Patriarch Bartholomew to Visit Smyrna, Ephesus

This coming weekend Patriarch Bartholomew (Arhondonis) of Constantinople will undertake a historic visit to the city of Smyrna in Turkey, the first such pastoral visit by an ecumenical patriarch since the Turks' expulsion of the city's Orthodox Christians (who used to form the vast majority of the population) in 1922. Patriarch Bartholomew will serve in St. Mary's Church in Alacati (used as a mosque from the 1930s until recently) before moving on to Ephesus to celebrate the Divine Liturgy on Saturday and Sunday in the ancient city's Churches of Sts. John the Theologian and Photina the Samaritan Woman. More here.