An increasing force for the future of the Greek Orthodox faith: The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
The status of Orthodox Christians around the world will improve in the relatively near future due to a recent profound expansion of the efforts of the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This expansion is added to the Archons’ decades of educating the highest-level policy-makers in America and around the globe about religious freedom restrictions on the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the Phanar in Istanbul, Turkey.
These game-changing new steps forward will assure the well-being and advancement of our thousands-of-years old Ecumenical Patriarchate, the spiritual center of the second largest Christian church in the world. These multifaceted assurances are highlighted by a recently established endowment upon which the Ecumenical Patriarchate can rely. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation has already attracted a commitment of over $23 million from dedicated Orthodox Christians worldwide. These dedicated Orthodox Christians are becoming revered Foundation Founders with their contribution of $100,000, or with lesser contributions.
Duke Medical School radiologist Dr Anthony Limberakis, and retired judge B. Theodore Bozonelis lead the over 750 Archons, who are among America’s most influential citizens. Their spiritual adviser, Father Alex Karloutsos, is protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and a recipient of the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, respectively the highest honors for a married Orthodox priest and civilian American citizen.
It is fitting that the foundation bears the name Bartholomew as he is the longest-serving ecumenical patriarch in history. He has been called “Christ-like” by a US president and “one of the world’s greatest religious leaders,” by a speaker of the US House of Representatives. He received the highest award of the US Congress – the Congressional Gold Medal – and the legislation doing so received more senators and members co-sponsoring it than any in that Congress. He was the first international leader to be made a United Nations Champion of the Earth laureate and was featured on one of the world’s top television news programs, “60 Minutes.”
This great expansion of the Archons’ efforts also includes a hundred-fold increase in the Archon base of support for the Ecumenical Patriarchate. They have begun pervasive efforts to lift from 5% to 100% Orthodox Christians in the US knowledgeable about the existential threat faced by our Mother Church in Turkey. Like virtually all Catholic children who can identify the spiritual head of their church, the pope, soon Orthodox children will be able to do the same in identifying our ecumenical patriarch. Archons briefing congregations across America about our Mother Church are growing exponentially. And soon it will become institutionalized with one day each year set aside for such briefings. Also, extraordinary efforts directed toward the next generation of Orthodox Christians have begun. They include Sunday school educational information and an exceptional educational visit to the Phanar and an audience with His All-Holiness.
Also, for the first time Archons are moving one of their major international conferences to Greece. There the Archons will selectively host Orthodox Christianity’s most successful and most devoted to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Many of them will carry back to their locales the seeds that will enable our historic Ecumenical Patriarchate to sustain and prosper.
Andy Manatos is CEO and Mike Manatos is president of Manatos & Manatos in Washington, DC.
