When you visit the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Phanar in Constantinople, a centerpiece of your time there is to visit the Church of Saint George the Great Martyr. This church is the fifth church in Constantinople to house the Ecumenical Patriarchate since the fall of the City in 1453. The church is, first and foremost, a…

The Order of Saint Andrew, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, notes with great sorrow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s signing Friday of a decree that converts Hagia Sophia, the foremost Christian Cathedral in the entire world for nearly a millennium, into a mosque. Amid the pain and grief of this day, we take comfort from…

  

Hagia Sophia: UNESCO deeply regrets the decision of the Turkish authorities, made without prior discussion, and calls for the universal value of World Heritage to be preserved Paris, Friday 10 July – The Director-General of UNESCO deeply regrets the decision of the Turkish authorities, made without prior discussion, to change the status of Hagia Sophia….

On July 10, the Holy Eparchial Synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America issued a statetment regarding the decision made by the Turkish government to convert Hagia Sophia of Constantinople into a mosque. The statement reads: Today, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros convened a special session of the Holy Eparchial Synod, and with great sorrow…

We, the Executive Committee of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America, protest the decision of the civil courts in Turkey, as well as the clear direction of their government, to re-convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque. As citizens of the United States of America, we implore our government to…

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Today will be remembered as an ominous day for Christianity, especially for Orthodoxy and its hundreds of millions of faithful around the world, as Turkey’s highest administrative court issued a ruling that paves the way for the Erdogan administration to reconvert the iconic Hagia Sophia – the greatest of all basilicas in eastern Christendom –…

Turkey’s top administrative court on Friday annulled the 1934 government decree that turned Hagia Sophia into museum. The long-awaited ruling opens the way for Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia to be used as a mosque. The Hagia Sophia, one of the world’s most important historical and cultural heritage sites, was built in the sixth century during…