The Halki Seminary that has been sealed for more than half a century, when the Turkish state decided in 1971 to suspend its operation, reopens its gates again for the next academic year 2026-2027 to welcome, as everything indicates, students from around the world once more.
The news was conveyed to us by a person of absolute trust of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and second in rank at the Patriarchate, who was also present at the meeting that took place on Thursday at the Phanar with the US Ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Barak.
“Green light” for Halki Seminary: What Elder Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon reveals
Metropolitan Elder Emmanuel of Chalcedon speaking exclusively to parapolitika.gr states: “There is good will from the Turkish government and the President in particular, and we are simply trying in the best possible way, and in the shortest time frame we could, to have the Seminary of Halki reopened. His All-Holiness, as he has already announced to us, hopes that the academic year 2026-2027 will allow our theological school to operate again in the form we want.”
American Ambassador Thomas Barak appears to have played a catalytic role in this direction. As Metropolitan Emmanuel tells us, “the ambassador is not meeting His All-Holiness for the first time. He is a person who is very close to President Trump and it is not coincidental that he has placed him in this position and has also made him responsible for monitoring issues concerning Syria as well. I believe that his appointment is truly strategic, and we rely on everyone’s help. As I told you, the issue has already begun.”
Landmark meeting at the Phanar: Behind the scenes of Halki Seminary reopening
During Thomas Barak’s visit to the Phanar, the issue of protecting Christians in Syria was also discussed. An issue that, as Elder Emmanuel tells us, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has raised many times with the Turkish President, as head of Orthodoxy: “We have raised it many times with President Erdogan himself and his support is given, as he told us. Certainly though, there is still a long way to go. In Syria at least 10% of the population were Christians, most of whom were Orthodox. I’m talking about before the war. Certainly today the percentage is much smaller and this concerns us and frightens us about the future of Christians in the Middle East generally, not only in Syria.”
The issue of protecting Christians from wars in the Middle East is also the subject of the first official visit that Pope Leo IV is making to Turkey and Lebanon and discussed in his meeting with the Turkish President. Condemning religious violence and promoting reconciliation, Pope Leo IV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew celebrated yesterday in Nicaea (Iznik) the completion of 1700 years since the First Ecumenical Council with the presence of Christians from Turkey, Egypt, Syria and Israel, as Turkish media report.
Metropolitan Elder Emmanuel of Chalcedon conveys the atmosphere to us: “It was a moving and historic event, because today at the exact place where the Council took place, the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea and where they wrote the first 7 articles of the Creed, the Creed was recited by all and naturally without the Filioque (note: without ‘and the Son’). So this event alone is truly unique. To explain, when we celebrate the 1,700 years of the First Ecumenical Council, this alone is a great event for the Church and also a challenge for all of us about what it means not only to celebrate a historical event, but also what it means for tomorrow, for Christianity as a whole. That is, how we can proceed through theological dialogue between churches and other denominations and think about what the future of Christianity will be. At the time of the Council of Nicaea we speak of an era when the Church was united. Today this does not happen naturally, which is why we are trying especially in recent decades, with the addition of dialogue of love above all, but also of truth at the same time, to continue in this spirit so that we can one day see the Church united again.”
These differences are intense at this time, such as the dispute declared by the Moscow Patriarchate which has brought under its influence the Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Antioch, which refused to attend the Nicaea ceremony, despite the invitation extended to them by the Ecumenical Patriarch. The Metropolitan of Chalcedon refers bitterly to the issue, saying that the Ecumenical Patriarch continues to commemorate in the diptychs all Patriarchs and Archbishops: “We have not proceeded to create any schism within the Church. Nor is there naturally any difference between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the other Elder Patriarchates or the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, except naturally. This does not apply. The difference that the Moscow Patriarchate has, after the recognition of the Ukrainian Church, is purely its own perception, its own position. We continue to consider that the Orthodox Church continues to be one and united.”
