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His All-Holiness '''Patriarch BARTHOLOMEW Bartholomew I''' (born '''Demetrios Archontonis''' on [[February 29]], 1940) has been the Ecumenical Patriarch of [[Church of Constantinople|Constantinople]], and thus "[[first among equals]]" in the [[Orthodox Church]], since [[November 2]], 1991.
He was born on Imvros, an island in the Aegean Sea belonging to Turkey. By citizenship he is Turkish, but belongs ethnically to the remnants of the Pontian Greek community that used to exist in the Black Sea Region of Turkey, before the exchange of Turks in Greece with Greeks in Turkey as required by the agreements signed by two countries.
Perhaps most unusually, he has gained a reputation as a prominent environmentalist, putting the support of the Patriarchate behind various international environmental causes.
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{{succession|
before?|
title=Metropolitan of Philadelphia|
years=1973-1990|
after?}}
{{succession|
before=?|
title=Metropolitan of Chalcedon|
years=1990-1991|
after=?}}
{{succession|
before=Demetrios I|
title=[[Church of Constantinople|Patriarch of Constantinople]]|
years=1991-present|
after=Incumbent}}
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==External links==
* [http://www.patriarchate.org/biography.html Official biography]
