His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, having been invited by the President of the World Bank, Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, will travel to Dublin, Ireland, in order to participate in the 4th International Conference “Faith and Development”, which will look into ways for the cooperation of the people of Religion and the Development for the encounter of the increasing social tensions and the international poverty that threaten the security of our planet.
The Government of Ireland will support the Conference and His All Holiness will also meet privately, with both the President and the Prime Minister of Ireland.
The Patriarch, who will be accompanied by Their Eminences, Archbishop Gregory of Thyatira and Great Britain, and Metropolitan John of Pergamon, will officiate during the Vespers Service of the 31st January in the Church of the Annunciation of the Theotokos, in Dublin, where He will have the opportunity to meet and give His blessings to the Orthodox people of various nationalities who live there.
His All Holiness will depart for Dublin in the late afternoon of 30th January, after the celebrations in the memory of the Three Hierarchs, which He will attend together with Her Excellency, Mrs. Marietta Giannakou, Minister of Education and Religious Affairs of Greece.
The celebration of the Divine Liturgy will be followed by a ceremony that will take place in the Patriarchal Grand National Academy. The Patriarch, the Minister, and the Minister of Education of Turkey, His Excellency Mr. Hüseyin Çelik, will attend and speak briefly at this ceremony, which marks the end of the festivities for the 550 years since the Academy was first founded, and that have lasted for the entire last year.

In the Patriarchate, 19th January 2005
From the Chief Secretariat of the Holy and Sacred Synod