The relevant Greek education minister traveled to Istanbul this week in order to brief the head of the influential Ecumenical Patriarchate and the latter's top clerics over the Tsipras government's plans for revisions of church-state relations back in Greece.
According to reports, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the primus inter pares of the world Orthodox Patriarchs, was briefed for an hour and a half by Education Minister Kostas Gavroglu, himself a native of the Bosporus metropolis.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate's Holy Synod has expressed its complete opposition to a change in Article 3 of the Greek constitution, which among others, defines the status governing relations the former and the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece.
The Patriarchate also has major concerns over the stated intent of removing Orthodox Church clerics from the civil service payroll in Greece, and instead using an annual "subsidy" - again paid by the state to the Church directly - to cover their remuneration.
