Will Patriarch Bartholomew convene the Pentarchy at Nicea?

In the near future, the Greek church world will celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council held in Nicea in 325. According to information already published, the centerpiece of this event should be the participation of Pope Leo XIV. Both the Phanar and the Vatican have already confirmed the participation of both sides in the celebrations, which will be held in the city of Iznik (former Nicaea, in Turkey).

At the same time, it remains quite unclear whether the Primates of other Local Orthodox Churches will take part in these celebrations. For example, Greek church media report that on November 29, the day of the memory of the Apostle Andrew, on which the beginning of the Pontiff’s visit to the Phanar is scheduled, only Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria will be present. The heads of the Hellenic and Cypriot Churches will not be at these celebrations.

From the point of view of historical logic, it would be ideologically correct for Patriarch Bartholomew to gather the classical pentarchy of the most ancient Churches: Constantinople, Rome, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch for the feast in Iznik (Nicea). At the same time, since the Hellenic and Cypriot Churches fall within the orbit of the Phanar, they could also attend the celebrations of the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council.

However, in view of the growing disagreements with Patriarch Bartholomew among individual Princes and internal problems in some Local Churches, the head of the Phanar will hardly manage to gather the old «five» in Iznik. Thus, the Church-wide celebration, to which the Local Orthodox Churches are primarily concerned, risks turning into a celebration of the vanity of the Vatican and the Phanar, in the context of which another ecumenical step will be taken, obviously not the last one.