Orthodox community in Turkey marks Epiphany

Turkey’s Orthodox community on Sunday marked the baptism of Jesus Christ with a special mass held at Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate followed by men diving into Istanbul’s cold waters to retrieve a cross thrown by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.

After a nearly 5-hour-long mass, Bartholomew I led worshippers in the Epiphany, throwing a blessed wooden cross into the Golden Horn inlet.

Michalis Voznakidis from Greece took the cross and the men kissed it before coming ashore. He said “we are here for everyone, for our religion.”

The ceremony took place after Bartholomew granted independence to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, in a historic move that has angered Russia.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Metropolitan Epiphanius I of the new church joined the Epiphany in Istanbul.

Istanbul, where a sizeable Christian community lives, is at the heart of celebrations in Turkey although similar cross-throwing ceremonies are held in other cities as well, including İzmir in the west and Gökçeada, an Aegean Turkish island which is home to a small but thriving Greek Orthodox community.

The Patriarchate in Istanbul is considered the heart of the Orthodox world and dates back to the Byzantine Empire, which collapsed when the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453.

The majority of Orthodox churches worldwide uses the Julian calendar created under the reign of Julius Caesar in 45 BC and have not adopted the Gregorian calendar, proposed by Latin Pope Gregory of Rome in 1582. The Julian calendar runs 13 days behind the Gregorian.