Templeton Prize: Ecumenical Patriarch's Climate Leadership Amid Calls for Abuse Accountability
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NEW YORK - Nyenta -- The Patriarch will be awarded the Templeton Prize for 'stewardship of creation.' Survivor-advocacy voices ask for balance: a focus on the unfinished obligations to protect children and vulnerable adults as part of creation.

Clergy-perpetrated abuse demands civil justice and an end to secrecy. The upcoming ceremony shows institutional honours amplify moral authority.  This honour is consequential. Substantive outcomes for victims of clergy-perpetrated abuse require recognition, then safeguarding, transparency, and justice.

Some Background

History helps explain the stakes. An extended timeline of Eastern Christian institutions represents networks of mutual recognition that legitimize authority across jurisdictions. Those same structures can insulate wrongdoing. When public platforms elevate spiritual authority, they should have measurable commitments to protect their people.

International standards are clear. In 2014, UN treaty bodies issued detailed recommendations to a major church-state institution, the Catholic Church. The same could be done with Orthodoxy. The immediate removal of known or suspected abusers. A transparent sharing of archives. Reforms to internal law removing obstacles to accountability. A companion review under the Convention against Torture. These were baseline human-rights expectations, not theological debates.

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This arc includes survivor initiatives at the highest legal levels. In 2011, a survivor-led network and human-rights attorneys urged the International Criminal Court to investigate senior Vatican officials for crimes against humanity. These filings represent part of the public record. The same could happen for Orthodoxy.

The Issue at Hand

Survivors and advocates describe an ecosystem of enabling. One prioritizes institutional image over human protection. Archives closed to inspection. Offenders were defended or retained without external review. Enablers held unaccountable. When prominent institutions commend spiritual authority for global virtues while leaving abuse systems untouched, this reinforces an outdated order. One in which reports are isolated. The status quo survives.

The result is predictable. Ceremonies like this flourish. People languish. A believer-first agenda should be concrete and measurable. One where zero tolerance is a binding law, not an aspiration. Consequences for those who abuse or enable abuse are clear. Archives are opened to civil authorities and researchers—unconditional cooperation with investigations. Then, there are half-legal and lobbying efforts limiting survivors' access to justice.

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Honouring creation stewardship does not have to neglect safeguarding. They are not competing goods. They are complementary duties. As cameras turn to the Patriarch and the Templeton Prize ceremony, institutions and media can close the moral blind spot by tying esteem to verifiable safeguards, independent audits, public reporting, and consequences that prioritize people over image. The measure of integrity: Are survivors safer tomorrow than today?

Orthodox Church Sexual Misconduct Database: https://www.prosoponhealing.com/public-orthodox-sexual-misconduct-d.

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Email: orthodoxmisconductdatabase@proton.me

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Source: Orthodox Survivors and Advocates Coalition
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