Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew reopens restored 19th-century Church of St. Charalambos on Istanbul's Bosphorus

On Sunday, Sept. 27, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew led the thyranoixia, the Orthodox rite that blesses a church and opens its doors, at the Church of St. Charalambos in Bebek, Istanbul. The church had been fully restored, according to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Patriarchate said the work was started by the parish committee and paid for by businessman Byron Nicolaides, a member of the city's Greek Orthodox community whose family comes from Chalcedon (Kadıköy). Greek outlets identify him as founder and chairman of the PeopleCert group. The Patriarch said in his homily that the stone church has been the centre of life for Bebek's Greek Orthodox community since the 19th century, on the European shore of the Bosphorus.

"The church has been renovated; let us also renew ourselves," he said, according to Orthodox Times. He said churches exist to lead people to God. He acknowledged that the community has faced hard years, with fewer people and emptying churches. "Although the number of parishioners in Bebek may be small, very small," he said, "we Greek Orthodox, especially in this city, have never measured or based our existence on numbers." The Greek daily Eleftheros Typos quoted him as saying the church was restored not to remain "a beautiful monument of the past" but to be a living church.

The Patriarch praised the donor's gift as "a confession of faith, an act of confidence in the future of our community in this city," Orthodox Times reported. He noted that about three years ago Nicolaides also paid to restore the Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos in the Balino (Balat) community. He thanked Metropolitan Athenagoras of Kydonies, who as the Patriarch's supervisor for the Bosphorus district oversaw the restoration. He also thanked the parish committee, its president Andreas Romvopoulos, and the engineers, craftsmen and workers.

Eleftheros Typos described the work. It covered structural, architectural, electrical and mechanical repairs, carried out in keeping with the building's historic character. The roof was repaired and insulated, and a distinctive round roof above the sanctuary was restored. There was also work on the altar area and the icon screen. The women's gallery and an inner staircase were rebuilt, the wooden stalls were repaired, and specialist conservators treated the icons. Romvopoulos told the paper that the restoration was real conservation, not "an easy coat of paint." Nicolaides said that "every open church and every living school" shows the city's Greek Orthodox community is still alive. The Turkish-language Millet newspaper also reported the reopening. It said the restoration was meant to keep the church in use as an active place of worship and community.

The Patriarchate said those attending included Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Myra, Metropolitan Athenagoras, Greece's Consul General in Istanbul Konstantinos Koutras, former Greek minister Georgios Petalotis and Beşiktaş deputy mayor Ömer Rasim Şişman, along with faithful from Istanbul and abroad. To mark the day, the Patriarch planted an olive tree in the church courtyard and unveiled a marble plaque honouring the donor.