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faithful in the world to admonish themselves and their children to respect and
protect the natural environment, and, on the other hand, all those who are
entrusted with the responsibility of governing nations to act without delay in
taking all necessary measures for the protection and preservation of natural
2
creation” through to the development of the ecumenical creation time in
September and October. This year, His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew wrote
in his encyclical “This earth resembles “an immense pile of filth.” (Pope
Francis, Laudato Si’, 2015) And impurity implies more than simply material
things; it primarily includes spiritual things. There are the impurities that
essentially stem from the passionate thoughts of humanity. With firm faith in
the Pantokrator and Creator of all creation, we Orthodox Christians are called
to carry out the work of an evangelist and missionary with regard to the
protection of creation. That is to say, we are called to rekindle the joyful gospel
message to the modern troubled world and awaken the sleeping spiritual nature
of a humanity diversely and multifariously distressed in order to convey a
3
message of hope, peace and true joy – the peace and joy of Christ.” Reverence
4
for creation is the main theme of Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si, and his
appeal to the international order to do more to safeguard creation at the
United Nations in September of this year. This is the contemporary ecumenical
understanding of mission as from everywhere to everywhere, and
encompassing the whole of creation. But my purpose this evening is to reflect
on the deeper roots of this understanding, as in doing so, I believe that
Anglicans and Orthodox will find much in common. And in going to our roots,
I will argue that we are at the same time being equipped for our contemporary
context, wherever we as Anglicans and Orthodox find ourselves. My first part
of departure in this exploration of our common roots is the Pentarchy of the
five ancient Patriarchates.

Pentarchy
The Pentarchy of the five ancient Patriarchates, as is well known, is
represented by Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome. We
know that from the earliest period through to the age of the Ecumenical

2 Message of His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I on the day of the protection of
the Environment (September 1, 1989) in Time for God’s Creation (European Christian Environmental
Network) 2006, pp. 11-12.
3 www.ecen.org/content/encyclical-letter-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-1-september-2015
4 https://laudatosi.com/watch

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