Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew celebrated the Thyranoixia — the blessing of the doors — at the Church of Saint Haralambos in Bebek, Constantinople, on Sunday 27 September.
The 19th-century church on the European shore of the Bosphorus has been the centre of Bebek’s Greek Orthodox parish. The parish committee led the works. Businessman Byron Nikolaidis, a Constantinopolitan of Chalcedon stock, paid for the renovation.
Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Myra and Metropolitan Athenagoras of Kydonies, Patriarchal Supervisor of the Bosphorus District, were present, with Archons, Greece’s Consul General Konstantinos Koutras, former minister Georgios Petalotis, Beşiktaş deputy mayor Ömer Rasim Şişman, and faithful from the City and abroad.
Bartholomew preached from Paul’s word that God dwells among his people and that they are his temple. “On this day, on the one hand, we open the doors of this stone-built church… On the other hand, we are called to open the doors of our inner temple, our heart.”
“The physical church exists for the sake of the spiritual one. The stones and colours, the holy icons and vigil lamps… exist to lead us to our encounter with the Mystery, with the living God, and to transform us also into living temples of the All-Holy Spirit.”
The church has been cleaned and the icons shine, he said; souls must be cleaned by repentance so the image in us can move toward likeness.
He set the church in Luke’s boat on Gennesaret: a small bay on the Bosphorus, Peter’s boat from which Christ still teaches. The Romioi of the City have known empty nets, shrinking numbers, quiet churches. “At the word of the Lord, we have once again let down the nets.” The catch today is this reopening. Numbers in Bebek are small. “Goodness is not found in quantity, but abundance is found in goodness.”
Christ’s “Launch out into the deep” is the call: prayer, the sacraments, love — not faith that stays on the surface. Full nets need partners. Nikolaidis is the first partner. About three years ago he restored the Dormition church in Balino.
This gift, Bartholomew said, is confidence in the future of the Greek community in the City, and in Greek and English schooling he funds. The Patriarch thanked Metropolitan Athenagoras, parish president Andreas Romvopoulos, engineers and workers, and “the widow’s two mites.”
Athenagoras, Romvopoulos and Nikolaidis spoke first. Bartholomew planted an olive tree in the courtyard and unveiled a marble plaque for the donor.
Source: Ecumenical Patriarchate; photographs Nikos Papachristou.
