CONSTANTINOPLE – His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, during his speech at the conclusion of the Patriarchal and Synodal Divine Liturgy this week, underscored the determination of the “hurt Greeks” not to abandon the good fight of saving their presence in Constantinople and witnessing in their physical and historical cradle.

The Ecumenical Patriarch officiated at the Liturgy for the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple, at the celebrating Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Constantinople, the Stavrodromi Community.

In his speech, the Ecumenical Patriarch said in an emphatic way that “we remain in the ‘holy ground’, for here is the City of Our Lady the Pamarkaristos (All-Blessed Mother of God), the City of Our Fathers, the Center of Orthodoxy. We continue here, because we were born here, our homeland is here, everything here is familiar and homelike to us. We love everything because we know it, and we know it because we love it. We persist because here is our history, our present and future, the footsteps and the scent of our culture, because here we are no strangers, and nothing is strange to us.”

The Patriarch continued with his profound and emotional message, saying “we stay and fight because that is our irrevocable decision, because we want to guard the outpost. The Great Church of Christ carries out its inter-Orthodox, inter-Christian, inter-faith, peace-making, Ecumenical mission, bearing the testimony of the Orthodox Faith.”

Along with the Ecumenical Patriarch concelebrated the Elder Metropolitan Apostolos of Derkoi, Germanos of Tranoupolis, Irenaios of Myriofytos and Peristasis, Chrysostomos of Myra, Theoliptos of Iconium, Stefanos of Kallioupolis and Madytos, Elpidophoros of America, and Athenagoras of Kydonia.

The Divine Liturgy was also attended by Abbots of Mount Athos Monasteries, Elissaios of Simonopetra and Bartholomew of Esphigmenou. During the Liturgy, the Ecumenical Patriarch ordained to the rank of deacon the subdeacon Constantine Taliadouros, a married theologian, giving him the name Nikeforos.

Also, the Ecumenical Patriarch awarded the offikion of Archon Asikritis (a secretis) to Anastasios Vavuskos, Jurist and Canon specialist.

He also made a special mention to the presence of the new Greek Ambassador of Greece to Turkey Michael Christos Diamesis, wishing him a good and fruitful term for the good of the two neighboring and allied countries and their peoples.