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The Orthodox Christian News Service

Submitted April 20, 2004

The Patriarchate’s uses of misleading titles 

and unfounded claims 

Dear Editor,

It is believed by many that the misleading terminology employed by journalists and by the press offices of certain Archdioceses in reference to the Patriarch of Constantinople, as was on display during the Patriarch's latest visit to the U.S., as, for instance, THE leader of 250 Orthodox Christians, as the "highest authority" of the Orthodox Church, as the first bishop (and not the first among equals), is the product, not of the Patriarchate, but of other, secondary or unrelated sources.

Alas, this type of terminology comes from one of the Ecumenical Patriarch's own web sites!  

For example, see:

http://www.goarch.org/en/special/usvisit2004/holiness/patriarchate_role.asp or http://tinyurl.com/2fqzh.

"The Patriarch of Constantinople is considered as the highest authority of the Orthodox Church. Since the sixth century he bears the title of Archbishop of Constantinople, the New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch. As "primus" (first) bishop of the Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarch undertakes various initiatives of Pan-Orthodox character, while coordinating relations between the other Churches of the Orthodox Communion, as well as relations between Orthodoxy as a whole and other Christian Churches or World Religions. Thus, he convokes and presides over councils and Pan-Orthodox meetings; consecrates the Myrrh (chrism) for all Orthodox Churches; grants autocephalous status to local churches which have become mature enough to be elevated to that ecclesiastical rank."

There are several factual errors with the above (amongst them the erroneous statement about the Holy Myrrh, the claim to be the "highest authority", etc.), and there are more in the following:

"The ecumenicity of the Patriarchate of Constantinople has been ratified by two Ecumenical Councils: the second (Constantinople, 381) and the fourth (Chalcedon, 451). The primatial privileges of the Patriarch of Constantinople were also solemnly reconfirmed by the Council of Trullo in 691. These primatial prerogatives grant the Patriarchate of Constantinople the jurisdiction over all Orthodox Christians who live in countries where there is not a canonical, autonomous or autocephalous, Orthodox jurisdiction."

The entire last sentence is certainly not accepted by most Orthodox Churches. With misinformation like this, no wonder reporters write strange things about the Orthodox Church.

It is incumbent upon those responsible for these misleading statements to correct themselves, to cease repeating them ad nausea, as if the precarious situation in Constantinople with the Turkish authorities depends on these press releases (!), and to put their trust back into God and not their own political machinations.

Someone needs to tell the press men in the Patriarchate: "The Truth will set you free."

Joseph Hostetler

 

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