Council of Councils
Think Global Health
Immigrants have long played a critical role in the U.S. economy, filling labor gaps, driving innovation, and exercising consumer spending power. But political debate over their economic contributions has ramped up under the second Trump administration.
Meeting
A Conversation With His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America
Friday,
September 19, 2025
His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome and the ecumenical patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and most honorable exarch of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, explore today’s pressing global challenges—particularly regional instability, climate change, and the displacement of refugees—and the moral duty of faith communities to engage and help address these issues. Frances Fragos Townsend, founder of FFT LLC and member of the CFR Board of Directors, moderates the conversation.
This meeting is part of CFR’s Religion and Foreign Policy (RFP) program. The Religion and Foreign Policy program offers a forum for clergy, seminary heads, and representatives of faith-based organizations to discuss global issues in an interfaith environment, and serves to inform the geopolitical work of religious leaders and foster dialogue in their communities.