Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew expressed his optimism on Wednesday for the reopening of the Theological School of Halki in Istanbul.
The age-old Orthodox seminary at Halki was summarily closed on July 29, 1971, when Turkey ruled that all private institutions of higher learning in the country be closed.
Speaking during a visit to Thessaloniki the head of the Orthodox Church said that the effort to reopen the School “is progressing at a rapid pace.”
He noted that the Minister of Education of Turkey visited the School recently and a delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will visit Ankara soon to continue the dialogue with the Turkish authorities mainly on the technical details.
“I am very optimistic that the re-opening of our school will be achieved soon and the sacred wish of all of us will be fulfilled, because the order to the officials of the Ministry of Education came from above, from His Excellency President Mr. Erdogan,” Bartholomew said.
Bartholomew: On the verge of reopening the Halki School
“We are now certain that we are on the verge of reopening our school always with the grace of the holy God,” he added.
The Ecumenical Patriarch underlined that in its 127 years of operation, 220 teachers of Orthodox Christian theology graduated who “benevolently and sacrificially ministered to the people of God their sacred science.” Bartholomew was also a student at the School.
“Fifty-three years have passed since the completely unjust abolition of the theological department of the School. However, we repeat again, we will not stop fighting for its re-opening so that church theology can be taught again,” he stressed.
“Nothing in the life of the Church thrives if it does not have a solid theological foundation.”
Earlier in September Bartholomew officiated at the Divine Liturgy and then took part in a conference on the “hill of hope”, where the School of Halki is built, on the occasion of the school’s founding in 1844 by Patriarch Germanos IV.
Fate of Halki School gets international attention
The seminary is located on the site of the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, founded by Patriarch Photius I almost a thousand years before the foundation of the theological school. During Ottoman rule the monastery fell into disrepair.
In 1844, Patriarch Germanos IV converted the monastery into a school of theology, which was inaugurated on 1 October 1844. All the buildings, except for the 17th-century chapel, were destroyed by the 1894 Istanbul earthquake, but were rebuilt by architect Periklis Fotiadis and inaugurated on 6 October 1896.
The Halki Seminary has received international attention in recent years. In 2021 during a meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Bartholomew in Washington, DC, the US stressed its commitment to supporting religious freedom in Turkey.
Secretary Blinken reaffirmed that the reopening of the Halki Seminary remains a continued priority for the Biden Administration.
Related: US State Department Deplores Closing of Halki Seminary 50 Years Ago