I was enchanted by this hauntingly simple, beautiful site dedicated to the restoration of the mother church of Eastern Christianity, the Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) cathedral in Istanbul, to active status as an Orthodox house of worship.

The Hagia Sophia was built by the Emperor Justinian of the Eastern Roman Empire (aka "Byzantine Empire") in the 6th century. It was an architectural marvel in the sheer size and engineering challenges of creating a massive dome on top of a largely square building, without steel support. The church served as the cathedral of the Archbishop of Constantinople and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch for close to 1,000 years. Many major historical events occurred within its walls until its seizure and sacking by invading Ottoman forces in the mid 1400s. Today the church serves as a museum and major tourist draw for Istanbul, reflecting both its Orthodox and Islamic history (the Ottomans defiled the church and then turned it into a mosque, which it remained until the secular reforms of Ataturk in the 1920s and 30s.)

To Orthodox Christians who remember (collectively from historical memory, not first-hand) the glory of this cathedral and of Byzantine heritage, the idea that arguably the most magnificent church in the world has served as a mosque and then as a tourist draw is extremely painful. The Ecumenical Patriarch is said to have been second among equals to the Patriarch of Rome (aka the Pope) but to compare the Pope to the Patriarch today is almost impossible. The Pope is sovereign over Vatican City and has absolute authority over the Western Church; the Patriarch today is a Turkish citizen as mandated by Turkish law, lives in a residential district of Istanbul to serve the few remaining Orthodox Christians who have not yet left and the office building holding the Patriarchate looks nothing like the Vatican. One gathers that the Turkish government is trying to rub Orthodox Christianity out of the country entirely.

If Turkey wishes to join the European Union, it should stop oppressing the religious liberty of Orthodox Christians to worship in a Christian church, to choose their own leaders rather than accepting a Soviet-style rubber stamp of approval for the election, to allow the Patriarch to call himself the Patriarch, a title rejected by the Turkish government. (Can you imagine the President of the United States having veto power over who became Archbishop of Washington? Or the Italian Prime Minister being able to bar both this Pope and the last Pope on the grounds that they were not citizens of the Republic of Italy?) It should permit the reopening of the Orthodox seminary in Istanbul, now closed and barred from reopening. Even the President of Belarus does not pre-approve the local Archbishop's appointment and that country is a totalitarian hellhole. If Europeans cannot worship in a Roman Emperor's cathedral in Turkey, then Turkey should go join a common market and social arrangement with Syria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen instead.

It's easier to understand why the Serbs are so angry about Kosovo when one reads the history of the fall of Constantinople and realizes that Serbia's orthodox monasteries are now under the control of a majority Muslim government, albeit a "secular" one like Turkey's in some ways. Orthodoxy has suffered retreat after retreat and defeat after defeat: the Turks, the Communists, the monumental indifference of the West. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal but most Americans have no idea who he is or the religious persecution that Orthodoxy faces in Turkey.

The Hagia Sophia is designed to hold crowds of Christian worshippers to attend the Divine Liturgy, to observe and learn Christian teachings from the golden mosaics still now on the cavernous cathedral's walls. The building should be used for the purpose intended by its architect and sponsors in the 6th century. For Turkey to claim that its state secularism would be compromised by such worship is asinine. I am not an Orthodox Christian even by lapse and breach but for some reason, this seems to be a tragedy and crime against Western Civilization itself.

An excellent abridged history, both written and spoken well, of the civilization that built this church and ultimately fell to Islamic invasion is available for podcast download here.