[AnimeThat]

The last Pope was a geopolitical pope, and I think the current Patriarch of Constantinople wants to follow his example, and try to restore Constantinople to a level of equality to the Pope in terms of geopolitical influence.

Seraphim,
I think it is actually quite a bit more than that. Patriarch of Const. is striving for a formal supremacy among the Orthodox just as the pope is seen in the west. This issue has come up twice during meetings of the Orthodox-Latin Commission in recent years. In Belgrade (2 yrs ago I think) a declaration worded to imply that His Holiness Part. Bartholomew has the same standing in the East as Pope Benedict in the West was blocked by Russian representatives as ecclesiologically flawed.
A few weeks ago in Ravenna, at a gathering of the same Commission, the Orthodox Chair (a bishop from Constantinople Patriarchate) invited an uncanonical "jurisdiction" to the talks - "Apostolic" Church of Estonia. This provoked a walk-out by the Russians, and arguably had been done to achieve just that.
Today I read on a Russian church website that the result of the walk-out was adotion by remaining Orthodox members of a resultion similar to the one that failed in Belgrade.

I think this is quite scary. Constantinople forged two "unholy" Unions for political purposes in the past, both failed, but then Orthodox lived in Constantnople. It seems that now we are standing at the verge of another such union.

Lord have mercy on us all and on your servant Part. Bartholomew.


Yura