site.btaUPDATED Bulgarian Patriarch Officially Welcomed by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Members of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

Bulgarian Patriarch and Sofia Metropolitan Daniil was officially welcomed by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople and members of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Throne Hall of the Patriarchate on Thursday. The occasion was the first peaceful visit of Bulgarian Patriarch to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul’s Fener borough.

“With great joy and a heart that glorifies the saving name of our Lord Jesus Christ, He who steers the ship of His Holy Church, we welcome you, most blessed brother, together with your distinguished delegation, to the courtyards of ever-radiant Fener,” Bartholomew said.

“Welcome to the maternal tents, welcome to the Great Church of Christ, which warms the people entrusted to your care. Welcome today as spiritual shepherds to the renewed manger of the new Constantinopolitan Bethlehem, in which the Eastern Church is reborn – the light of the Word of God made flesh,” Bartholomew added.

He said that “through the realisation and rekindling of the ancestral dogmas and moral traditions within the Divine Eucharist, these visits become an inseparable part of ecclesiastical truth and renew the longed-for unity of the faith.”

“We, the Holy Synod, thank you for the warm welcome and believe that the coming days of our visit to the Ecumenical Throne will be filled with grace and brotherly love, bearing clear witness to our unity in the faith and the hope we share. We come here in peace and with good will, and with the good pledge of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, and we rejoice that this is possible,” Daniil said.

“The Holy Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople warms our hearts and fills them with radiant joy and gratitude,” he added.

The Bulgarian Patriarch further noted that “although we exist within separate state and canonical jurisdictions, we are and remain dogmatically united – in one Church with one shepherd and head: our God, Lord and Saviour.”

Daniil presented Bartholomew with the Order of St John of Rila, First Class, in recognition of his merits to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.