At the Phanar in Constantinople on New Year’s Eve, Wednesday, December 31, 2025, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew spoke movingly of his prayers and hopes for the new year. He made particular mention of his hope that the Theological School of Halki would soon reopen.
After he blessed the Vasilopita, the traditional Saint Basil’s New Year bread, and distributed it to those who were present, His All-Holiness offered an earnest prayer that in 2026, God would grant peace to Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan, and all other war-torn regions of the world. He prayed also for all of God’s Holy Churches around the world, for the well-being of the Romioi (Greek Orthodox) community of Constantinople, and that the Holy Theological School of Halki would finally be reopened.
Founded in 1844, the Theological School of Halki was for well over a century one of the foremost Orthodox seminaries anywhere in the world, training hierarchs and clergy for the Church around the globe. From it have graduated two saints, Saint Chrysostomos of Smyrna and Saint Raphael of Brooklyn, as well as six Ecumenical Patriarchs, including Their All-Holinesses Athenagoras, Demetrios, and Bartholomew. His Eminence Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America was also among its graduates.
Turkish authorities, however, forced it to close it in 1971, and since then, numerous efforts to reopen it have come to naught. In his remarks on New Year’s Eve, His All-Holiness stated that the Holy Mother Church of Constantinople had a right to have its own school of theology.
“It is a great injustice,” the Ecumenical Patriarch stated, “for the First-Throned Church of Constantinople to be deprived of this self-evident right. We therefore hope that in the new year what we hope for and await will also come to pass, and indeed concurrently with the completion of the renovation works which, for the past two years, have been continuing on the Hill of Hope through the great donation and generous expenditure of the Archon and Great Benefactor Athanasios Martinos.”
His All-Holiness has been doing all he can to raise the issue of Halki before the conscience of the world. On September 15, 2025, he met privately with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. His All-Holiness recounted that he and Trump “discussed issues that concern us the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the few Christians that remain in Türkiye, the hardships they face, the difficulties, the persecutions, but also the fact that despite all these we survive and we continue to carry out our mission. President Trump expressed immense interest in the global ministry of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as well as in the difficulties that the Christians of Turkey are enduring.”
The discussion between the Ecumenical Patriarch and the President included the Turkish government’s forcible closure of the Theological School of Halki. His All-Holiness told President Trump that “a dialogue began last year with the initiative of President Erdogan. We want to expedite this dialogue so that in September 2026 we can welcome the first students.” Both the Ecumenical Patriarch and President Trump expressed hope that “with the dialogue that has begun with the present government there will be a positive result.”
Then on September 25, 2025, President Trump met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House. Trump told Erdogan: “The Greek Orthodox Church was here and they would really like to have some help.” Erdogan responded to Trump at the White House: “We will do our part. I will discuss the issue when I return with Bartholomew.”
This recalled the fact that Erdogan told the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on May 13, 2024 that “we are working to reopen the theological School of Halki.” However, he tied this reopening to the establishment of Islamic schools in Greece: “We expect the same constructive approach from our neighbor regarding the problems of the Turkish minority in Greece in the field of education.”
As 2026 dawned, there had still not been any announcement that the Theological School of Halki would reopen in the near future. Yet neither His All-Holiness nor those who revere him for his courage and wisdom are giving up hope. In the new year, the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will continue their efforts to enable the Ecumenical Patriarchate to enjoy full religious freedom, and to see the reopening of the Theological School of Halki.
