Abstract

After the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, the Greek Orthodox Christian churches in Asia Minor became ritual-less and ceased to function as houses of worship for the Greek Orthodox inhabitants. As the Greek Orthodox population had been forcibly exchanged and moved, the churches ceased to host divine services of the Greek Orthodox faith. Separated from this original function, and from their Greek Orthodox Christian congregants, some churches have been reused for sacred purposes as mosques, others have become cultural centers, barns, warehouses, prisons, cinemas, community centers, homes and stores. Still others have been destroyed to make way for modernization and new structures or have deteriorated by neglect or vandalism. A major force in reviving the ritual within church structures in Turkey is the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. His annual pilgrimages to churches throughout Turkey, in particular to Cappadocia, culminated in celebrations of full hierarchical Divine Liturgies, accompanied by entourages of metropolitans, bishops and priests and visiting dignitaries from throughout the Orthodox world. These events have important ramifications both for the Greek Orthodox world, but also the Turkish citizens observing them in their villages, reviving pre-modern rituals in these once ritual-less places. This paper explores the process by which Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople actively revives the original ritual in churches by visiting and conducting liturgical services.

Presenters

Anastasios Papademetriou
Professor of History, History Department- Pappas Interdisciplinary Center for Hellenic Studies, Stockton University, United States

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

2024 Special Focus—Spaces, Movement, Time: Religions at Rest and in Movement

KEYWORDS

RITUAL,POPULATION EXCHANGE,PILGRIMAGE,ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH,ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH,DIVINE LITURGY,REVIVAL,ISLAMIC SOCIETY

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