Dear Brother Archons and Friends of the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,

As we celebrate with great joy the 84th birthday of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, we are pleased to announce a profound expansion of our efforts to protect and defend the Sacred Center of our Holy Orthodox Faith, our beloved Ecumenical Patriarchate.

2024 is one of the few years during which His All-Holiness is able to celebrate his birthday on the actual date of his birth, for he was born in a leap year, on February 29, 1940, in the village of Aghioi Theodoroi of Imvros, Turkey. His All-Holiness is the longest-serving Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in the history of the Church, having served as the 269th successor of Saint Andrew, the First-Called Apostle, and spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians since November 2, 1991. Through three decades and more, his ministry has been an immense blessing both to Orthodox Christians and to the people of the world at large.

His All-Holiness has distinguished himself during his thirty-two years of leadership of our Holy Mother Church as one of the most significant figures on the global stage. His prophetic voice on environmental issues, his heroic efforts to bring freedom to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and his courageous steps to advance unity among Christians and all people have been groundbreaking and extraordinary. We are extremely blessed to be able to enjoy the manifold fruits of his long tenure as the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Christian Church, and on the occasion of his birthday we are once again honored to express our profound love and appreciation to His All-Holiness. Εις πολλά έτη Δέσποτα!