Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos (Bartholomew) will reportedly broach a handful of crucial issues affecting the Ecumenical Patriarchate -- particularly the question of the reopening of the Halki School of Theology -- during any future meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"I am thinking of visiting the prime minister of Turkey in the autumn, on the occasion of his re-election ... as well as the education minister. And I will request from them to tell us sincerely whether they will finally permit the reopening of Halki," the Patriarch said, addressing the congregation at a cathedral on the northeastern Aegean island of Imvros (Imbros), where the Patriarch was born.

Vartholomeos presented to the congregation a group of clergymen from northern Greece and Mount Athos, all graduates of the Halki School of Theology, as he said.

"Our Patriarchate must find ways of replenishing its clergy, for today and tomorrow, because the Patriarchate is an institution that must survive; it must survive at all costs and continue its ecumenical mission and contribution as it has been doing ceaselessly for 17 centuries, by the Grace of God," the Ecumenical Patriarch said.