--- description: Bartholomew, 270th Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, is spiritual leader to 300 million Orthodox Christians throughout the world. title: TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production ---  # Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew  ## Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Bartholomew, 270th Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, is spiritual leader to 300 million Orthodox Christians throughout the world.  ## Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close *  Jun 18, 2015 ### [Head of Orthodox Church Responds to Encylical](https://time.com/3926076/pope-francis-encyclical-patriarch-bartholomew/) [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) Meta: null ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://time.com/","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/author/ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew/","name":"Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Person","@id":"https://time.com/author/ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/author/ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew/"},"name":"Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew","jobTitle":null,"description":"Bartholomew, 270th Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, is spiritual leader to 300 million Orthodox Christians throughout the world.","image":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99bbc75b9fc6781b/6988551fe53aba8c184de3cb/patriarch-bartholomew.jpg?branch=production","url":"https://time.com/author/ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew/","sameAs":["https://x.com/EcuPatriarch"],"worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/"}}] ```