Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will visit the United States from October 23 to November 3. His visit was postponed several times, and it remained unclear until the last moment. But it is already known that immediately after the celebration on October 22 for the 30th anniversary of his election as patriarch, he will fly to the United States.
Now the Constantinople Orthodox Church has officially announced that he will attend the opening of the church “St. Nikolai ”at ground level in New York, where the assassination of the Twin Towers took place on September 11, 2001. Among the destroyed buildings was a small Orthodox church nearby.
On September 11, on the twentieth anniversary of the suicide bombings, US Archbishop Elpidophore of the Ecumenical Patriarchate lit the church’s lights. It will be constantly illuminated as a symbol that “light shines in the darkness and darkness cannot defeat it,” the archbishop said.
The entire program of the visit of the Ecumenical Patriarch has not been published yet, but it is known that he will meet with US President Joe Biden.
The visit is on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the Greek Archbishopric in America in 1922. The visit coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of his enthronement. For the last time Patr. Bartholomew visited the United States twelve years ago.
