A Dying See

Patriarchate fades in Turkey

He bears ancient and august titles: Ecumenical Patriarch and Archbishop of the "New Rome" in Constantinople, the mother church of Eastern Orthodoxy since the 4th century. He is the symbolic leader of the world's 85 million Orthodox Christians. Yet when His Holiness Demetrios I presides over the Sunday Eucharist at the Church of St. George in Istanbul, the giant chandeliers cast their feeble light across ranks of empty pews. The congregation numbers only a dozen or so worshipers, most of them elderly. The historic see, once the center of half the Christian world, is dying.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate has been caught up in the latest phase of the long-standing feud between Turk and Greek. After the Byzantine capital fell to the Ottomans in 1453, Constantinople (now Istanbul) became the heart of a once vast community of Christian Greeks, or Rum* (rhymes with tomb), in Turkey. Terrible cruelty set in with the 1821-29 war, in which Greece won its independence from Turkey. During that period Patriarch Gregory V was hanged at the gate of his palace. Even so, the Rum still numbered 1.5 million by World War I. Today only 7,000 are left.

Physical attacks are now rare. Still, the Patriarch and his parishioners have suffered continual harassment. Last May, when 150 youths broke into the courtyard of the Patriarch's residence to shout Greeks-go-home slogans, it took local police half an hour to answer calls for help. Greeks tell of job discrimination, unjustified evictions, expropriation of property, telephone threats and demands for "protection" money. Few would remain if the law allowed them to leave with their wealth. Says one: "All we have is tied up in the business. We have sent our daughter to university in Athens, and I hope she doesn't come back." Most youths do not.

Last year the Turkish government slapped new taxes on all 50 Greek churches and 28 parish schools, threatening them with financial collapse. Church carpets, linens and tableware were attached for tax default, even at the Patriarch's quarters. Buildings have deteriorated because the regime must approve all repairs costing more than $13.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate has had great difficulty operating as an international Orthodox center. Turkey has shut down the patriarchate's press and its once renowned seminary. The regime has tightly controlled overseas travels of the Rum clergy. Last September, officials even yanked the passport of Metropolitan Meliton, the see's chief envoy, just as he was leaving for talks at the Vatican. Meliton is also engaged in crucial negotiations for a historic Great Synod of the world's Orthodox bishops.

When a new Patriarch had to be chosen in 1972, the government exercised its power and vetoed the strongest candidates. That is why the 58-year-old Demetrios, a man with the qualities of a simple parish priest, was selected, though he was the junior archbishop. He thereby assumed jurisdiction over millions of Greeks in the West and became "first among equals" of the Orthodox patriarchs.

The worsening conditions in his see led to outcries in recent months from Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic prelates in the U.S., and the American State Department may have indicated its concern to the newly installed regime of Premier Buelent Ecevit. Finally Ecevit met with patriarchal leaders on March 7 and two days later with Greece's Premier Constantine Caramanlis. As a result, Ecevit, who raised the issue of similar grievances of ethnic Turks in parts of Greece, is now promising a new era of moderation in Turkish treatment of the Rum. The list of proposed reforms clearly defines the range of past harassment. It includes freedom to repair buildings, possible reopening of the press and seminary, an end to the new church tax and removal of travel restrictions on the clergy.

That gives the Ecumenical Patriarchate some breathing room, but the prospects for its long-range survival remain dim. One day there may be no Rum youths entering the priesthood and no community for the church to serve. Some Americans have proposed that Demetrios move the holy see to one of three sites in Greece already under his jurisdiction: Rhodes, Crete or the spectacular monastery complex atop Mount Athos. Constantinople's historic rival, the huge Orthodox Church of Russia, might offer a locale in a Soviet satellite country like Rumania or Bulgaria. But such a shift might merely mean a worse form of oppression. Demetrios has good reason to try to hold on. If he forsakes the "New Rome," the ancient patriarchates of Alexandria and Antioch might refuse to recognize him as the Ecumenical Patriarch.

: From an ancient word for Byzantine "Romans."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.