“Due to the forced suspension of the Theological School and its final closure for forty-three years now (1971-2014), the Ecumenical Patriarchate has been deprived of this valuable Ecclesiastical Theological Nursery which is unique in its kind as far as Orthodoxy is concerned. Today, it faces the major problem of the lack of adequate staff in order to meet urgent needs as well as to fulfill its pastoral, inter-Orthodox and Inter-Christian work and great mission as a timeless center of Orthodoxy and the Nation.
Therefore, it becomes imperative today more than ever before to reopen the Theological School of Chalki for the Ecumenical Patriarchate and its survival” as stated in an interview to “In-On” magazine Vasileios Anagnostopoulos, Professor of the Theological School of Chalki under the command of His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
He also underlined that “the life of the Theological School of Chalki in its long history of a hundred and seven years since its foundation in 1844-1971, is divided into four time periods: the first period during 1844-1919, when the studies lasted for seven years, the second time period during 1919-1923, when the Gymnasium department was abolished and the School functioned as an Academy. During the third period 1923-1951, the original seven-year system was reformed and re functioned and finally during the fourth period 1951-1971, two independent sections operated namely an independent lyceum with a full three-year circle attendance and a department of theology with a full four-year circle attendance analogous to University Schools of Theology.
During the first and the second period, the School was under the state of the monarchical Ottoman Empire on the basis of two patriarchal regulations, in the year of 1845 under Meletios the First and in the year 1903, under Patriarch Joachim the Third. The School was not under any specific state regulations.
During the third period 1923-1951, the School functioned under the new state regime of the Turkish Republic (1923) based on the Regulation that concerned private and minority Schools by the Ministry of Education.
During the fourth and last time period 1951-1971, the School was licensed by the Turkish government and approved by the Supreme Education Council of the Ministry of Education and operated with a special Regulation for its Theological section, which was prepared and submitted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Then the issue was discussed and a joint cooperation was held by the representative of the Faculty and the Higher Board of the Ministry of Education.
The purpose that the Ecumenical Patriarchate Germanos the Fourth (1842-1845) had and established this School was to educate the clergy of the Church so as to fortify its believers as well as to give them theological support in order to be protected from attempts of conversion made by other churches of the West and mainly by the Roman Catholics and the materialistic and atheist spirit of the time namely the 19th century, the Enlightenment.
The Theological School of Chalki owes its birth to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and it is considered the Nursery of its staff. The Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Theological School were two institutions, two spiritual establishments intrinsically linked together in order to serve the pastoral work of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as well as to fulfill the mission to establish it as first-throne. The offer of the School to the Ecumenical Patriarchate is invaluable since it has been manned by its graduates during its one hundred and twenty-seven years of operation (1844-1971) both in its seat that is in Constantinople or beyond it in the Archdiocese and Metropolises in Europe, America and all over the globe. It also extends to other local Orthodox Churches and the Orthodox Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and the Autocephalous Church of Greece.
Since its establishment in 1844 and till its forced suspension of operation in 1971, the Theological School of Chalki within a period of 127 years of operation offered to the Church and the Science of Theology nine hundred and thirty graduates. Out of these, six hundred and sixty-three became clergymen. Out of these, twelve became Ecumenical Patriarchs; the latter is the current Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Additionally, there were two Patriarchs of Alexandria, two Patriarchs of Antioch, a Bulgarian Exarch, four Archbishops of Athens, an Archbishop of Albania, three hundred and forty-three Hierarchs whereas three hundred and eighteen served in the position of presbyter and only few as deacons.
The two hundred forty-eight of the graduates who did not become clergymen, were distinguished as professors in Theological Schools or in others Faculties at home or abroad or as teachers in secondary education while others excelled at other sciences.
The contribution of the School to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the above cited Orthodox Churches and the Nation has been great and valuable. More particularly, during the fourth period of operation in 1951-1971, within twenty years due to the reorganization and reformation of its educational program so as to meet the Church and society’s modern needs after the Second World War (1939-1945), it gave to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Orthodoxy two hundred and thirty graduates. Out of the above graduates, one hundred and twenty-nine entered clergy, fifty-six became bishops and seventy-nine elders.
What the Theological School offered was valuable, priceless and historic originated by the body of its teachers to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.”
CURRICULUM VITAE
His All Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was born in Imvros on February 29th, 1940. His parents were Christos and Meropi Archodonis. His name as a layman was Demetrius. After finishing the basic education in the Zografeion Lyceum in Constantinople, he went to the widely-known Theological School of Chalki where he graduated with honors in 1961. Just after that, he was ordained deacon and he was given the name Bartholomew. From 1961 till 1963, he fulfilled his military obligations from the post of a military officer.
Between the years 1963-1968, as a scholar from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, he followed post graduate studies in the Institute of Oriental Studies in Rome, also in the Ecumenical Institute Bossey in Switzerland and in the University of Munich, where he specialized in canon (religious) law. He was declared Doctor in the Institute of Rome (the Gregorian University).
Upon his return in 1968 to Constantinople, he was appointed Assistant Principal in the Holy Theological School of Chalki, where he was ordained priest the following year. Six months later, Patriarch Athinagoras elevated him to the rank of Archimandrite.
In 1972, when his Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrius was elected and founded the Special Patriarchal Office, he called Archimandrite Bartholomew to become a Director of this office, whom he promoted next year (Christmas 1973) as the Metropolitan of Philadelphia. He remained Head of this Bureau till his promotion as the Elder Metropolitan of Chalcedon. (January 1990).
After the death of the Elder Metropolitan of Meliton, he was unanimously elected Metropolitan of Chalcedon in the course of succession.
Immediately after His holy ascension to the Ecumenical Throne, His load of work started according to His announcements, His programmatic statements as well as His enthronement speech.
Thus, in order to promote pan-Orthodox Unity and cooperation, He convened His Holy Brothers of the local Orthodox Churches in Fanari and all of them sent a message to the Church and the world, designated as the single voice of Orthodoxy. Assemblies of this kind were also held in 1995 in Patmos, in January 2000 in Jerusalem and also in the December of the same year in Constantinople and Nice.
As a new Patriarch, He customarily visited the President of the Republic and the Authorities in Ankara presenting the heating problems that the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greeks who live in Turkey face, the first being the reopening of the Holy Theological School of Chalki.