my father” (Jn 14:9). The incarnate Word of God demonstrated “first and alone,” as St. Nicholas Cabasilas writes, “the true and perfect human being, exemplary in conduct, in the way of life, and in every other respect.” This Truth is represented in the world by the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church; it is the same Truth that nurtures her, the same Truth that she ministers to. The Church bears the robe of Truth, “woven by theology from above,” always rightly expounding and glorifying “the great mystery of piety,” evangelizing the word of faith, hope, and love, while anticipating the “endless day that knows no evening and no succession,” the coming kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The task of theology is to reveal the soteriological dimension of doctrine and its interpretation in existential terms, which, along with participation in the ecclesiastical event, demands sensitivity and genuine interest for the human being and the adventure of its freedom. In this sense, the proclamation of our faith in the incarnate divine Word must be accompanied by our tangible response to His saving word: “This is my commandment to you, that you love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12).

In memory, then, of the ineffable gifts that He made and makes in the world, we unceasingly glorify the most-holy and most-splendid name of the Lord of all and God of love, through whom we have known the Father and through whom the Holy Spirit came into the world. Amen!

On June 1st, in the year of the Lord 2025.

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B A R T H O L O M E W

Patriarchal Address at the International Scientific Conference

Restarting from Nicaea:

The Importance of the Incarnation in Contemporary Theology

Ecumenical Patriarchate – Holy Metropolis of Pisidia

Akra Hotel – Antalya, Turkey

(May 6, 2025)

* * *

Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, and Your Graces,

Distinguished Members of the Academic Community,

Reverend Clergy,

Beloved Sisters and Brothers in the Risen Christ,

Χριστὸς Ἀνέστη! [Ἀληθῶς Ἀνέστη!]

Christ is Risen! [Truly He is Risen!]

Kristos Voskres! [Voistinu voskres!]

With paternal and Patriarchal pride, we welcome all of you – and especially our ecumenical brethren, to this Conference: Restarting from Nicaea: The Importance of the Incarnation in Contemporary Theology.

On behalf of all, we express our gratitude to His Eminence, Metropolitan Job of Pisidia and his co-workers, for their efforts to bring this conference to fruition here in Antalya.

We share in this work of re-initializing the fundamental truths of Nicaea with Corpus International, a wonderful ecumenical partner from the Roman Catholic Tradition. The coming days hold the promise of a deep exploration of our common spiritual heritage – a legacy held by the world’s traditional Christian Communities for the past seventeen hundred years.

This milestone of an anniversary presents numerous considerations and opportunities. From uniformity in the date of the Holy Pascha, to liturgical and canonical customs, Nicaea provides the contemporary Church with abundant sources of inspiration. Nevertheless, we have gathered to give our attention to that most marvelous outcome of this First Ecumenical Council, the definition of the Creed, and the solution to the question of how to understand – at least on a most minimal level of language – the relationship of our Lord Jesus Christ to His Heavenly Father. In other words, how to apprehend with our intellects – as much as is humanly possible – God as Holy Trinity.

The Trinitarian understanding of God is very much taken for granted today, so many centuries removed from the disputes and quarrels that rankled the first Centuries of our Faith. But our symposium challenges such unspoken assumptions. Nicaea is not a mere historical formulation (to be repeated without awareness), but the foundation of all the pillars upon which the Church stands.

As I said just days ago during my Visit to the Diocese of Caserta in Italy, at the Basilica of Saint Angelo in Formis:

“The spirit of Nicaea must once again ignite the Christian message.”  [1]

And that is why we are gathered – to reignite the Church with the spirit of Nicaea, the spirit of a unified and harmonious Christianity. In one of the Festal Hymns of the Orthodox Christian Feast for the 318 Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council – which is on the Seventh Sunday of this Season of the Resurrection (this year on the First Day of June), we chant:

The preaching of the Apostles and the teachings of the Fathers confirmed the one Faith in the Church. And wearing the garment of truth woven from the theology on high, She rightly defines and glorifies the Great Mystery of Piety.  [2]

Τῶν ἀποστόλων τὸ κήρυγμα, καὶ τῶν Πατέρων τὰ δόγματα, τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ μίαν τὴν πίστιν ἐκράτυνεν· ἣ καὶ χιτῶνα φοροῦσα τῆς ἀληθείας, τὸν ὑφαντὸν ἐκ τῆς ἄνω θεολογίας, ὀρθοτομεῖ καὶ δοξάζει, τῆς εὐσεβείας τὸ μέγα μυστήριον.

In Greek, we  see very clearly the distinction offered – that of Kerygma and Dogma – the former announced to the world by the Apostles, and the latter bestowed upon the world as an extrapolation of this “Preaching,” by the Fathers and Saints of the Church.

By the time we arrive at Nicaea, with the Church now legalized and even favored by the Imperial Government, we have reached a serious inflection point. The vast Empire that reaches from Eastern Anatolia to the Pillars of Hercules needs a common way of speaking about the most basic understandings of the Apostolic Kerygma – or in other words, a theology, for we are speaking about God.

And this is indeed fraught with dangers and difficulties. As God Himself reminds us through the Prophet Isaiah:

Οὐ γάρ εἰσιν αἱ βουλαί Μου ὥσπερ αἱ βουλαί ὑμῶν οὐδὲ ὥσπερ αἱ ὁδοὶ ὑμῶν αἱ ὁδοί Μου, λέγει Κύριος.

For neither are My thoughts as your thoughts, nor are your ways as My ways, says the Lord. [3]

This is where we always begin, with the inestimable gulf between our language and the ineffable language of God. We know that speaking about God – theologizing – is a risky business. But we also have the lived experience of the Church, the Body of Believers.  And this experience is the basis for the Kerygma of the Church.

We may be able to deny the experience of others for a time, even as the Eleven Disciples attempted to mitigate the shock of the announcement to them by the Myrrh-bearers, that the Lord was risen indeed! When the Women proclaimed what they knew in their souls, we hear this about the Disciples – those to become Apostles:

The Women’s words seemed to be preposterous to them, and they were incredulous. [4]

Here, we begin to see how the experience of the Faith triumphs over any and all arbiters of the Faith. And we should never forget this, for the truth of the “Great Mystery of Piety” – τῆς εὐσεβείας τὸ μέγα μυστήριον – cannot be concealed or altered by any created or human artifice. As the Apostle reminds us in Second Timothy:

If we are faithless, [God] is faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. [5]

Given that God Himself has established the very parameters for how to articulate His presence among us – the Preaching of the Apostles and the Teachings of the Fathers – we are called even now to unfold both of them for the edification of the Body of Christ.

It is not enough for the affirmations of the Faith to be enshrined in liturgical life and ensconced in our many books. Every generation has the responsibility to look at them anew.

Therefore, beloved brethren in the Lord, we are assembled these days for presentations and papers, for dialogue and conversation – that we may renew within ourselves and within our communities the truths of Nicaea. For, when we consider how many of the world’s Christians still adhere to the express formulation of this First Ecumenical Council, this is surely a sign that what was enacted seventeen hundred years ago, has the same validity and power today, which it did at that time. We need only find ways to make this declaration of the Faith relatable and relevant to the contemporary world and in contemporary ways of understanding.

And this is indeed our task – to instill and emphasize in our modern forms of theologizing the essence of Nicaea. If we may say it in this way, our theology must be ὁμοούσιος with that of Nicaea; for the power of the Apostolic Preaching, and the elucidation of the Teachings of the Fathers is to be found there.

Applying this same principle – the ὁμοούσιον – upon which the entire theology of Nicaea depends, to our current interpretations will ensure that no matter the manner of expression, the basis for our expositions of the Faith will remain true. Every generation has its own modalities of communication. Perhaps the most laconic expression of the Incarnational Faith of Nicaea comes from our righteous predecessor on the Throne of Constantinople, Saint Gregory Nazianzen – rightly called the “Theologian.”

Τὸ γὰρ ἀπρόσληπτον, ἀθεράπευτον.

For that which has not been assumed, has not been healed.[6]

The very concision of this amazing statement was designed for a particular issue – that of the heresy of Apollinaris of Laodicea. And in 381 in Constantinople – at what would become known as the Second Ecumenical Council – the Nicene Creed, as we have received it, was completed. The ideas of Apollinaris were rejected, so as to not relinquish the Faith of Nicaea, of more than half a century earlier.

For it is the experience of the Church – known in the Preaching of the Apostles and expounded in the teachings of the Fathers, that was not only enshrined at Nicaea, but was also preserved in such a way that even the most illiterate person could access them.

We know that the Council’s Creedal statement of Faith was assembled from confessions of faith that were in use for baptism. Given the literacy rates in these early centuries, particularly among the lower and slave classes of the Roman Empire, it was entirely reasonable that a pithy synopsis of the fundamental truths of our Faith should be developed for mass usage. Nicaea standardizes that confession for the entire οἰκουμένη, and sets the Creed as a binding mortar to hold together a far-flung Empire.

Dear Friends,

Although we no longer live in a world of Christian Empire, we are Christians of the far-flung reaches of geography, and more importantly, history. The seventeen hundred years since Nicaea have witnessed division and dissolution within the Christian family, such that when we speak of “Church,” we all may not mean the same thing.

This is why the re-initialization of the Faith of Nicaea is so vital. It is the common ground and shared experience of virtually all Christians on planet Earth – nearly two and a half billion of us. This fact alone calls us to seek answers that hearken back to a day when we held fast to a communal understanding of our Faith.

Thus, our task is to restart from Nicaea, from the unalloyed and integrated Kerygma of the Apostles and the Dogmata of the Fathers. Through these coming days, we will apply Nicaea in all its wisdom to contemporary issues – whether of pastoral, liturgical, social, ecclesiological, ecological, or eschatological implications.

When we consider the state of the world today, and the diverse and divergent trends that have emerged in Christianity – especially in the last one hundred years – we really do not have a choice. We must seize upon this milestone in Christian history to help us communicate more effectively and more realistically to the People of God, wherever they may be.

  The Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Church of Constantinople, the Mother Church of most of Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Primus of the remaining Four Elder Sees of the Ancient Pentarchy, has both the joy and the responsibility to lead in these efforts. This involves not only in academic setting such as this, but also in every aspect of ecumenical dialogue.

The passing of Pope Francis, whom we counted as a dear friend and whose memory shall surely live on in the hearts of the human family, somehow coincides with our vocation. Passing into eternal life after the Holy Pascha on the Monday of what we Orthodox call, “Bright Week,” seems like a message to all of us. To remember that we must labor, as the Lord Christ said, while it is yet the day.  [7] Pope Francis gave an example to strive until the very last breath, as our Lord did upon the Cross.

In closing, let us embrace fully the meaning and significance of the ὁμοούσιον, gifted to us by the 318 Fathers of Nicaea. When we become consciously aware of our consubstantiality with one another, we are already in the experience of the Faith. And as Nicaea has taught, the Lord Jesus, Who is Son of God and Son of Mary –

ὁμοούσιος τῷ Πατρί καὶ ὁμοούσιος τῇ Μητρί – makes us “partakers of the Divine Nature” through his Incarnation.[8]

This is what it means to be a Christian. This is what means to be the People of God. This is what it means to be the Church.

As the Hymn we recited earlier – called a Kontakion – sings, the Church wears the garment of truth woven from the theology on high, and so She rightly defines and glorifies the Great Mystery of Piety.

With boldness, then, let us trust in that “garment of truth woven from the theology on high,” gifted to us by the Fathers of the Church. They wove a seamless robe, like the one upon which the soldiers who crucified the Lord of Glory cast lots. The exigencies of nations, the passage of time, and the ever-shifting tides of history have done much to remove all the Churches from one another.

But Nicaea is another seamless garment, woven from on high – from top to bottom, like that of the Lord upon Golgotha. [9] Returning to its wisdom, its glory, its reason, and its utter inspiration is as valid today, seventeen hundred years later, as it was at every subsequent Council after Nicaea.

May our undertakings be blessed and as fruitful!

So be it. Amen. Γένοιτο!

______

1. May 2, 2025.

2. Kontakion of the Fathers, Tone VIII.

3. Isaiah 55:8 (LXX).

4. Luke 24:11.

5. II Timothy 2:13.

6. Saint Gregory the Theologian, Letter CI to Cledonios the Presbyter against Apollinarios (Migne, Patrologia Graeca Tomus XXXVII, 181C).

7. Cf. John 12:9.

8. II Peter 1:4.

9.  John 19:23.

_______

Source: https://ec-patr.org/address-of-his-all-holiness-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-at-the-international-scientific-conference-restarting-from-nicaea-the-importance-of-the-incarnation-in-contemporary-th/

The post ADDRESS of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the International Scientific Conference Restarting from Nicaea: The Importance of the Incarnation in Contemporary Theology appeared first on Pisidia.

By God’s Mercy

Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch

To the Plenitude of the Church:

May the Grace, Peace and Mercy of Christ Risen in Glory be with you All

Most honorable brother Hierarchs,

Dearly beloved children,

By God’s mercy and strength, we have journeyed through prayer and fasting across the ocean of Holy and Great Lent, finally reaching the splendid feast of Pascha, and we praise the Lord of glory, who descended to the depths of Hades and “achieved the entrance for all to Paradise” through His raising from the dead.

The Resurrection is not the remembrance of an event from the past, but the “good change” of our existence, “another birth, an alternate life, a different kind of living, the transformation of our very being.” And in the Risen Christ, the entire creation is renewed together with humanity. When we chant in the 3^rd Ode of the Paschal Canon, that “Now everything is filled with light—heaven, earth, and all things beneath the earth; therefore, let all creation celebrate the resurrection of Christ, in which everything has been established,” we proclaim that the universe is founded on and filled with unfading light. The phrases “before Christ” and “after Christ” ring true not only for the history of the human race, but also for the sake of all creation.

The Lord’s raising from the dead constitutes the nucleus of the Gospel, the stable point of reference for all the books of the New Testament, as well as for the liturgical life and devotion of the Orthodox Christians. Indeed, the words “Christ is Risen!” summarize the theology of the Church. The experience of the abolition of the dominion of death is a source of ineffable joy, “free from the bonds of this world.” “All things are filled with joy upon receiving the taste of resurrection.” The resurrection is an explosion “of great joy” and permeates the entire life, ethos and pastoral ministry of the church as the foretaste of the fullness of life, knowledge and life of the eternal kingdom of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Orthodox faith and pessimism are contradictory phenomena.

Pascha is for us a feast of freedom and victory over alienating forces; it is the churchification of our existence, an invitation to collaborate for the transfiguration of the world. The history of the Church is rendered “a great Pascha” as the journey toward “the liberation in glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8.21). The experience of resurrection reveals the center and eschatological dimension of freedom in Christ. Biblical references to the Savior’s resurrection demonstrate the power of our freedom as believers; it is in this freedom alone that the “great miracle” is manifested, which remains inaccessible to every oppression. “The mystery of salvation belongs to those who desire it freely, not to those who are tyrannized against their will.” Accepting the divine gift as a “transition” of the believer toward Christ is the voluntary existential response to the loving and saving “transition” of the Risen Lord toward humankind. For “without me, you cannot do anything” (Jn 15.5).

The mystery of the Lord’s resurrection to this day continues to shatter the positivistic certainties of those who deny God as “the denial of human will,” as well as the advocates of “the fallacy of self-fulfillment without God” and the admirers of the contemporary “man-god.” The future does not belong to those imprisoned in a self-sufficient, stifling and narrow earthly existence. There is no authentic freedom without resurrection, without the perspective of eternity.

For the Holy Great Church of Christ, one source of such resurrectional joy is also found this year in the common celebration of Easter by the entire Christian world, along with the commemoration of the 1700^th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, which condemned the heresy of Arius, who “diminished within the Trinity the one Son and Word of God,” and which established the way of calculating the date for the feast of our Savior’s resurrection.

The Council of Nicaea inaugurates a new age in the conciliar history of the Church, the transition from the local to the ecumenical synodal level. As we know, the First Ecumenical Council introduced the non-biblical term “homoousios (of one essence)” to the Symbol of Faith, albeit with a clear soteriological reference, which remains the essential characteristic of church doctrines. In this sense, the celebrations of this great anniversary are not a return to the past, inasmuch as the “spirit of Nicaea” exists unspoiled in the life of the Church, whose unity is associated with the correct understanding and development of its conciliar identity. Discussion on the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea reminds us of the common Christian archetypes and the meaning behind the struggle against the perversion of our spotless faith, encouraging us to turn toward the depth and essence of Church tradition. The joint celebration this year of the “most holy day of Pascha” highlights the timeliness of the subject, the solution of which not only expresses the respect of Christianity for the decrees of the Council of Nicaea, but also the awareness that “there should be no differentiation in such sacred matters.”

With these sentiments, filled with the light and joy of the Resurrection, while proclaiming “Christ is Risen!” with jubilation, let us honor the chosen and holy day of Pascha with a heartfelt confession of our faith in the Redeemer, who trampled down death by death and granted life to all people and all creation, through our faithfulness to the sacred traditions of the Great Church as well as through sincere love for our neighbor, for the glorification by us all of the heavenly name of the Lord.

At the Phanar, Holy Pascha 2025

+ Bartholomew of Constantinople

Fervent supplicant for you all

to the Risen Lord

The post PATRIARCHAL ENCYCLICAL FOR HOLY PASCHA appeared first on Pisidia.

BY GOD’S MERCY 

ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE – NEW ROME

AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH

TO THE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH

MAY THE GRACE AND PEACE 

OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST,

TOGETHER WITH OUR PRAYER, BLESSING AND FORGIVENESS BE WITH ALL

* * *

Most honorable brother Hierarchs and blessed children in the Lord,

Once again, with the will and grace of God the giver of all good things, we are entering Holy and Great Lent, the blessed period of fasting and repentance, of spiritual vigilance and journey with the Lord, as He comes to His voluntary passion, in order to reach the veneration of His splendid Resurrection and become worthy of our own passage from earthly things to “that which no eyes have seen and no ears have heard and no human heart has ascended” (1 Cor. 2.9).

In the early Church, Holy and Great Lent was a period of preparation of catechumens, whose baptism took place during the Divine Liturgy of the Paschal Feast. This connection with baptism is also preserved by the comprehension and experience of Great Lent as the period par excellence of repentance that is described as “a renewal of baptism,” “a second baptism,” “a contract with God for a second life,” in other words a regeneration of the gifts of baptism and promise to God for the beginning of a new way of life. The services and hymns of this season associate the spiritual struggle of the faithful with the expectation of the Lord’s Pascha, whereby the forty-day fast radiates the fragrance of the paschal joy.

Holy and Great Lent is an opportunity to become conscious of the depth and wealth of our faith as “a personal encounter with Christ.” It is rightly emphasized that Christianity is “extremely personal,” without this implying that it is “individualistic.” The faithful “encounter, recognize, and love one and the same Christ,” who, “alone and only, revealed the true and perfect human person” (Nicholas Cabasilas). He invites all people—and each person individually—to salvation, so that the response of each may always be “grounded in the common faith” and “at the same time be unique.”

We recall the words of St. Paul that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2.20). In this case, the words “in me,” “me,” and “for me” do not contradict the words “in us,” “us,” and “for us” with reference to our “common salvation.” Ever grateful for the heavenly gifts of his regeneration in Christ, the Apostle of freedom “makes what is shared his own,” as if the pre-eternal Word of God became incarnate, was crucified, and was resurrected “for him personally.”

 Our experience of faith is “unique” and “profoundly personal” as a freedom given to us by Christ, as something that is at the same time “essentially ecclesiastical,” an experience “of common freedom.” This most genuine freedom in Christ is expressed as love and applied support to our concrete neighbor, as this is described in the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10.30–37) and in the passage about the Last Judgment (Mt. 25.31–46), but also as respect and concern for the world and the eucharistic approach to creation. Freedom in Christ has a personal and holistic nature, which is especially revealed during Holy and Great Lent in its understanding of asceticism and fasting. Christian freedom, as existential authenticity and fullness, does not involve a gloomy asceticism, a life without grace and joy, “as if Christ never came.” Moreover, fasting is not only “abstinence from food,” but “renunciation of sin,” a struggle against egotism, a loving departure from the self to the brother in need, “a heart that burns for the sake of all creation.” The holistic nature of spirituality in sustained by the experience of Great Lent as a journey toward Pascha and as a foretaste of “the glorious freedom of God’s children” (Rom. 8.21).

We pray that our Savior Jesus Christ may render all of us worthy of walking the way of Holy and Great Lent with ascesis, repentance, forgiveness, prayer, and godly freedom. And we conclude with the words of our spiritual father, the late Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon, during the Divine Liturgy of Cheesefare Sunday in 1970 at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens: “As we enter Holy Lent, what awaits us at the end is vision, miracle, and the experience of the Resurrection, the foremost experience of the Orthodox Church. Let us proceed toward this vision and experience but not without having received and offered forgiveness, not with a fast purely from meat and oil, not with a sense of hypocrisy, but with divine freedom, in spirit and truth, in the spirit of truth, in the truth of the spirit.”

                                                                                           Holy and Great Lent 2025

✠ BARTHOLOMEW of Constantinople

                                                                                            Fervent supplicant for all before God

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BY GOD’S MERCY ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE-NEW ROME 

AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH 

TO ALL THE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH

GRACE, MERCY AND PEACE 

FROM THE SAVIOR CHRIST BORN IN BETHLEHEM

Most honorable brother hierarchs and blessed children in the Lord,

With the grace from above, we have once again this year arrived at the festal day of the Nativity in the flesh of God the Word, who came into the world and dwelt among us “out of his ineffable loving for humankind.” We honor with psalms and hymns as well as with inexpressible joy the great mystery of the Incarnation, which is “newer than everything new, the only new thing under the sun,” through which the way is opened for us to deification by grace and the entire creation is renewed. Christmas is not the experience of emotions that “come rapidly and depart even more rapidly.” It is the existential participation in the whole event of Divine Economy. As testified by the Evangelist Matthew (ch. 1. 18–2.1-23), the leaders of the world sought to obliterate the divine infant from the outset. For us faithful, along with the cry that “Christ is born” in the feast of the incarnation of the Son and Word of God the Father, as well as the mournful bells of His passion, we also hear the cry that “Christ is risen,” the good news of the victory over death and expectation of the common resurrection.

The words “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace” are heard once more in a world filled with violence, social injustice and dissolution of human dignity. The stunning progress of science and technology does not reach the depth of the human soul, because human beings are always more than what science can comprehend or to which the advancement of technology aspires. The gap between heaven and earth in our human existence cannot be scientifically bridged.

Today there is much talk about “the metahuman” and praise of artificial intelligence. The dream of “the superhuman” is of course hardly new. The concept of “the metahuman” is based on technological progress and his equipment with means previously unimaginable to human experience and history, through which humankind will be able to transcend currently valid human measures. The Church is not technophobic. It approaches scientific knowledge as “a divinely granted gift to human beings,” without however overlooking or suppressing the dangers of scientism. The Encyclical of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church (Crete, 2016) also emphasizes the contribution of Christianity “to the healthy development of secular civilization,” since God “established human beings as stewards of sacred creation and His coworkers in the world.” Moreover, it also highlights: “The Orthodox Church sets against the ‘man-god’ of the contemporary world the ‘God-man’ as the ultimate measure of all things. “We do not speak of a man who has been deified, but of God who has become man (John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith iii, 2 PG 94.988).”

The answer to the crucial question—namely, how can we preserve the “culture of personhood,” the respect for its sacredness and emphasis on its beauty, until the final “eighth day” in the face of the titanism and prometheanism of the technological culture, its evolution and transmutation, in the midst of anthropotheistic changes and exaggerations of humankind—has been given once for all in the mystery of Divine Humanity. God the Word became flesh, the “truth has come” and “the shadow has passed.” For human beings, speaking the truth will forevermore be associated with their relationship to God as the response to God’s descent toward them and as the expectation and encounter of the coming Lord of glory. This living faith supports the human struggle to respond to the contradictions and challenges of earthly life, to life “by bread” (Mt 4.4), to survival as well as social and cultural development. Nevertheless, nothing in our life can thrive without reference to God, without the horizon of “the fullness of life, the fullness of joy and the fullness of knowledge” of His Kingdom.

Christmas is an opportunity for us to become conscious of the mystery of divine freedom and the great miracle of human freedom. Christ knocks on the door of the human heart, yet only human beings honored with such freedom are able to open that door. “Clearly, without Him, without Christ,” as the late Fr. Georges Florovsky writes, “man cannot do anything. But there is something that only man can do—namely, respond to God’s call and welcome Christ.”

By saying “Yes” to this calling from above, Christ is revealed as “the true light” (Jn 1.9), “the way, the truth and the life” (Jn 14.6), the answer to the ultimate questions and pursuits of the intellect, to the desires of the heart and the hopes of humankind, but also to the “whence” and “whereto” of creation. We belong to Christ, in Whom all things are united. Christ is “the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22.13). In His voluntary incarnation “for us men and for our salvation,” the Word of God “did not dwell in a single human being, but embraced human nature in its entirety with His hypostasis,” thereby establishing the common eternal destiny and unity of humanity. He does not liberate one people, but the entire race of humankind; He does not savingly divide only history, but renews the whole creation. Just as for history, so too for the universe, “before Christ” and “after Christ” holds definitively and determinately valid. Throughout its journey in the world, in history and through it to the Eschata, to the day without setting in the heavenly Kingdom of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Church that is “not in the world” witnesses to the truth and performs its sanctifying and spiritual work “for the life of the world.”

Brethren and children in the Lord,

With a spirit of devotion, we kneel before the Mother of God who holds the infant and humbly worship “the Word from the beginning” who assumed our form, and we wish to all of you a blessed and holy Twelvetide and a favorable, healthy, peaceful and fruitful in good deeds new year of the Lord’s favor, filled with spiritual joy and divine gifts, in which the entire Christian world concelebrates and honors the 1700^th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea.

                                                                                                Christmas 2024

                                                                                                 +Bartholomew of Constantinople

Fervent supplicant of you all before God

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