On Saturday the two patriarchs came together in İstanbul's Aya Yorgi Greek Orthodox Church and managed to set up guidelines for overcoming the differences between the two churches by means of the primacy of the Greek Orthodox Church, expressed with the famous “first among equals” phrase. Patriarch Bartholomew uttered this phrase in the presence of Patriarch Kirill and received no reservations from his Russian “equal.” The competition of the two churches for securing the allegiance of Orthodox churches in East European countries is as old as the imperial aspirations of Russia within this geography. While the Greek Orthodox Church has never been a political tool in the hands of Turkey, the Russian Orthodox Church has always been identified with the general foreign policy of Moscow. Even during the ultra-secular Soviet regime, the Russian Church served as the long arm of Moscow in the Slavic lands together with the Russian military existence in those countries.
Expectedly, Slavic countries that have realigned themselves in the last decade towards the West are trying to cut their ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. Estonian and Ukranian Orthodox churches have been seeking the support of the Greek Patriarchate so as to assume independence from the Moscow Patriarchate. The Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church was, in fact, established by the Fener-Greek Patriarchate in 1996 and is not recognized by the Russian church that claims control over the Estonian “parish.”
The meeting of the two patriarchs has done more than solve these differences. The Russian patriarch has reaffirmed the historical primacy of the Fener Greek patriarch. This primacy does not disturb the autonomy of the Russians; neither has it given any kind of authoritarian position or extra weight to the Greek Patriarchate on decision making. According to a Greek Patriarchate official, the intrinsic agreement is about “who sits at the head of the table during a meeting” only. “But this proclamation of respect to our patriarch is of immense symbolic importance,” he told me.
This position of respect relates not only the patriarch himself, but also to where he is sitting; and where he is sitting refers not only to the chair at the synods, but also to the city he is staying in. The primacy of the Greek patriarch to -- not over -- its autonomous equal Russian patriarch can be read as a sign of the primacy of İstanbul to its equal Moscow.
In the Orthodox theologian perception of cities İstanbul is first among equals.
This position of primacy will certainly add a new dimension to the age old “ecumenical patriarch” discussion. To be frank, in the post-Byzantium era, the Fener Greek Patriarchate had never been as ecumenical as it is today.
This position of primacy will certainly add a new impetus to Russian religious tourism to İstanbul and other Greek Orthodox sites in Turkey. In addition, it will bring extra value to Turkey's role in international politics as an effective mediator. Opening the clergy school of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Heybeliada should be a fitting accompaniment to this position.
Turkey will only gain from the newly attained status of the Fener patriarch in both the sense that Patriarch Bartholomew has always been a voluntary ambassador of Turkey in world capitals and that a Fener Patriarchate that appeals to the Russian and other Orthodox churches will never be influenced by Greek national ambitions.
