At the Assembly of European Churches in Tallinn, Patriarch Bartholomew expressed his opinion on the so-called “new ecumenism” among Christian Churches, the essence of which is uniting around Christian values, according to the website of the Assembly.

The head of the Phanar said that today “there are those who call for a “new ecumenism” – the unification of Christian Churches around the so-called traditional values.”

He believes that this phenomenon “creates strange alliances among Christian Churches”: “Churches that used to be against any kind of ecumenical dialogue are now ready to participate in the so-called new ecumenism that supports traditional values.”

He cited the United States as an example, where “some American evangelical Christians, who previously considered Catholics and Orthodox Christians to be pagan worshipers of idols, are now willing to work with certain Catholic and Orthodox Christians to support these values.”