This year marks the 30th anniversary of the enthronement of Patriarch Bartholomew I to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1991. As is well known, Patriarch Bartholomew has been dubbed the “Green Patriarch” for his longstanding commitment to environmental issues. He recently marked the dawn of 2021 by holding the 4th Halki Summit on the…
Continue readingShould Orthodox Christians Care about the Climate?
by Mark Roosien While the Orthodox Church has gained a reputation internationally as a “green” church, largely due to the environmental initiatives of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the reality is much more complicated on the ground. The science behind the human causes of climate change and its catastrophic consequences is settled, but the issue unfortunately remains…
Continue readingFasting and Ecological Awareness
by Chris Durante During Lent, lay, clergy and monastic alike partake in fasting, and unlike other fasting periods, such as the nativity fast prior to Christmas, many modern Orthodox Christian laity do still partake in the Lenten fast, at least to some degree and for some extent of time. As the laity partake in this…
Continue readingEngaging with Appalachia’s Coal Crisis
by Sarah Riccardi-Swartz There’s no whitewashing the dark environmental effects of coal mining and fracking in West Virginia and other parts of Appalachia. Most assuredly, coal is toxic—for the environment, for local economies, and for life more broadly the Mountain State. In “An American Guilt Trip,” his recent article for Public Orthodoxy, Dr. Fr. John…
Continue readingAn American Guilt Trip
by Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis John Steinbeck once wrote: “There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation . . . There is a failure that topples all our success.” In an effort to witness first-hand the financial, social and personal impact of “black diamonds”—the benefits of which we all enjoy, but the cost of which…
Continue reading“Towards a Greener Attica”: On the Occasion of an Ecological Symposium Hosted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate
by Nikolaos Asproulis The ecological crisis is nowadays the most urgent problem facing humanity. It is a complex threat, which puts at risk not only a part of the planet but the entire environment, endangering the very survival of the human species and the natural world. As a result of extreme egocentric interpretations, since medieval…
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