Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Awarded Templeton Prize 2025 in New York

OCP News Service – 26/09/2025

NEW YORK – USA: His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was honored with the prestigious 2025 Templeton Prize at a magnificent ceremony held at Lincoln Center on Wednesday evening, September 24. The award recognizes his decades-long dedication to raising global awareness about the need to protect God’s Creation, earning him the moniker “the Green Patriarch.”

The ceremony featured high-profile speakers, including former U.S. Vice President Al Gore Jr. and Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis, alongside renowned anthropologist Dr. Jane Goodall and President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, Rev. John I. Jenkins. The honoree’s environmental initiatives were introduced by Mrs. Heather Templeton Dill, who presented the Patriarch with the award’s elaborate medal and special scroll.

In his acceptance speech, Patriarch Bartholomew thanked the Templeton Foundation and emphasized the role of religion in addressing the crisis. He warned that humanity often errs by treating environmental destruction as “someone else’s problem instead of recognizing it as the spiritual crisis of our time.”

His Holiness focused particularly on the mental health crisis among youth, which he directly linked to “environmental stress.” He stated: “When our children lose hope for tomorrow, we must recognize this as both a moral failure and a spiritual emergency.” He called for a ‘theology of interconnectedness,’ stressing that environmental justice and social justice are “different names for the same commitment to the flourishing and balance of all forms of life.”

The Patriarch concluded by challenging the audience, stating that humanity faces a historic choice: “Will we be remembered as the generation that, despite knowing better, chose comfort over conscience? Or will we be remembered as the pioneers who… chose transformation over destruction?”

The Templeton Prize is one of the world’s largest annual individual awards, established in 1972 by Sir John Templeton. It recognizes a person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, often by using the power of science or scholarship to explore the deepest questions of existence and purpose. Its monetary value typically exceeds that of the Nobel Prize.

Source:

OCP News Service