Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, 1940-

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I (born Dimitrios Archontonis, 29 February 1940) is the current Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, serving as the 270th successor of the Apostolic See of St. Andrew. Since his election on 22 October 1991, he has become the longest-serving Ecumenical Patriarch in history. As the primus inter pares (first among equals), he occupies the First See of the Eastern Orthodox Church, acting as the highest-ranking primate and the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christianity worldwide. Bartholomew I was born in the village of Agios Theodoros (officially called Zeytinliköy) on the island of Imbros. Following his studies, he held a prominent position at the Theological School of Halki, where he was ordained a priest. Prior to his election and enthronement as patriarch, he served as Metropolitan of Philadelphia and later of Chalcedon, and was an influential member of the Holy and Sacred Synod, shaping the Ecumenical Patriarchate's modern trajectory. Bartholomew's tenure has been characterized by intra-Orthodox cooperation and intra-Christian and inter-religious dialogue, such as formal visits to Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, and Muslim leaders seldom previously visited by a patriarch. He has exchanged numerous invitations with church and state dignitaries. His efforts to promote religious freedom and human rights, his initiatives to advance religious tolerance among the world's religions, as well as his efforts to promote ecology and the protection of the environment, have been widely noted, and these endeavors have earned him the title "The Green Patriarch". Among his many international positions, he currently sits on the Board of World Religious Leaders for the Elijah Interfaith Institute. In 2018, the Moscow Patriarchate broke communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a result of disputes over his decision to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, an act through which he exercised the unique prerogatives of the Throne of Constantinople as established by the first seven ecumenical councils (notably Canon 3 of Constantinople in AD 381, and Canons 9, 17, and 28 of Chalcedon in AD 451).