Posted on 08/12/2018 7:23:19 AM PDT by marshmallow
The Turkish government made an announcement on August 2 that is likely to increase tensions between the state and its Orthodox Christians.
While the Ecumenical Patriarchates seminary on the island of Halki has remained closed since 1971, Turkey has announced that it intends to open an Islamic studies center on the same island. Moreover, building plans have the Global Center for Islamic Studies situated right in front of the Orthodox seminary building, reports Sedmitza.
According to experts, the opening of the Islamic studies center would completely rule out the possibility of reopening the seminary, which the Ecumenical Patriarchate has been working for for years, thus far unsuccessfully.
The theological school was founded in 1844 with the permission of Sultan Abdulmejid I and operated until 1971 when the Turkish authorities decided to close it. Rumors about the seminarys reopening have been circulating since 2010. The building was recently renovated, and Turkish President Erdogan has promised Patriarch Bartholomew that the seminary would reopen, perhaps even this fall, although analysts are wary.
Erdogan has previously offered to reopen the seminary in exchange for the building of a mosque in Thessaloniki.
According to Fuat Bekiroglu, the head of the Halki Department for Religious Affairs, Turkeys first step should be to transfer the islands pine forests to the department. The forest lands previously belonged to the St. George Monastery of the Jerusalem Patriarchate and the Transfiguration Hermitage of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, until they were confiscated by Ataturks government in 1920.
(Excerpt) Read more at orthochristian.com ...
It's past time to get out of NATO.
Or better yet, kick Turkey out of NATO.
Well the USA runs NATO.
for the last 1500 years or so
Germany, France, and Turkey could easily get us in situations that have nothing to do with our security. The invasion of the EU which Merkel and her elitist know-it-all global buddies have enabled, and add to that expansion of NATO beyond its appropriate sphere, could have us defending nations very different from what we were defending after WW2.
Seeing as how mainstream Orthodoxy is as liberal and ecumenical as blazes (they’re part of the national and world councils of churches), I can’t see them bucking political correctness here.
Crusades 3 time
Not kidding
Not gonna happen with all the mainstream Orthodox honchos Masons and ecumenists.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan meet in Sochi, Russia November 22, 2017. (photo credit: SPUTNIK/MIKHAIL METZEL/KREMLIN VIA REUTERS) The Three Amigos
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