Istanbul-based Fener Greek Patriarch Bartholomew said -- in a special CNN documentary on August 27, 2010 -- he is hopeful that he will not be the last Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, despite the problems surrounding his small and rapidly shrinking community.
Bartholomew, 70, dismissed rumors that he has no successors and said they trust in divine providence, and the guarantee given to them by the Lord Himself, "that the church can survive."
Turkey -- a country that is 99 percent Muslim -- rejects Bartholomew's use of the title "ecumenical" (universal), insisting instead that the patriarch is merely the spiritual leader of Istanbul's dwindling Orthodox community.
Bartholomew's optimism is not baseless, since recently Turkey has offered citizenship to foreign archbishops to help in the election of the next patriarch, according to the Orthodox Church Info blog.
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