Posted on 08/20/2010 7:47:00 AM PDT by NYer
.- Last Sunday, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I presided over the first liturgical celebration at the Turkish monastery of Sumela in nearly 90 years. The celebration raises awareness to the ongoing situation concerning religious freedom in the country, according to one Vatican expert.
The celebration took place on Aug. 15, the Solemnity of the Dormition of the Mother of God in the Eastern tradition, and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the West. Liturgical celebrations had been prohibited at the monastery since it passed into the hands of the Turkish government in 1922.
The Sumela monastery, with a rich and colorful history dating back to the 4th century, was mostly destroyed at the beginning of the 5th century and was eventually made into a museum and tourist attraction.
For these reasons, Sunday's celebration on the mountainside in front of the partially-rebuilt Greek Orthodox monastery was significant.
The concession made by the Turkish government to allow a religious celebration in a previously "off-limits" site is not the first this month, according to Vatican expert Sandro Magister. On Aug. 5, members of the Syriac Orthodox Church were authorized to celebrate Mass in two recently-renovated churches in the Mardin region.
On Aug. 19, the Armenian Orthodox Church will also be allowed to celebrate the liturgy, with the permission of Turkish authorities, at a church renovated and made into a museum in 2007.
Magister wrote on Aug. 13 that the openness seen in these celebrations should not be mistaken. "The concessions made this August by the government of Ankara," he explained, "are being interpreted as a move on the chessboard of Turkey's problematic entry into the European Union, which is impossible without minimal standards concerning religious freedom."
The government is slow to open the doors to religious freedom, he added, in part because a large number of people, believed to be "secret Christians," are currently registered as Muslims and might come "out into the open."
As it is, last Sunday more than 15,000 people attended the liturgy at the monastery, including representatives from the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church, members of parliament from Greece and Russia, Turkish authorities and pilgrims of predominantly Greek and Russian origins.
In an article to mark the occasion on Tuesday, the Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano newspaper quoted Bartholomew I as expressing hope for the future of Christian relations with the Turkish government.
He said, "Let us pray that Our Lady of Sumela become the guarantor of the peaceful coexistence of the two peoples, Christians and Muslims who are now gathered at this sacred place, a place of pilgrimage for Christians and Turks, and that this our pilgrimage may become a bridge between the two peoples.
"Today it can truly be said that the Black Sea is once again the Good Sea."
Perched high in the forested cliffs of mount Karadag above Altindere village in Trabzon sits the monastery of Sumela. Sumela was the most important and prestigious monastery during the time of the Trapezuntine Empire. Legend has it that the monastery was founded after the Virgin Mary appeared to the Athenian monk Barnabas in a dream. Barnabas found an icon (said to be painted by Saint Luke) of the Virgin Mary matching that of the one in his dream and built a monastery around the site of his discovery during the 6th century. The icon was said to possess miraculous powers and this has led to many people making pilgrimages to the site including Turkish Sultans. Most of the mon
astery that can be seen today dates from the 13th and 14th centuries when several monarchs from the Komnenos dynasty had their coronations in the monastery.
Video - film footage of the monastery.
Amazing! Thanks for posting.
This Islamist Turkish government is not to be trusted. They did not do this for an altruistic reason. Even my Turkish friends say that Erdogan has something up his sleeve.
At the same time, the government is also trying to resurrect the pride from the Ottoman past and is giving support to Islamic “charities” like Hamas.
Also do not forget the murder of the bishop of Antioch.
I am glad that my Orthodox brethren were able to celebrate their liturgy here, but I am also concerned that this concession will come with a very expensive price tag.
Better / more accurate headline needed.
Divine Liturgy was celebrated.
Pray for the conversion of Turkey.
For Christ has returned there, in the body.
Does not surprise me, just this past Sunday, on Father Benidict Grouchel’s EWTN Sunday evening show, he interviewed a Catholic bishop whose parents have been made blesseds. He is the bishop of Smyria, diocesse in Turkey. The Catholic community in Turkey is what I call a minority, a tiny one at that, in the Christian minority. What took place last Sunday, I believed in nothing short then a miracle. But as you have said, it does come with a BIG PRICE and this present Turkish government is not to be trusted.
Amen.
The Eastern Orthodox, and probably the Eastern Catholics, do not refer to the Liturgy as “Mass,” which comes from the Latin “Missa.”
Even if begrudgingly granted we Orthodox are happy it happened. Thank God.
And suppose that the Islamist government decides to open up the Aya Sofia as a mosque again? You are aware that they are trying to resurrect their Ottoman past, right?
I am glad for all of us that the Divine Liturgy could be celebrated again in that place. Yes, thank God.
But Erdogan is not to be trusted. Even for a second.
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