Prominent issues for the Ecumenical Patriarchate's policy in the 21st century include the safety of the believers in the Middle East, reconciliation of the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches,[19] and the reopening of the Theological School of Halki, which was closed down by the Turkish authorities in 1971.

[20][21] In 330 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great moved his residence to the town renaming it Nova Roma (Νέα Ῥώμη), or "New Rome".

In its disputed 28th Canon, the Council of Chalcedon in 451 recognized an expansion of the boundaries of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and of its authority over bishops of dioceses "among the barbarians", which has been variously interpreted as referring either to areas outside the Byzantine Empire or to non-Greeks.

The cathedral church of Constantinople, Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), was the center of religious life in the eastern Christian world.

The following is a (non-exhaustive) list of these prerogatives and their reference points: In the eighth and ninth centuries the iconoclast movement caused serious political unrest throughout the Empire.

[26] Following the death of his son Leo IV in 780, the empress Irene restored the veneration of images through the agency of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.

Patriarch Michael I Cerularius ordered a letter to be written to John, the Bishop of Trani in which he attacked the "Judaistic" practices of the West, namely the use of unleavened bread.

Humbert, Frederick of Lorraine, and Peter, Archbishop of Amalfi, arrived in April 1054 and were met with a hostile reception; they stormed out of the palace, leaving the papal response with Michael, who in turn was even more angered by their actions.

[28] In response to Michael's refusal to address the issues at hand, the legatine mission took the extreme measure of entering the church of the Hagia Sophia during the Divine Liturgy and placing a bull of excommunication on the altar.

In the bull of excommunication issued against Patriarch Michael I Cerularius by the papal legates, one of the reasons cited was the alleged deletion by the Eastern Church of the "Filioque" from the original Nicene Creed.

[31] The Fourth Crusade in exchange for promised funds attempted to help the deposed emperor Alexius IV regain his throne.

On 12 April 1204, the crusaders inflicted a severe sacking on Constantinople for three days, during which many ancient and medieval Roman and Greek works were either stolen or destroyed.

Despite their oaths and the threat of excommunication, the Crusaders ruthlessly and systematically violated the city's holy sanctuaries, destroying, defiling, or stealing all they could lay hands on; nothing was spared.

For three days they murdered, raped, looted and destroyed on a scale which even the ancient Vandals and Goths would have found unbelievable.

Constantinople had become a veritable museum of ancient and Byzantine art, an emporium of such incredible wealth that the Latins were astounded at the riches they found.

Though the Venetians had an appreciation for the art which they discovered (they were themselves semi-Byzantines) and saved much of it, the French and others destroyed indiscriminately, halting to refresh themselves with wine, violation of nuns, and murder of Orthodox clerics.

The defeat of Byzantium, already in a state of decline, accelerated political degeneration so that the Byzantines eventually became an easy prey to the Turks.

In accordance with the traditional custom at the time, Sultan Mehmed II allowed his troops and his entourage three full days of unbridled pillage and looting in the city shortly after it was captured.

[35][33] Hagia Sophia was not exempted from the pillage and looting and specifically became its focal point as the invaders believed it to contain the greatest treasures and valuables of the city.

[36] Shortly after the defence of the Walls of Constantinople collapsed and the Ottoman troops entered the city victoriously, the pillagers and looters made their way to the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors before storming in.

Mehmed II appointed Gennadius II of Constantinople as the Patriarch in 1454 and designated him as the spiritual leader as well as the ethnarch or, in Turkish, millet of all the Orthodox Christians in the Empire, regardless of ethnic origin; not only Greeks but also Bulgarians, Serbs, Albanians, Wallachians, Moldavians, Croatis, Syrians, orthodox Arabs, Georgians and Lazs came under the spiritual, administrative,[46] fiscal, cultural and legal[46] jurisdiction of the Patriarchate.

As Ottoman rule weakened, various parts of the Orthodox Church that had been under the direct influence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate came to be independent.

A year before Greece's autocephaly was self-proclaimed, the Serbian Orthodox Church was named autocephalous by the local secular government but Constantinople refused recognition until 1879.

The majority of these disputes are a result of the expansion of the Russian Empire, which often included a subjugation of the Orthodox churches in conquered lands to the Moscow Patriarchate.

[51] As a ruling institution, the Ottoman Empire brought regulations on how the cities would be built (quality reassurances) and how the architecture (structural integrity, social needs, etc.)

Such rules, however, although very strict in the beginning, with time and the increasing importance in the Ottoman Empire of the Rum millet were increasingly disregarded, so that in the 19th century in Istanbul there was a veritable building boom of Orthodox churches, many among them having high bell towers and brick domes, both of which had previously been strictly [citation needed] Since 1586 the Ecumenical Patriarchate has had its headquarters in the Church of St George in the Fener (Phanar) district of Istanbul.

Its canonical territory currently includes most of modern Turkey, northern Greece and Mount Athos, the Dodecanese and Crete.

The relationship between Constantinople and the Ottoman Empire was frequently bitter,[vague] due in no small part to the privilege given to Islam.

The current members of the Holy and Sacred Synod serving from September 1, 2023 – February 29, 2024, are as follows: Notable hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate are the popular writer Kallistos (Timothy) Ware, an assistant-bishop in the Archdiocese of Thyateira and author of The Orthodox Church, the best-known introduction to the Orthodox Church in English, and John Zizioulas, Metropolitan of Pergamon, a well-known professor of systematic theology.

The right of non-Turkish members of the synod (from Northern Greece, the Dodecanese, America and Western Europe) to convene appears to be threatened by a recent[when?]