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Interfaith Dialogue

Interfaith Dialogue

“Within this landscape of spiritual desolation, interreligious dialogue emerges not simply as a theological preoccupation or a luxury of peaceful times, but as an inexorable necessity, as an act of collective resistance. The encounter of the different religious traditions, each one a bearer of a unique experience of the Sacred, becomes the necessary condition for the confrontation with a globalised meaninglessness, for the re-articulation of a discourse that dares to speak of love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness and self-sacrifice not as abstract moral values, but as active elements of a fuller reality.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“Dialogue is not an optional choice; it is a Gospel obligation. It is not a luxury reserved for theologians, but a Christian duty inscribed in the heart of our calling as baptized persons. How can we claim to love God, whom we do not see, if we do not love our brothers and sisters whom we do see?”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“As ministers of faith, we need at all times to build bridges. For over thirty years of our tenure as Ecumenical Patriarch, these are the principles we value not only for our own Church and Christianity in general, but for all religions and humanity at large.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“Orthodox Christianity has found in common humanitarian efforts a genuine expression of the power of faith to promote coexistence, overcome crisis, and support an ethic of inclusiveness, an ethos of solidarity. We have been for decades at the forefront of organizing and supporting interreligious conferences, aware that sincere dialogue can confront intolerance and violence while preventing the abuse of religion by fundamentalists and fanatics.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“Opposition to ecumenical or interreligious dialogue usually comes from fear and ignorance or intolerance of religious diversity. By contrast, authentic and sincere interreligious dialogue recognizes the differences among religious traditions and promotes peaceful coexistence and cooperation among peoples and cultures.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“Dialogue and conversation, which is necessary for its being carried out, is a necessary precondition of mutual understanding, and mutual understanding is a precondition of mutual trust as well as of the ability to cooperate and to coexist.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“Dialogue is the only path pleasing to God. This is because God always and in many ways dialogues with us, seeking the free offering of our heart and not our forced presentation before Him. Let us offer our hearts to Him and not the hearts of others. Amen.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“We, however, the people of the so-called Western Civilization, have been convinced that pure religious faith in itself does not find any pleasure in engaging its followers in warfare and conflicts with the faithful of other religions, for the truth does not walk along either with militant power, or with numerical, or any other superiority for that matter.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“We conduct these dialogues in order for it to become more widely understood that it is not religious differences which create conflicts among humanity. If indeed the cause of human conflict was due to the differences between religions, then there should not be any conflict among the faithful of the same religion. However, there are plenty of conflicts and wars even among faithful of the same religion.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“Dialogue is a necessary precondition of mutual understanding; and mutual understanding is a precondition of mutual trust as well as of the ability to cooperate and to coexist.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew