Elpidophoros's bid to be Patriarch of Constantinople - the view from Moscow
Moscow expects US meddling in Ukrainian Christianity to continue under a new Patriarch - the widely reviled (both in Moscow and among Orthodox faithful worldwide) - Elpidophoros.
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You can learn a lot about what is going on in world Orthodoxy outside Russia and its deep entanglements with US foreign policy by reading Russian foreign policy analysts who follow the misadventures of Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew and his top bishops meticulously. Indeed, the spiritual nature of the current crisis the world finds itself in is only highlighted by the fact that years ago Washington focused on attacking Russia’s state religion as one of its main battering rams to destroy Russia. The Kremlin understands this and thus there is a lot of deep analysis coming out of Russia on the subject.
These writings are mostly accessible from Russian think tanks and academics, but also in some larger media pieces. Both obviously benefit from spillage coming from Russia’s formidable diplomatic and intelligence services. The Russians watch all this closely, and it is occasionally productive to peer into their world. On a recent trip to Moscow I noticed one such article and thought it might be interesting to Westerners, in addition to chatter on the subject I picked up from foreign policy types.
The article appeared on the site of the Russian Council for International Affairs, a stodgy outfit closely aligned with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and generally reflecting the views of Russia’s establishment - kind of like Russia’s answer to the Atlantic Council. Entitled: Why did Patriarch Bartholomew visit the US? - Constantinople’s America diplomacy, it is quite the eye-opener, and reads well in English using Google Translate, penned by an undergrad at a leading Russian university, one Alexander Levitt. I lay out the TLDR below.
That Bartholomew, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and his sidekick Elpidophoros are outright frauds and basically a bought-and-paid-for stooges of the deep state, installed by them, is no secret in the West or Russia, and has been widely analyzed and discussed on both sides of the divide. In this, they very much mirror the recent Catholic popes who one can only conclude are actually subversives, anti-Christian disruption agents deliberately installed to destroy Christianity. The Russians get this, but still stoically analyze the situation without pointing it out at every turn because it still matters to their national interests.
Another fraudulent aspect of Bartholomew is that he claims to be the “spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide”, that is how Wikipedia (cough, cough) describes him, and how he is normally presented in media. This is of course nonsense, for Orthodoxy has no single spiritual leader, and if anyone has the claim to being the most important Patriarch, that would be Moscow’s Kirill, because he is the spiritual leader of 75%!, of all Orthodox worldwide. Kirill, doesn’t make nonsense claims about leading the Orthodox world because he doesn’t stoop to such cheap tricks which appear to be Bartholomew’s stock in trade, as you will see in this article. Indeed, Russia dominates world Orthodoxy in every way - in # of seminaries, monasteries, churches, monks, number of saints, music, financial resources, scholars, theologians, quantity and quality of spiritual texts, media, TV, video, social media, etc., etc. My good friend Fr. Joseph Gleason lays this out in very convincing detail in this excellent article. As he puts it, “Russia is to Orthodoxy as America is to baseball.”
I am no expert on the byzantine (literally) politics of the Orthodox world, so just present here what I heard, with no particular insight as to how accurate this is. Some of it might not be news at all, perhaps already discussed in Western media - since I don’t follow news about Elpidophoros and Bartholomew I wouldn’t know. Take it for what it is - an amalgam of information coming out of the Russian academic / diplomatic / intelligence agency nexus which I found interesting. The last part of that triad has extraordinary reach, not just in human assets and analysts, but also, more significantly, in cyber surveillance.
I’ll start with the chatter -
Archbishop Elpidophoros, the current head of the Greek church in the US and the #2 man in the Constantinople Patriarchate has told the Trump administration he would be willing to move the Patriarchate to the US from Istanbul if made Patriarch.
Elpidophoros worked closely behind the scenes with Zelensky’s government in devising their outrageous 2024 law banning the largest Christian denomination in Ukraine, and setting into motion extreme repressions of Christians there. Even Human Rights Watch, reliable globalist stooges, blasted it, which is quite something. Allegedly, Elpidophoros worked as a back channel between Zelensky and the Biden administration, working out specifics.
Elpidophoros personally received kickbacks from Kiev in return for his support for the law, the ongoing persecution of Christians, and the confiscation of Christian relics and their shipment to the UK for “expert analysis”. The huge pools of unaccounted cash from the corruption surrounding Zelensky’s regime would have made this easy.
In 2019 Bartholomew actually hesitated to throw his support to the fake new Ukrainian “National Church”, the OCU, cooked up in Washington, presumably because it was too preposterous even for him to try and sell, but it was Elpidophoros who forced it through.
Elpidophoros is working hard to gain favor with Trump personally to compensate for Bartholomew’s strong alignment with the Biden administration. At a meeting with Trump in March, Elpidophoros, knowing his mark, went overboard with fulsome flattery, comparing him to “the great Roman emperor Constantine, founder of Constantinople”, gifting him a large gold cross and telling him, “with this sign go forth and conquer”. Translation: “You can count on me for total loyalty.” I know nothing about Elpidophoros’s personality, but you kind of have to admire the audacity.
Bartholomew’s influence in the US has significantly weakened due to his close former alignment with Democrat and deep state foreign policy, and criticism of his handling of the Ukrainian church coming from MAGA - people like Tucker Carlson and JD Vance. Elpidophoros is maneuvering to adapt to the situation and is basically a made-man, likely to be installed as next Patriarch, and soon, because Bartholomew is getting old.
And now to the article, which is more based on confirmed facts and provides some amusing details. I’ll just run down the things I found interesting in order as they appeared in the article:
Bartholomew’s recent visit to the US in September is a sign of his imminent retirement. The main goal of the visit was to curry favor with Trump and his administration and to help his loyal Archbishop become Patriarch.
Elpidophoros has support in both political parties, and the author believes he is a shoe-in for Patriarch, especially considering his close ties to US intelligence agencies. (He is more of an intel agent than a man of the cloth.)
Despite the fact that Elpidophoros is a Greek born in Turkey and only came to the US full-time in 2019, Russia sees him as ‘American’, (perhaps because of his long-time service to American foreign policy). With Pope Leo also being American, they see a trend of the US installing ‘Americans’ in key leadership roles in world religion. Another reason why they think Elpidophoros will be the next Patriarch.
Amusing: the formal reason for Bartholomew’s trip was to cash a $1.4 million check for winning the Templeton Prize. I hadn’t heard of it so looked it up and this is a weird story - in a nutshell, Templeton was an eccentric Presbyterian billionaire titan/innovator of the American investment fund industry who passed away in 2008, giving away most of his fortune. Among his legacies is this prize, one of the largest in the world, which according to the above site, was “to be given to those who have made exceptional contributions to affirming life’s spiritual dimension”. It was later adapted to focus on such “exceptional contributors” at the “intersection of science and religion.” Recent recipients include Jane Goodall (the chimpanzee lady), the Dalai Lama, the King of Jordan, and a bunch of people you never heard of, chosen by a jury of people you’ve never heard of. You may be scratching your head wondering how the preposterous and insidious Bartholomew qualifies. Well it turns out that ever the savvy operator with an eye for scams, Bartholomew has for years positioned himself as a leader in the “Green” movement. Who knew? Yes, he’s with the global warming gang. It reads like a bad joke, and once you’ve laughed out loud, you realize - of course he is, it all fits. But really, giving old Bart a prize for spiritual achievement is a bit like giving Jack the Ripper a public service medal. We actually do live in upside-down times.
Bartholomew’s visit seems to have gone well except for one hiccup with JD Vance, who, allegedly, was not very nice to him, challenging him about persecution of Christians in Ukraine (which Bartholomew has enthusiastically facilitated and blessed), THEN demanding a report from Bartholomew about former CIA director Mike Pompeo’s role in creating Ukraine’s fake new national church, and THEN asking about an alleged $20 million bribe paid to Bartholomew by USAID in return for his support for that church. Awkward.
This comes on top of reports of Bartholomew receiving payment from the CIA going back decades, and being installed by the CIA. Here is former CIA agent John Kiriakou (also Greek btw) explaining how the bribe conversation went down with Hillary Clinton (starts at 16.40):
Trump only had 30 minutes for him, but Bartholomew managed to squeeze a lot in. In addition to blaming Russia for the Holodomor (oh, wait, that was done to Russians by another ethnic group, but who’s counting?), he stressed that the Russian Church is an enemy of the Ukrainian people and Putin bad, and that the Ukrainian people are trying to “break free” from the evil Russian Church. No record of what Trump said or thought about all this.
The rest of the people Bartholomew met with were very nice to him - Mike Johnson, Mike Pence, and NYC mayor Eric Adams - well of course they were, they’re bought and paid for too! Well, actually, Nick Fuentes says JD Vance is too, and most Americans have recently concluded that Trump is, and Tucker Carlson suspects Israel must have kompromat of a sexual nature on Johnson, so who really knows. US politics is a hall of mirrors. Johnson, true to form, managed to blurt out the complete opposite of the truth. He praised Bartholomew for his “commitment to the eternal truths which form the foundation of the US of A!” Presumably he was referring to freedom of religion.
Marco Rubio, probably busy scheming over how to invade Venezuela, blew off the Patriarch, sending a low level twit instead, one Michael J. Rigas, another Greek!, the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, whatever that is, formerly of Mellon Financial and Brown Brothers Harriman. I know nothing about Rigas, but am forced to conclude he is a twit based on what he said. The Orthodox Times provides the blow by blow, italics mine:
The Ecumenical Patriarch’s remarks followed an extended introduction from Rigas, who praised the Patriarch as both a spiritual leader and a partner in advancing religious freedom. Rigas framed religious liberty as a defining American principle, stretching back to the Pilgrims’ arrival in 1620 and enshrined in the First Amendment. Quoting Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, he called it “our first liberty.” …
… Rigas then turned to contemporary challenges, noting religious communities facing persecution, displacement, and restrictions on worship across the globe. “Religious liberty is not a privilege, but a universal right,” he said, pledging that the U.S. would remain “steadfast” in confronting threats through diplomacy and international partnerships.
“As the good book says, blessed are the peacemakers,” Rigas concluded, addressing the Ecumenical Patriarch directly. “I look forward to the opportunity to work with you to advance the cause of religious freedom and the cause of peace in the world.”
Perhaps I’m being too hard on Rigas, who knows, maybe he’s just being a good soldier and politics is like making a sausage, and, and, and. I rather doubt it, but in a Christian spirit, I take the twit remark back.
Bartholomew also met with Zelensky, who happened to be in town to give a speech at the UN General Assembly. He greeted him with “Glory to Ukraine!”, and then said the usual things you might expect, including a “hope for a swift victory for Ukraine,” which hasn’t aged well. He must now be remembering his initial skepticism over the whole Ukraine project - things really are not going his way.
Bartholomew rarely misses an opportunity to bash the Russian church. In a speech in NY during his trip he mused (dutifully stenographed by the Orthodox Times), apparently without a shred of self awareness, peculiar for a “spiritual leader” (italics mine):
(Sometimes) religion becomes a screen behind which dark forces of greed, prejudice, and aggression work their misery in the world. … All of us who have studied history have seen how religion can be co-opted by secular power to establish fault lines between civilizations, … We see this unfortunate state of affairs among our own co-religionists in Russia, as the Church of Russia continues to provide cover for the Russian State’s war against Ukraine, a sovereign nation.
And finally, for the icing on the cake, Bartholomew gave a speech at the Council for Foreign Relations, where, with a deft sense of playing to the room, he went out of his way to laud “Judeo-Christian values”. The author of the article then explains that it is preposterous for an Orthodox Patriarch to say this because it contradicts Orthodox teaching, and that this concept is instead a favorite of American Evangelicals, corrupted by the Scofield bible, and the heresy of Christian Zionism. The Russians have been aware of this scam for a while. I recall a senior Russian churchman explaining this to me 15 years ago in Moscow, saying that it was widely understood among Russian clerics.
The article also dwells on Elpidophoros’ political difficulties in the US among his Greek parishioners. Parish memberships have dropped by 20% during his watch. The much discussed flood of conservative Protestant converts into Orthodoxy are bypassing the Greeks - who have by far the largest number of parishes in the US, precisely because they consider Elpidophoros and Bartholomew a joke, favoring Moscow-sympathetic jurisdictions. To make ends meet he has been forced to increase parish dues to his office, while simultaneously increasing his personal spending, raising their ire. And finally his big bet on ultra-woke positions - George Floyd, BLM, vaccines, lockdowns, masks, abortion, ecumenism, homosexuality - has backfired among even the Greeks, a generally liberal bunch but with many conservatives among them. He has gone silent on these issues but they still follow him around like a bad smell. Here you can see how perhaps the fact that he isn’t a native American might have led him to miscalculate politically, following instead the guidance of his Biden-era deep state minders. In addition to this, he went out of his way to antagonize conservative Christians in Greece, whose more honorable bishops and monks have roundly denounced him, especially on Mt. Athos.
Despite these troubles the Russians still think Elpidophoros will be installed as the next Patriarch due to his institutional support in the deep state and both parties. The author points out that he has already signaled that he is willing to dump the fake OCU church in Ukraine, an about-face which Bartholomew can’t pull off without embarrassment due to his previous staunch support. Yet another reason why it seems the time is ripe for Bartholomew’s retirement. The author cites a recent article in the Orthodox Times, Bartholomew’s house publication, revealing this.
The article has more analysis about inside politics in the Orthodox world and what will happen in Ukraine if the OCU is wound down, concluding that Russian religious influence will continue to be under pressure due to ongoing deep state intrigues. Check it out yourself if you are interested in that.
So what are we to make of all this?
My takeaway is that the whole Constantinople Patriarchate deep state project is wildly out of touch with shifting American realities. Our establishment is teetering under the weight of the Epstein revelations, the outrage in Gaza, the exposure of the Israel Lobby in Washington, the defeat in Ukraine, Candace Owens’ investigations into the Charlie Kirk “murder”, the war-mongering in Venezuela, and much, much else. The Constantinople project, as an extreme an apparently clueless outlier of this world, is badly exposed and heading for a fall.
And the Russians sometimes have interesting intelligence and insights into it all.
That would be my take.
I think you are profoundly mistaken and misunderstanding what these saints are saying.
There is precedent for the laity to not follow, and thus to criticize, Orthodox leadership when the leadership is wrong, such as attempts at ecumenism.