For the next fourteen days, we'll be profiling the autocephalous
Orthodox churches that comprise the Holy and Great Council. The first
profile is of the Ecumenical Patriarchate which was established by
Saint Andrew the Apostle in 37 A.D. Its primate is His All-Holiness
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who has the status of primus inter
pares (“first among equals”) among Orthodox bishops.
The ecclesiastical
jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate includes Constantinople,
Asia Minor, Mount Athos, Crete, northern Greece and the Dodecanese.
According to the canons of the Church, all regions beyond the official
ecclesial boundaries of each local autocephalous Church come under the
jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, including, inter alia,
North and South America, Western Europe, Asia, and Australia. It is one
of the five ancient patriarchates, which also include Alexandria,
Antioch, Jerusalem, and Rome. The Ecumenical Patriarchate has the
responsibility of being the Church of final appeal in Orthodoxy, and it
is the only Church that may establish autocephalous and autonomous
Churches.