For some time, there have been tensions between the Turkish authorities and the Patriarchate. On 26 June, a Turkish court of law denied the ecumenical character of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and stated that the Patriarch Bartholomew I is only the leader of the small Greek-Orthodox community of the city and not the spiritual leader of about 300 million Orthodox people scattered all over the world. As to the cancellation of the concert, the archimandrite Elpidophoros wished to specify that the Patriarchate is not going to make any comments or official statements. In the final document, the youth write: "We have experienced that the ecumenical Patriarchate is not a national Church, but encompasses the ecumenical spirit and the universal dimensions of the Christian Gospel". "One of the goals of the Conference explains the archimandrite was to give the young the opportunity to gain an insight of the daily life of the ecumenical Patriarchate and to personally meet the Patriarch. What is written in the final document is simply what they saw with their eyes, i.e. that the ecumenical Patriarchate is not a national Church, but a Church with open horizons and an open spirit, which embraces the whole of Christianity and humankind without discriminations based on race, language or any other difference".
