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The Patriarchal Message for the Indictus (Beginning of the Ecclesiastical Year)translated

September 2, 2026 · 1 min read

† B A R T H O L O M A I O S MERCY OF GOD ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE NEW ROME AND Ecumenical Patriarch PANDI Tῼ STAFF OF THE CHURCH OF GRACE, PEACE AND MERCY DESPITE THE CREATOR'S PASSION OF CREATION OF LORD AND GOD AND OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST

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Most holy and God-loving brothers Hierarchs and children blessed in the Lord,

Thanks to the benevolent God, today we enter the new ecclesiastical year, honoring and celebrating in psalms and hymns and spiritual teachings, at its beginning, the "Day of prayer for the protection of the natural environment".

The multidimensional contemporary ecological crisis is a crisis of human freedom, of religion and philosophy, of morality and culture. First comes the "bad alteration" of our freedom, our disconnection and alienation from the Source of Life, and the destructive behavior for the natural environment follows. We feel deep gratitude for the fact that the pioneering initiatives and interventions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, continuously from 1989 until today, not only revealed the spiritual parameters of the ecological problem, but opened a new one...

Source: Site: Μητρόπολις Βελγίου · Read the full story →

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Величка Ангелова

Благодаря за това послание. Особено ми направи впечатление, че патриархът свързва екологичната криза с „лошата промяна“ на свободата ни и отдалечаването от Източника на Живота – това е много точно казано. И ние в София виждаме как градът се задушава от бетон и коли, а молитвата за околната среда на 1 септември е добра възможност да започнем от себе си.

Mark Wilson

The part where the Patriarch calls the ecological crisis a "bad change" in our freedom really stuck with me too, Величка. It lines up with what we keep seeing on hikes around Denver—more trails getting paved over and the air getting hazier from traffic. Makes me wonder if starting the church year with that prayer for the environment might push us to actually treat creation less like a resource and more like the gift it is.