Bishop Allin to Visit Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul in December
Diocesan Press Service. November 10, 1975 [75402]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A., will pay a formal visit December 9-12 in Istanbul to His All-Holiness Dimitrios I, Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch. The high point of the trip will be a meeting with the Patriarch, spiritual leader of world Orthodoxy, at noon on December 11, at which the two Church leaders will discuss the overall relations between the Orthodox and the Anglicans.
The two communions have been in dialogue since 1930, with the hope of achieving mutual recognition and even full union in faith and sacraments.
Preceding his call on the Patriarch, Bishop Allin will confer with Metropolitan Meliton and the members of the Holy Synod. Areas expected to be covered in that meeting include continued relations between the two communions; the present and future task of Orthodox-Anglican dialogue with regard to matters of doctrine and practice; and a discussion of the relation between the several ethnic Orthodox Churches and the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. A progress report by the Metropolitan on the planned Great and Holy Council of Orthodox Churches is also expected.
Bishop Allin will also call on Armenian Patriarch Schnork while he is in Istanbul. Upon arrival in Istanbul, Bishop Allin will join Metropolitan Meliton, Patriarch Demetrios, and other officials of the Church for a Te Deum at Phanar, the residence of the Patriarch.
The Anglicans will have dinner together on Dec. 9 and a Eucharist at St. Helena's Chapel, at the British Consulate, on Dec. 10, at which time Bishop Allin will preach.
The Patriarch will host a luncheon for Bishop Allin and his party on Dec. 11, and Bishop Allin will give a reception that evening for the Orthodox leaders, the Turkish Governor, the British and American Consuls, the Roman Catholic Archbishop, the Protestant pastor, and others.
Bishop Allin will proceed to Istanbul from Nairobi, Kenya, where he will attend the Fifth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which begins Nov. 23.
Accompanying Bishop Allin to Istanbul will be Peter Day, ecumenical officer of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church; Bishop A. Ervine Swift, Bishop-in- Charge of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe; the Rev. Canon Michael Moore, general secretary of the ecumenical office for the Archbishop of Canterbury; and the Rev. John Backus, an Episcopal priest, formerly chaplain at the British Consulate in Istanbul and now working on his doctorate at Oxford.