The delegation includes Metropolitan John of Pergamon, Orthodox Co-President of the Joint Theological Commission for Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, also known as John Zizioulas, distinguished theologian, from 1973-87 professor of systematic theology at the University of Glasgow in Scotland in the UK. It is also worth noting that the delegation includes the hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Italy and of France. This arguably signals the reality that the concept of boundary with respect to the historic patriarchates of the old imperial European, Near Eastern and North Africa worlds is, as Pope Benedict concluded, a dead letter as increasingly Orthodox and Catholic, Latin-Roman and Greek-Byzantine Christians live among one another with Churches existing side by side. Anciently, southern Italy (Magna Grecia) belonged to the Greek world and so was within the sphere of the patriarchate of Constantinople until this was ceded in new political circumstances (the region becoming increasingly more Latin and forming part of a Norman kingdom). Now there is an Ecumenical Patriarchate episcopal oversight for its faithful across the whole of the state of Italy. Will there likewise be a Catholic provision for the tens of thousands of Byzantine Catholic faithful across Italy, currently unserved by their own pastoral clergy and sacramental ministry?
May 16, 2014
NEW YORK – The Ecumenical Patriarchate today released a list of persons accompanying Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of over 300 million Orthodox faithful worldwide, on his pilgrimage to meet Pope Francis in Jerusalem. The trip commemorates the 1964 meeting of their predecessors; Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I. Included in the Official Delegation are the following:
His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America
His Eminence Metropolitan Gennadios of Italy
His Eminence Metropolitan John of Pergamon
His Eminence Metropolitan Iakovos of the Princes Islands
His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of France
His Eminence Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima
His Eminence Archbishop Job of Telmessos
The Very Rev. Bartholomew Samaras, The Chief Secretary
The Very Rev. Maximos Vgenopoulos, The Grand Archdeacon
The Very Rev. Andreas Sofianopoulos, The Defterevon Deacon
Mr. Theodore Angelopoulos, The Grand Logothete
Mr. Muhtar Kent
The meetings between the two world religious leaders will take place over a two-day period, May 25 and 26 in and around the Old City of Jerusalem.
His All Holiness Bartholomew is the Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and the Ecumenical Patriarch. He is the 269th successor of the 2,000-year old local Christian Church founded by St. Andrew. The Ecumenical Patriarch is a living witness to the world of Orthodoxy’s painful and redemptive struggle for religious freedom and to the innate dignity of humankind. As a citizen of Turkey, His All Holiness’s personal experience provides him a unique perspective on the continuing dialogue among the Christian, Islamic and Jewish worlds. He is known throughout the world as the “Green Patriarch” for his groundbreaking environmental initiatives and ecological theology. For his inspiring efforts on behalf of religious freedom and human rights, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was heralded as a Bridge Builder and Peacemaker and awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the U.S. Congress in 1997.
Additional information about the visit of may be found online at: http://www.apostolicpilgrimage.org/
The Statement of His Holiness Pope Francis on the Meeting may be found at: http://www.news.va/en/news/angelus-5-january-2014
The Statement of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew may be found at: http://www.patriarchate.org/documents/jerusalem-2014-statement