ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE. This title, dating from the sixth century, belongs to the bishop (patriarch) of Constantinople (q.v.). Elevated by the Second and Fourth Ecumenical Councils (q.v.) to second place in the hierarchy of the ancient sees after Rome (q.v.), this see has, by default, held the first place in the Orthodox Church since the schism (q.v.) with the West. The exact scope of that primacy, however, is considerably debated. The problem is compounded by the fact that, since the anti-Greek riots in Istanbul in 1955, the patriarchate has been substantially without a flock in its home territories. Severely hampered by this and by the continuing obstructionism of the Turkish government, it has had a difficult time impressing other local Orthodox churches with the legitimacy of its function as center of the Church’s unity. In addition, the unhappy legacy of Phanariot (q.v.) manipulation of the Slavic and Romanian populations in the service of Greek nationalism during the 18th c. and 19th c. within the Ottoman Empire (q.v.), together with a continuing rivalry with the Russian Orthodox Church (q.v.), have left a fund of difficult historical memories. The patriarch does exercise authority over the Greek Orthodox in “diaspora,” as well as over certain other communities living outside the traditionally Orthodox lands; but this has tended to reinforce the impression that the patriarch functions primarily as a Greek ethnarch (q.v.). This impression-and, to a degree, reality-will have to be transcended if the patriarchate is ever to exercise a ministry of unity in an effective way. (See Archondonis, Bartholomew; Spyrou, Athenagoras.)