During a historic four-day visit to Iran in January, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians called on Muslim and Christian leaders to do their part to relieve world tensions

Christian Century, Feb 13, 2002

* During a historic four-day visit to Iran in January, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians called on Muslim and Christian leaders to do their part to relieve world tensions. "Dialogue is one of God's greatest gifts to humanity, and religious leaders should play a key role in extinguishing tensions and working for peace," Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I of Constantinople told a Tehran seminar.

His trip marked the first visit to Iran by an Orthodox patriarch since the country's 1979 Islamic revolution. The patriarch led a service in Tehran's Greek Orthodox Church and met members of Iran's biggest Christian denomination, the Armenian Apostolic Church, in the country's historic capital, Isfahan, during his January 11-14 visit. He also held talks with Iran's reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, and its supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.