Abp. Elpidophoros: Head of Phanar is a front-line defender of Orthodoxy

Pope Benedict and Patriarch Bartholomew. Photo: abbaziagreca.it

Archbishop Elpidophoros, head of the American Archdiocese of Phanar, said that Patriarch Bartholomew is a "front-line defender of Orthodoxy", the Orthodox Times reported.

Archbishop Elpidophoros compared St. Patriarch Photios, to whom "Slavic peoples are forever in debt", with the current head of Phanar, Patriarch Bartholomew, "the most worthy successor to Saintly Photios and a front-line defender of Orthodoxy."

"Like his holy predecessor, Patriarch Bartholomew restored millions of pious Ukrainians to the fullness of Orthodoxy, by his bold and visionary granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine," Phanar representative in the United States stresses.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that according to Archbishop Elpidophoros, the head of Phanar, Patriarch Bartholomew, is the "leader of Orthodoxy". 

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