Ecumenical Patriarch: It is absurd to ignore the development of modern culture

An Honorary Volume was presented to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, by the Theological School of Athens, on the occasion of the completion of thirty years of Patriarchy of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Ecumenical Patriarch: It is absurd to ignore the development of modern culture | Orthodox Times (en)

An Honorary Volume was presented to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, by the Theological School of Athens, on the occasion of the completion of thirty years of Patriarchy of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

The President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou and Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All of Greece were present at the ceremony.

The event took place in the ceremony hall of the University of Athens and was also attended by the Bishops of the Church of Greece and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, ministers, politicians, academics, clergy, and laity.

The Address was made by the Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Professor Meletios-Athanasios K. Dimopoulos, while the Dean of the Theological School of the University of Athens, Associate Professor Christos G. Karagiannis addressed a greeting.

Then the presentation of the honorary volume in honor of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was made by the professor of the Department of Social Theology and Religion of the Theological School Emmanuel of Athens D. Karageorgoudis, while the presentation of the honorary volume and the honorary plaque to the Patriarch by the Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

In His speech, the Ecumenical Patriarch stressed, among other things, that: “The Church lives and acts in the world and its mission is to contribute to its transformation in Christ. We must boldly admit that the Church’s defensive attitude towards modern civilization as if all the developments of our time were turned against it, does not correspond to the spirit and the genuine traditions of Orthodoxy. If we judge the modern world on the basis of sinful criteria, we forget that, even in the past, man did not live in paradise. It is absurd to equate modern culture with its negatives and to ignore the progress and development that it signals. This attitude makes the life of the believers difficult”.