Ever more voices are being expressed in support of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, after the recent sentence of the Appeal Court in Turkey that challenged the ecumenical status of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Messages of support have come from the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the World Council of Churches (WCC) and His Holiness Aram I, catholicos of Cilicia. “It’s a source of great sadness – writes the general secretary of the CEC, the Rev. Colin Williams – that the title ‘ecumenical’ attributed to Your Holiness should be placed in doubt”. “Your Holiness – declares Samuel Kobia of the WCC – has become a leading figure of the ecumenical movement in our time”, while Catholicos Aram I has denounced religious discrimination in Turkey: “the Greek, Armenian and Syrian communities, and all Christians, continue to be victims of privations in Turkey; their human rights are not fully respected. We expect this situation to be seriously taken into consideration by the Turkish authorities”.
