Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople

His Eminence Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden and All Scandinavia attended the opening session of the Hellenic Swedish Business Forum on Mon. Oct. 3, 2016 at the IVA Conference Center in Stockholm.

The success of the first Holy Great Council of the Orthodox Church in over 1,200 years, which is scheduled for June 16-17 on the Greek island of Crete, has been threatened by the Bulgarian Holy Synod, which decided to boycott the summit at the last moment.

After an extraordinary meeting on Monday, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople called on all autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches, including the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, to participate in the Pan-Orthodox Council which is scheduled to take place in Crete from June 16 to 26.

A historical meeting bringing together representatives of 300 million Orthodox Christians, which had been due to be held in Istanbul this year after centuries away, has been shifted to the Greek island of Crete. The move came after the RussianOrthodox Church indicated that it did not want to come to Turkey due to the crisis between the two countries over the downing of a Russian jet that violat

President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos called on everyone to work for the Mediterranean Sea to become a sea of peace and not a crucible of souls’, during a speech to the Greek Diaspora in Geneva.

The Vatican announced Pope Francis will be visiting the Greek island of Lesvos on April 16 to send a message of support and solidarity to the suffering refugees. The head of the Roman Catholic Church will visit the island after an invitation by the head of the Greek Orthodox Church Hieronymus, while Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will also be present at the historic visit.

Pope Francis will stop in Cuba on his way to Mexico next week to hold a historic meeting with Patriarch Kirill of the RussianOrthodox Church, the Vatican said on Feb. 5.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has called a meeting – Synaxis – of the heads of Orthodox Churches around the world at the Orthodox Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambesy, Geneva from January 21 until January 28, the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced.

Israeli photographer Dafna Tal’s work is to be featured at the Byzantine and Christian Museum in an exhibition, titled The Orthodox of the Holy Land, that is set to run from December 8 through to January 21.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for about one hour in Turkey and they stressed the need to confront the violence and to promote the interfaith dialogue.

Mr. Tsipras stressed also the need for cooperation with Turkey highlighting that the issue is very high on the discussions agenda that he will have in Ankara later today.