Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch
He was born in Imbro and studied at the Theological School of Halki and at universities in Western Europe. Appointed director of the office of the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios , Metropolitan of Philadelphia and then of Chalcedon. He was elected to the patriarchal throne in 1991. As Ecumenical Patriarch he has worked to solve the problems of the functioning of the Patriarchate and the reopening of traditional places of Christian worship in Turkey, the promotion of the unity of the Orthodox churches and the holding of the Pan- Orthodox Synod in 2016 in Crete, the continuation of dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church and the protection of the environment, an action for which he has been labeled a "green Patriarch" .
