[AnimeThat]

It is worth remembering that the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem are also in countries which, for centuries now, can hardly be considered majority Christian, let alone majority Orthodox. Yet, these patriarchates retain the same significance as they always have. The "power" of a Patriarchate is not temporal, but spiritual. Whenever a patriarchate assumes temporal power, that's when things go sour (as, sadly, the mediaeval papacy shows us ...)

Olga, this is a good point - about the power being spiritual - which presupposes one's being in the Spirit. I do not what to inflame anybody and start a heated discussion on this, but it begs the question -
is the current Patriarch or the few ones before him, all the way down to Pat. Meletios (of sorry memory) in the Spirit?

Again, apologies if i have offended anybody, but I do believe that the title of oecumenical has been quite a bit too large for the most recent Partriarchs of Constantinople... if of course the title implies one's being a defender and upholder of Orthodoxy world-wide. If it does not, then what does it mean today - an empty sound?

Yura