Encyclicals
RSS2010 Patriarchal Proclamation for Pascha
Once again, the sacred day of Pascha has dawned in full delight and splendor, dispersing joy, comfort, gladness and assurance of life to all faithful, despite the heavy atmosphere that prevails in our world on account of the multidimensional crisis with all its familiar painful consequences for our daily life. Christ has risen from the tomb as divinely human; and humanity has risen with Him! The tyranny of death belongs to the past. The hopelessness of hades’ captivity has irrevocably gone. The only powerful Giver of life, having through His Incarnation voluntarily assumed all of the misfortune of our nature and all that it entails, namely death, has already “brought death to hades by the lightning of divinity,”[1] granting us life – and “life in abundance.” (John 10.10) Learn More »
Patriarchal and Synodal Encyclical On the Sunday of Orthodoxy
Our most holy Orthodox Church today commemorates its own feast day, and – from this historical and martyric See of the Ecumenical Patriarchate – the Mother Church of Constantinople directs its blessing, love and concern to all of its faithful and dedicated spiritual children throughout the world, inviting them to concelebrate in prayer. Learn More »
Patriarchal and Synodal Encyclical On the Sunday of Orthodoxy
Our most holy Orthodox Church today commemorates its own feast day, and – from this historical and martyric See of the Ecumenical Patriarchate – the Mother Church of Constantinople directs its blessing, love and concern to all of its faithful and dedicated spiritual children throughout the world, inviting them to concelebrate in prayer. Blessed be the name of the Lord! Those who endeavored over the ages to suppress the Church through various visible and invisible persecutions; Learn More »
Nativity Message of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
The distance and separation between God and humanity resulting from sin has been abolished with the assumption of the entire human nature by the Only-Begotten Son and Pre-eternal Word of God. It was God’s good will – that is to say, His initiative and will – that the incarnation of His Son should abolish all such distance uniting heaven and earth, as well as creation with its Creator. Learn More »
Ecumenical Patriarch's Message for the Day of the Protection of the Environment
As we come again to the changing of the Church year, we reflect once more on the state of God's creation. We think about the past and repent for all that we have done or failed to do for the earth's care; we look to the future and pray for wisdom to guide us in all that we think or do. Learn More »
Patriarchal Proclamation on Holy Pascha 2009
In sullenness, one day in the 19th century, humankind heard from the lips of the tragic philosopher: “God is dead! We killed him! All of us are his murderers … God will remain dead! What else are the churches but tombs and graves of God?” And only a few decades later, we heard from the lips of his younger colleague: “Gentlemen, I declare to you the death of God!” Learn More »
Patriarchal Proclamation Upon the Feast of Christmas 2008
The great and sacred day of Christmas has dawned, the metropolis and mother of all feasts, inviting each of us to spiritual uplifting and encounter with the Ancient of Days, who became an infant for us. As St. John of Damascus underlines: “By the grace of God the Father, the only begotten Son and divine Word of God, who is in the bosom of the Father, consubstantial with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the pre-eternal and perfect God, who is without beginning, condescends to us as His servants, becoming fully human and achieves that which is newer than new, the only new thing under the sun.” Learn More »
Ecumenical Patriarch's Message for the Day of the Protection of the Environment
For creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who subjected it ... For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. (Rom. 8. 20,22) Beloved Brothers and children in the Lord, Once again, as the ecclesiastical year begins, we are called to reflect – with renewed spiritual intensity in Christ and especial sensitivity – on the state of our bountiful planet, and to offer particular prayers for the protection of the whole natural world. Learn More »
Catechetical Address on the Commencement of Holy and Great Lent 2008
During this period of Holy and Great Lent, our Church calls us to repentance. Doubtless, as contemporary man hears this invitation to repentance, he does not feel comfortable, because he has accustomed himself to a certain way of life, and does not wish to question his own rectitude. Calling one’s own rectitude into question produces feelings of insecurity, because the ideological structure within which you have sure and certain refuge is clearly risked. Learn More »
Patriarchal Declaration for Christmas 2007
It is with great joy that our Church calls us to glorify God for His loving and personal presence on earth of Christ in divino-human hypostasis, being one of the three persons of the Holy Trinity. We must, therefore, examine very carefully the true and life-giving significance of the incarnation of the Son and Word of God. Learn More »
Patriarchal Discourse on Holy Pascha 2007
Once again we hear this joyful Christian greeting within our Christian Communities. But many of these prosperous Communities disregard the question and very real issue of death, and live as though death did not exist and the resurrection was without meaning. However, “Fearful is the mystery of death”, as the hymnographer says and our daily reality reiterates. Learn More »
Patriarchal Proclamation Upon the Feast of Christmas 2006
The human mind finds it difficult to comprehend the immense change the Birth of Christ brought about in the world. He who was born in the manger of Bethlehem was not an ordinary child like the ones that are born every day. He is the Creator of the entire universe, come down to our level, in order to lift up His creature and restore him to the heights from which he had fallen. Learn More »
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I Message on the Day of the Protection of the Environment
The God of tender mercy and love for mankind created the cosmos to be a place of sublime beauty, serviceable and apt to the needs of every human being. Into such a world, God allowed the crown and monarch of His creation, the human person, to partake of everything in it that is needful for life. Learn More »
Patriarchal Proclamation on Holy Pascha 2006
All of Nature, the choirs of angels, the multitudes of humankind: all are astonished and amazed. The entire creation stands in fear and trembling in the presence of the great and unspeakable Mystery of the Holy Passion and the glorious Resurrection of Christ the Savior, and asks: “How is it possible that Life, true Life, Life itself, the source of Life, can die? How can a grave become the dwelling place of Life, of our Lord Jesus Christ Who said of himself, “I am … the life ” (John 14:6)? The answers are revealed to us in the Resurrection. Learn More »
Patriarchal Proclamation upon the Feast of Nativity 2005
The human soul feels deeply the need to be loved. The widespread sense that life has no meaning, which plagues in particular our young people, is to be blamed on the absence of love. Our fellow human beings are for the most part trapped within their individual pursuits and seek to fill the emptiness caused by the lack of love with the acquisition of material goods, carnal pleasures and fame. However, the soul is only satisfied with personal recognition and love, and not these other things. Learn More »
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I Message on the Day of the Protection of the Environment
“The earth, having no tongue cries out sighing, why are you people polluting me with many evil things?” (Troparion - 9th ode - for the earthquake of October 26) In a very pictorial way, the holy hymnographer Joseph presents the earth as grieving and protesting voicelessly for the many evils with which we burden her. If this holy hymnographer thought back then that the pollution of earth by humankind would cause the wrath of God, today, humanity in its entirety should all the more realize our ultimate destructive behaviour against the creation of God. Learn More »
Patriarchal Proclamation upon the Feast of Nativity 2004
It is with amazement and full of wonder that we are brought face to face, particularly during these days, with the incarnation of the Son and Word of God, Who was born of a Virgin and laid in a manger of animals, something inconceivable for both mankind and the angelic orders. And whilst the faithful celebrate festively this joyful event, namely that by divine condescension a Saviour was born to us this day, descending unto us from His great majesty, natural, social and spiritual earthquakes and conflicts shatter mankind, that distanced itself from Christ, bringing thus turmoil and trouble to the life of all those who love peace. Learn More »
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I Message on the Day of the Protection of the Environment
Fifteen years ago, our venerable predecessor, the late Patriarch Demetrios issued the first official decree for the preservation of the natural environment, an encyclical letter to the pleroma of the Church, formally establishing September 1st as a day of prayer for the protection of the environment. That historical proclamation emphasized the significance of the eucharistic and the ascetic ethos of our tradition, which provide a corrective for a consumer lifestyle and an alternative to the prevailing philosophy of our age. Learn More »
Patriarchal Encyclical on Holy Pascha 2004
As we greet you, dear beloved, with this Paschal exclamation, we reminisce about the philanthropic action of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Logos of God, through Whom everything was created, to offer life to mankind. We also think of the cruel pursuit of the devil, and of the people who have been misled by the devil, having become his instruments in trying to deprive humankind of the great and sacred gift of life. Learn More »
Patriarchal Proclamation upon the Feast of the Nativity 2003
By God’s divine dispensation we celebrate once again the great and joyous feast of the birth of the Incarnate Logos of God. The most merciful God, who created man and endowed him with the gifts of self-consciousness and the capability to know and communicate with others, ultimately destining him to partake in the joy of love, did not abandon man when he rejected God’s love by choosing to grow apart from His Creator. Learn More »
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Latest News
World Council of Churches honors Day for Creation
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
In a message honouring the Day for Creation, 1 September, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I has expressed his hope that the financial and economic crisis experienced by many societies would bring about "a powerful change in direction, to a path of viable and sustainable environmental development." Read more...
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