Word: greeks
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Istanbul's Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, a complex of 17th century buildings off the shores of the Golden Horn, may be spiritual home to some 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, but daily mass here is a decidedly lonesome affair. Only a handful of worshipers, all visiting tourists, fill the ancient oak pews of the Church of St. George. The priests, robed in black, outnumber the faithful...
...Leading the ceremony, Patriarch Bartolomew I is in the strange position of a shepherd without a flock. In the decades since Turkey's independence in 1923, his Greek Orthodox community has dwindled from around 150,000 to 1,500 people, most of them elderly. And his role as spiritual head to Orthodox Christians worldwide has been curtailed, critics say, by Turkish restrictions...
...Pope will be in Istanbul as a guest of Bartholomew until Friday. High on their agenda will be the future of the city's once-thriving Greek Orthodox community, and the patriarchate itself...
...Turkish government limits our role, and places serious constrictions on us," says Father Alexander Karioutsos, of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. "We have a church whose body is greater than its head, because its head cannot grow...
...Chief among Greek Orthodox grievances is the closure of a seminary to train priests on Halki island, just off Istanbul. Turkey closed the school in 1971 in line with strict secular laws that prohibit private religious higher education. Priests are currently trained in the U.S. and Greece. "Sure we can train priests elsewhere," says Karioutsos, "You can train a Catholic priest anywhere in the world, but training at the Vatican is completely different. We have a strong spiritual and historic connection here...