This evening at the White House, President Biden met with His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the official delegation of the Orthodox Christian Church.
Patriarch Bartholomew expressed “abundant satisfaction” with the meeting with the President.
“Our president here is a man of faith and man of vision and we know that he will offer to this wonderful country and to the world the best leadership and direction within his considerable power,” said His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Speaking against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the leader of the Orthodox Christian Church expressed his vaccination stance.
“I would like to announce to you that, together with His Holiness the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Communion and the Muslim and Jewish religious leaders, we shall make an appeal to the whole world to facilitate the vaccination of everybody, especially poor people and rich, wealthy countries who have the poorest ones, so that everybody may be safe.”
He revealed that President Biden accepted vaccine initiative with “great satisfaction.”
His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew also meet with Secretary Blinken where he shared his concerns about the treatment of Christians in the Middle East and addressed the need for political action in response to climate change.
The spiritual leader of the world’s 200 million Eastern Orthodox Christians Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, 81, was taken to hospital after arriving in the US. He was released the next morning and was “feeling well.”