Patriarch Bartholomew (1940 – )
Asceticism as a Key to Environmental Healing
There is also an ascetic element in our responsibility toward God’s creation. This asceticism requires from us a voluntary restraint, in order for us to live in harmony with our environment. Asceticism offers practical examples of conservation. Our abundance of resources will be extended to include an abundance of equitable concern for others.
We must challenge ourselves to see our personal, spiritual attitudes in continuity with public policy…. We do this out of a personal love for the natural world around us. We are called to work in humble harmony with creation and not in arrogant supremacy against it. Asceticism provides an example whereby we may live simply.
Asceticism is not a flight from society and the world, but a communal attitude ofind and way of life that leads to the respectful use, and not the abuse of material goods.
Excessive consumption may be understood to issue from a world view of estrangement from self, from land, from life, and from God. Consuming the fruits of the earth unrestrained, we become consumed ourselves by avarice and greed. Excessive consumption leaves us emptied, out-of-touch with our deepest self. Asceticism is a corrective practice, a vision of repentance. Such a vision will lead us from repentance to return, the return to a world in which we give as well as take from creation.
~ Remarks at the Symposium on Religion, Science and the Environment, Santa Barbara, California, November 8, 1997.
Dominion is Not Domination or Tyranny
We are of the deeply held belief that many human beings have come to behave as materialistic tyrants. Those that tyrannize the earth are themselves, sadly, tyrannized.
We have been called by God to “be fruitful, increase and have dominion in the earth” (Genesis 1:28). Dominion is a type of the Kingdom of Heaven. Thus it is that St. Basil describes the creation of man in paradise on the sixth day, as being the arrival of a king in his palace. Dominion is not domination; it is an eschatological sign of the perfect Kingdom of God, where corruption and death are no more.
~ Remarks at the Symposium on Religion, Science and the Environment, Santa Barbara, California, November 8, 1997.
The Lord Infuses all Creation
The Lord suffuses all of creation with His Divine presence in one continuous legato from the substance of the atoms to the Mind of God. Let us renew the harmony between heaven and earth, and transfigure every detail, every particle of life. Let us love one another, and lovingly learn from one another, for the edification of God’s people, for the sanctification of God’s creation, and for the glorification of God’s most holy Name.
~ Presentation of His All Holiness to Metropolitan Nikitas of Hong Kong, Manila and the Philippines, February, 2000.
Love God, Love His Creation
The Orthodox Church, following the teaching of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, accepts that God created the world very good, and that the poor functions of nature are a result of the disobedience of man to the correct path and way of life shown to him by God…. Because the plunder and the destruction of the natural environment come chiefly from human greediness and ego-centrism. Opposite to this stand, he who loves the Creator of the world and the natural environment, loves also his creation, because he respects it as the work of the one who loves him, and it is worthy of love and care.
~ Presentation of His All Holiness to Metropolitan Nikitas of Hong Kong, Manila and The Philippines, February, 2000.
Sensitive Souls Admire and Respect Creation
It is observed that almost all sensitive souls love and respect God the Creator and Father, but at the same time they admire and respect all that he has formed. While it is true that they use natural goods for their lives, they do not destroy nature without cause or for their own benefit. They enjoy these goods only with much care, only what is needed, so that the earth is maintained in a state of constant production, and that life will continue normally.
~ Presentation of His All Holiness to Metropolitan Nikitas of Hong Kong, Manila and The Philippines, February, 2000.
Each Person has a Role to Play
Today’s technological development has invited unusual environmental aggravations, reaching far beyond the point of their emission. These are for example the atmospheric, sea and water pollutants, the radioactive pollutants, the destruction of the ozone, the warming of the global atmosphere, the penetration of indissoluble toxic substances into the food chain, and others. For all these side effects of technological development it appears that on occasion it is the subordinate one who is irresponsible, but if we look closer at things we shall affirm that each of us is able to do something for the betterment or the worsening of the situation.
~ Presentation of His All Holiness to Metropolitan Nikitas of Hong Kong, Manila and The Philippines, February, 2000.
Care for the Environment is Care for Justice
We have come to believe that the understanding of the [environmental] problem and the knowledge of the governmental and individual measures taken contribute greatly to the bettering of the situation. On the one hand, they exert effective communal pressure against those responsible for environmental aggravation by looking to abolish it; while on the other hand, regardless of how small the contribution of each person to the formation of the general condition, the behavior of the large masses may seriously worsen or better the situation. On account of this, we do not consider the attempt to enlighten and sensitize the common opinion for the care of the natural environment to be in vain, but rather beneficial.
~ Presentation of His All Holiness to Metropolitan Nikitas of Hong Kong, Manila, The Philippines, February, 2000.
Each Person Shares Responsibility for Climate Change
The recent floods in Europe, India and Russia… bear witness to the disturbance of climatic conditions caused by the overheating of the atmosphere of our planet. These disasters have persuaded even the most incredulous persons that the problem is real, that the cost of repairing its damages is comparable to the cost of preventing them, and that there is no margin left for continuing to remain quiet.
The protection of our fellow human beings from destructive floods, storms, tempests… is our duty; and… failure to take appropriate measures for avoiding such phenomena is chargeable to us as… a crime of negligence….
The greatest part of …this crisis is due to excessive waste of energy by isolated individuals. Thus, the restriction of wasteful consumption will blunt the acuteness of the problem, while the increase in the use of renewable sources of energy will contribute to its alleviation. However insignificant the contribution of every individual to the averting of new catastrophic natural phenomena may appear, we are all obliged to do whatever we can, because only then we shall be able to pray to God boldly to supply what is lacking in our own efforts and possibilities.
Hence, we paternally urge everyone to come to the realization of their personal responsibility and do whatever they can to avert the increase of the temperature on the earth and the aggravation of environmental conditions. We pray fervently to God that He should look favorably on the common effort of all and prevent other threatening disasters on our natural environment, within which He ordered us to live and to fight the good fight in order that we enter the Heavenly Kingdom.
~ Letter to the Entire Plenitude of the Church, The Feast of Creation, September 1, 2002.
Bio
Patriarch Bartholomew was born February 29, 1940, in the village of Aghioi Theodoroi on the Aegean island of Imvros (Turkey), to Christos and Meropi Archontonis who christened him Demetrios. He entered religious studies, was ordained and eventually became a bishop and then metropolitan. As Metropolitan Bartholomew he attended the Seventh Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Australia in 1991 where he assumed a leading role in framing Orthodox objections that the WCC was departing from essential Christian beliefs. Later that same year, after the death of +Patriarch Dimitrios, he was elected Archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome, the title which attends his position as Ecumenical Patriarch. As patriarch his emphasis has been the great need for spiritual leaders to engage in the issues of the world. He has especially prioritized theological reasons for environmental care and has convened conferences, addressed the religious importance of environmental care, and bluntly declared that pollution of the air, land and water involves sin. He has devoted so much attention to the environment that the media have often called him the “Green Patriarch.” As the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Patriarch Bartholomew is the 270th successor to the Apostle Andrew and spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.
The Cosmic Liturgy
The entire universe participates in a celebration of life, which St. Maximos the Confessor described as a “cosmic liturgy.” We see this cosmic liturgy in the symbiosis of life’s rich biological complexities. These complex relationships draw attention to themselves in humanity’s self-conscious awareness of the cosmos. As human beings, created “in the image and likeness of God” (Genesis 1:26), we are called to recognize this interdependence between our environment and ourselves.
~ Remarks at the Symposium on Religion, Science and the Environment, Santa Barbara, California, November 8, 1997.
The World as a Sacrament of Thanksgiving
The Ecumenical Throne of Orthodoxy, … [has] followed with great interest and sincere concern, the efforts to curb the destructive effects that human beings have wrought upon the natural world. We view with alarm the dangerous consequences of humanity’s disregard for the survival of God’s creation. … Orthodox liturgy and life hold tangible answers to the ultimate questions concerning salvation from corruptibility and death…. And our sin toward the world, or the spiritual root of all our pollution, lies in our refusal to view life and the world as a sacrament of thanksgiving, and as a gift of constant communion with God on a global scale.
~ Remarks at the Symposium on Religion, Science and the Environment, Santa Barbara, California, November 8, 1997.
Humans are Part of the Environment
Our first task is to raise the consciousness of adults who most use the resources and gifts of the planet. Ultimately, it is for our children that we must perceive our every action in the world as having a direct effect upon the future of the environment. At the heart of the relationship between man and environment is the relationship between human beings. As individuals, we live not only in vertical relationships to God, and horizontal relationships to one another, but also in a complex web of relationships that extend throughout our lives, our cultures and the material world. Human beings and the environment form a seamless garment of existence; a complex fabric that we believe is fashioned by God.
~ Remarks at the Symposium on Religion, Science and the Environment, Santa Barbara, California, November 8, 1997.
To Hurt the Earth is a Sin
To commit a crime against the natural world, is a sin. For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation… for humans to degrade the integrity of Earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the Earth of its natural forests, or destroying its wetlands… for humans to injure others humans with disease… for humans to contaminate the Earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life, with poisonous substances, these things are sins.
~ Remarks at the Symposium on Religion, Science and the Environment, Santa Barbara, California, November 8, 1997.
Priests of Creation
In the bread and wine of the Eucharist, as priests standing before the altar of the world, we offer the creation back to the Creator in relationship to Him and to each other. Indeed, in our liturgical life, we realize by anticipation, the final state of the cosmos in the Kingdom of Heaven. We celebrate the beauty of creation, and consecrate the life of the world, returning it to God with thanks. We share the world in joy as a living mystical communion with the Divine. Thus it is that we offer the fullness of creation at the Eucharist, and receive it back as a blessing, as the living presence of God.
~ Remarks at the Symposium on Religion, Science and the Environment, Santa Barbara, California, November 8, 1997.
Environmental Care Urgent for Every Person
Care of the environment… constitutes a most urgent question for each and every human person. With every passing day the danger threatening the survival of life on this beautiful planet proves to be yet more clear…. A host of international organizations, governments and leading non-governmental bodies are sending the same message….
~ Welcome of His All Holiness at the Opening of the Environmental Seminar, “The Environment and Justice”, Island of Halki, June 25, 1997.
Repentance for Failure to Respect Life
We invite Orthodox Christians to engage in genuine repentance for the way in which we have behaved toward God, each other and the world. We gently remind Orthodox Christians that the judgement of the world is in the hands of God. We are called to be stewards and reflections of God’s love by example. Therefore we proclaim the sanctity of life, the entire creation being God’s and reflecting His continuing will that life abound. We must love life so that others may see and know that it belongs to God….
We lovingly suggest to all people… that they help one another to understand the myriad ways in which we are related to the earth and to one another. In this way, we may begin to repair the dislocation many people experience in relation to creation.
~ Remarks at the Symposium on Religion, Science and the Environment, Santa Barbara, California, November 8, 1997.