“Ecumenical Patriarchate embraces all nations and peoples to whom Orthodox Faith has been transmitted through missionary activity and Orthodox Baptism”.
Those were Bartholomew’s statements during his speech, after the Holy Service of the Fourth Stasis of the Salutations on Friday morning, April 5, in the crowded St. Konstantinou and Elenis Church at the Bulgarian Community of Adrianople.
Among the participants there were Metropolitan Kyprianos of Stara Zagora, from the Patriarchate of Bulgaria, who addressed his warmest greetings to Bartholomew, Bishop Kyrillos of Avydos, General Consul of Bulgaria in Adrianople Vassil Valchev, the Consul of Greece in Adrianople Sotiria Theocharides, the President of the Bulgarian Community of the City, Vasilios Liaze, Chief Officiales (Judicial Vicars) of the Great Church of Christ and many more.
From his part, Ecumenical Patriarch expressed his enthusiasm for visiting Adrianople following the invitation by Metropolitan Amphilochios. Referring to the Bulgarian Community of the city, which is under the auspices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate from a spiritual and normative point of view, Bartholomew claimed that “Greeks and Bulgarians are united under the Orthodox Faith. We have common ideals and universal values”.
In addition, said Bartholomew, “thanks to those ideals and values, the Ecumenical Patriarchate embraces every nation and peoples to whom it has transmitted Orthodox Faith through missionary activity and Orthodox Baptism. The first of those nations is none other but the Church of Bulgaria. The firstborn daughter of the Church of Constantinople is the Orthodox Church of Bulgaria”.
Referring to the attending students from Imbros, Ecumenical Patriarch emphasized that “We thank our Fathers’ God who blessed us so as to receive Greek education in our mother tongue, in our birthplace Imbros, after the persecution we suffered during the 60s”.
On the same afternoon, Ecumenical Patriarch attended in a co-prayer the Service of the Fourth Stasis of the Salutations at the Patriarchal Church, at the Fener, officiated by Metropolitan Kallinikos of Arta. Bartholomew stressed that Mother Church cherishes its children worldwide, and made a special reference to the newly bestowal of the status of Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.