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Quotes

Wisdom and Inspiration
From His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is the longest-serving and one of the most consequential Ecumenical Patriarchs in the entire history of the Church. Since 1991, he has been a voice of Christian wisdom, prophetic insight, and profound clarity on the most important challenges of our time, including some that many other global leaders in both the religious and political spheres would prefer to ignore.

Here is a brief compendium of that wisdom on some of the key issues that Orthodox Christians and all people of good will face today, organized by topic. We remain grateful to our loving God for the gift of His All-Holiness’ sacred ministry, and invite all those who find these quotes enlightening to delve deeper and study the writings of this remarkable, perceptive, and courageous servant of God.

With enduring gratitude for the extraordinary diakonia of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate here proudly present this concise collection of some of his ever-memorable and insightful statements.

“The climate crisis is not a ‘future scenario,’ but a painful reality, with the rapid decline of biodiversity, deforestation, pollution of the atmosphere and seas, catastrophic fires and floods.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

"The consequences of the ecological crisis know no borders of states and civilizations, and affect the conditions of survival not only of the human race, but also of life in general on the planet.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“Despite the reactions and resistance to this threat, geocide continues, while at the same time the unwavering view that nature has the power to renew itself is cultivated. It is not auspicious that humanity is aware of the seriousness of environmental problems and continues to behave as if it were unaware.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“I am struck by the weight of a recognition that surely belongs not to an individual, but to a vision that has animated the Ecumenical Patriarchate for over three decades: that the God who breathed stars and humans into being is the same God who grieves when a single sparrow falls, when a coral reef bleaches white as bone, and when a child gasps for clean air.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“The fact that climate changes have always existed on Earth is not a reason for complacency, as it is certain that the contemporary ecological problems—such as the rapid decrease in biodiversity, the pollution of the seas and the atmosphere, the rise of ocean levels, extreme weather phenomena, the social consequences of the ecological crisis such as water scarcity and food crises, migratory flows due to climate reasons, and many other related issues—are all anthropogenic in origin.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“The destruction of the natural environment begins in the mind of man, and therefore, from there the healing must begin. What is needed is a ‘Copernican shift’ in the spiritual realm and our value system, a radical change in mentality. Otherwise, we will treat the symptoms of the crisis, while the source of the woes remains active and unscathed.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“We believe that the roots of the environmental crisis are not primarily economic or political, nor technological, but profoundly and essentially religious, spiritual and moral. This is because it is a crisis about and within the human heart.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“This world is not just a gift from God; it is a challenge for humanity.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“Although the time we have been on the planet is insignificant in the context of the life of the planet itself, we have reached a defining moment in our history. We have expanded our dominion over Nature to the point where absolute limits to our survival are being reached. We have lost half of the great forests of the world to the demand for timber and for conversion to agriculture, without thinking that these giant wet sponges are responsible for the delivery of much of the fresh water…. Instead of living on income, or the available surplus of the earth, we are consuming environmental capital and destroying its sources as if there is no tomorrow.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin. For human beings to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests, or by destroying its wetlands; for human beings to injure other human beings with disease by contaminating the earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life, with poisonous substances – all of these are sins.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“Approaching the human person on the basis of his relationship with God — or, more correctly, on the basis of God’s relationship with him — bestows upon human existence its highest possible value and gives our freedom an unwavering point of reference and a constant direction.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“There are no limits to the innate spiritual dignity of the human person, regardless of whether the body or the mind may have been impaired over time.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“The distortion of the concept of human completeness promotes isolation, exploitation and environmental destruction. Man ceases to be conceived as a relational being, founded on a transcendent reality, and is converted into an autonomous unit that claims its well-being at the expense of others and of the natural world. The loss of the relationship with the Sacred translates into a loss of the bonds that constitute society, leaving behind it a sum of individuals in competition.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“We meet in essence not when our theologies coincide, but when our communities share bread with the hungry, care for the sick, defend the wronged. Unity is forged in the common resistance to the forces that attempt to efface the human face. In this struggle, the diversity of our spiritual weapons is not a weakness, but a wealth.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“The challenge, however, is not located primarily in its visible manifestations, in the economic instability that transforms into the asphyxiation of entire peoples, in the unbridled technological progress that places under question the very concept of human agency, but in something deeper, in an underlying condition that permits these phenomena to manifest with such destructive intensity.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“In a world of rapid change, an upheaval of values, and dizzying technological advances — from artificial intelligence to the impending robotocracy — our Church proclaims that ‘there is nothing more sacred than the human being, with whom God Himself shared His nature.’”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“Our dignity as human being depends on the sacredness of God’s image in us.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“Speaking about human rights today means referring to human dignity, the protection of freedom and justice, open society and international peace. Indeed, human rights are the core values of humanism in the modern world.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

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