New Spirit Abounds for Enthronement of Church Leader : Ceremony: The new Eastern Orthodox patriarch is a widely traveled 51-year-old who speaks seven languages. The Vatican, Protestant churches and the White House are to send delegates.

An undercurrent of Christian excitement is stirring amid the mosques and minarets of Istanbul as black-robed Greek Orthodox priests swirl back and forth in preparation for the enthronement today of the new leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeo I of Constantinople--the Greek name for Istanbul--also feels the new spirit in his sumptuously restored Orthodox patriarchate overlooking the city’s historic sea inlet known as the Golden Horn.

“Yes, I do think we are entering a new era,” Bartholomeo said in an interview. “It is a blessing of God that there is now a young patriarch, symbol of continuity of faith and ecclesiastical structure in this very, very ancient see.”

Bartholomeo is in fact 51 years old, youth being a relative term in a church that dates four of its 16 autonomous patriarchates, monasteries and sees back to apostolic times.

The new patriarch is also unusual in being widely traveled, speaking seven languages fluently and having wide experience of interchurch assemblies, repeatedly holding high office in the World Council of Churches.

Guests at the enthronement ceremony will also reflect Western interest in the patriarchate as a major institution, even though fewer than 3,000 ethnic Greeks remain among the 8 million Muslim Turks of Istanbul and loud Muslim calls to prayer echo across the patriarchate’s wood-and-marble courtyards.

Senior Cardinals from the Vatican, Protestant church leaders and a U.S. delegation from the White House will attend, led by the President’s brother, William H.D. Bush, Bartholomeo said.

The occasion will, of course, be mainly an event for the Orthodox Church itself, the eastern branch of Christianity that split from Rome in 1054 AD. The church emphasizes ritual, monasticism and mysticism, but has few doctrinal differences with the Catholics, mainly denying the concepts of Purgatory and the immaculate conception.

Recent upheavals in the world, especially the collapse of communism in traditionally Orthodox lands like Russia, have breathed new life into the church, said Bartholomeo, who estimated a following of 300 million people. Independent sources estimate there may be only half that number. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, which is under the jurisdiction of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, has 2 million members.

“I am full of good intentions for inter-Orthodox unity . . . the patriarchate will play a role, more than in the past,” he said. “Only through this can we seek unity of all denominations and promote Christian unity, a tradition of the Orthodox church since Patriarch Athenagoras” (1948-72).

In the 1960s, Athenagoras helped start healing the 900-year schism with the Roman Catholic church, a process continued by his successor, Patriarch Dimitrios, who died on Oct. 2 of heart failure after a 19-year reign.

During the reconciliation meetings the Orthodox patriarchs referred to the Pope as “my elder brother,” a reference to the historic primacy of Rome. But theological dialogue has been suspended during discussion of the problem of the Uniate churches and Catholic missionary work.

Uniate churches are Orthodox ones that have accepted the supremacy of the Pope in place of the patriarch of Constantinople, a movement especially strong in the Ukraine and seen by the Orthodox as downright poaching.

“They use the same (Orthodox) Mass, the same vestments. It is a transfiguration that is not genuine, a scheme to receive Orthodoxy into Catholicism,” Bartholomeo said.

As the old communist restrictions on Christianity collapsed in eastern Europe, new impetus has also been given to preparations for an eighth council of the Orthodox churches, the first since the Council of Nicea in 787 AD.

“I hope it will be held before the end of the century,” Bartholomeo said, noting that the 20-year-old dispute with the Russian Orthodox Church on jurisdiction over churches in Japan and the United States was on its way to being overcome.

Orthodox tradition allows local autonomy to churches in different countries. The Istanbul patriarchate has only been a first among equals since Constantinople became the capital of the Byzantine Empire 1,500 years ago.

The conquest of the city by the Muslim Turks in 1453 did not by any means end the Orthodox church--the Fourth Crusade in which the Latin Catholics sacked Byzantine Constantinople in 1204 was arguably similarly devastating.

Indeed, until the turn of this century, Istanbul, although ruled by Ottoman sultans, was still a markedly Greek city and the church governed itself under its own laws.

The atmosphere changed after the Turkish revolution of Kemal Ataturk in 1923, which was largely a successful war against the allied occupation of Istanbul and a large-scale Greek invasion of western Turkey.

The new rulers of Turkey tried and failed to remove the patriarchate completely from Istanbul in negotiations leading up to the Treaty of Lausanne, which laid the foundations of the new republic. The patriarchal throne continues to be plagued by political rivalry and suspicions between Greece and Turkey.

Greeks are angered because the Turkish government has unilaterally stipulated since 1923 that any patriarch of the Orthodox Church must be a Turkish citizen, later adding a custom that the government could veto any of 15 candidates it deemed unsuitable.

Turkey also refuses to recognize officially the ecumenical status of the post and forced the patriarchate to wait for 46 years before giving the patriarchate permission to restore major damage done during a fire in 1941.

For its part, Turkey is bitter about Athens’ arbitrary appointments and dismissals of Muslim muftis , or priests, for the 120,000-strong Turkish community in northeastern Greece and what it sees as continued Greek ambitions to recapture their old capital.

But Turkish fears that the patriarchate could turn into a kind of hostile Vatican were unfounded because Orthodoxy traditionally respects authority, Greek Orthodox sources say. “The patriarchate prefers to stay a church,” Bartholomeo said.

Distrust has dissipated somewhat in recent years, notably after Turkey agreed to allow renovation of the Patriarchate in 1987 and did not veto any candidates put up for the patriarchal election this year.

Bartholomeo said that one of his first acts would be to visit Turkish authorities in Ankara and ask for permission to reopen the only Greek Orthodox theological school in Turkey, closed during a spate of nationalizations in 1971.

“There is a realistic attitude to solving questions. It is most concretely a sign of good will, which we appreciate very much,” Bartholomeo said. “These facts . . . give us hope that a new era in relations between Phanar (the patriarchate) and our government has been inaugurated.”