US ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt referred to US diplomacy vis-à-vis Orthodoxy and Orthodox Churches, while touching on the significance that Greek Orthodoxy holds for the nation of 11 million, in statements given to the Athens-based Orthodoxia news agency.
He also reiterated Washington’s long-standing support for the reopening of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Halki seminary on the Marmara Sea island of the same name - known as Heybeliada in Turkish – while directly commenting on the issue of the tomos of autocephaly being granted, last year, by the Patriarchate to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
“…we greatly appreciate the Ecumenical Patriarch’s leadership on a number of issues with geopolitical significance, especially Ukrainian autocephaly,” he said.
