“We are waiting for that moment when our consultations, dialogues, and steps toward unity become expressions of true peace. Imagine what that day will be like: Abraham’s children —as numerous as the stars in the sky— working together without fear of ‘the other’”. These powerful words were spoken in May 2014 by HAH (His Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Orthodox Church, also known as the ‘Green Patriarch.’ I recently had the opportunity to meet HAH Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew when he spoke at a luncheon put on by the American Jewish Committee, organized by Rabbi David Rosen and Avril Promislow, who are on the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development’s Board of Advisors and Board of Directors, respectively. Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau also spoke at the event. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew continued his emphatic support for relationship building:
“We have to come to truly know one another through dialogue in order to move towards mercy and forgiveness… Peace will come when the world chooses to love their neighbors as themselves.” He ended with a blessing, “May God be gracious to us, and grant us the wisdom and courage to love our neighbor by acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God.” Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s visit to the Holy Land took place together with that of Pope Francis I, fifty years after the historic visit to the Holy Land of Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, which brought a new level of closeness between Catholic and Orthodox Christians. Father John Chryssavgis, Patriarch Bartholomew’s environmental advisor, describes the Ecumenical Patriarch: “His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has persistently proclaimed the primacy of spiritual values in determining environmental ethics and action.
[Coined by the media and environmental leaders like Al Gore as the ‘Green Patriarch’,] Patriarch Bartholomew was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2008 for ‘defining environmentalism as a spiritual responsibility’.” A New York Times article illustrates the Green Patriarch’s revolutionary theological stance on ecology: “In September [2012], he published a strongly worded encyclical calling on all Orthodox Christians to repent ‘for our sinfulness’ in not doing enough to protect the planet.
Biodiversity, ‘the work of divine wisdom,’ was not granted to humanity to abuse it, he wrote; human dominion over the earth does not mean the right to greedily acquire and destroy its resources. He singled out ‘the powerful of this world,’ saying they need a new mind-set to stop destroying the planet for profit or short-term interest.” At a personal level, it was particularly meaningful for me to meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew because he has been the most outspoken world religious leader on environmental issues over the past several decades. He has also been supportive of the work of ICSD, delivering a video address to the 2012 Interfaith Climate and Energy Conference in Jerusalem, which ICSD co-organized with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation. ICSD’s One Home video of faith leaders also quotes him speaking out on ecological sustainability.
In addition to meeting Patriarch Bartholomew, I had the privilege to meet at length with His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel – Exarch of Europe and representative of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the European Union, and Father Chryssavgis to explore collaboration opportunities between the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development and the Orthodox Church. Our meeting refreshed a connection we began at an interfaith conference in Athens five years ago between Jewish and Orthodox Christian clergy. As a result of this meeting, Fr. Chryssavgis has committed to becoming a member of the United Planet Faith and Science Initiative, which signifies the support and solidarity by the Orthodox Church in this project! For more details about the forward momentum of UPFSI, see our project’s website.
Photo credits: Nikolaos Manginas, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America for photo of R’ Yonatan Neril meeting HAH Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
Other photos: Noam Moshkovitz
