Seconded. I don’t know much about him to be honest.
On this forum, no… but he is Patriarch for the vast number of Orthodox Christians in the world. You don’t pay much attention to Hierarchs in other jurisdictions? I follow Cardinals who have no direct jurisdiction over me…just to follow general trends in Church leadership and direction.
I would imagine most of us probably have more experience with Metropolitan Hilarion than with the Patriarch. He is the head of the Department for External Church relations. Roughly akin to a foreign minister. Do you pay attention to Patriarch Gregory or Patriarch Sviatoslav? If you do that’s wonderful but I doubt it’s a common practice.
A Cardinal and a Patriarch are not equivalent. A Cardinal may play an important role in your church, Patriarch Kirill plays no legal role in my church (no matter what the Greeks may think). I am familiar with those in important positions in the life of my church.
Is a Cardinal and Patriarch the same level in the hierarchy of bishops?
There is nothing equivalent to a cardinal in the Orthodox Churches. Properly speaking, as far as I understand, in the Catholic Church a patriarch, being the primate of a Church, is ranked above a cardinal (who is not a patriarch).
For the Orthodox, Patriarchs are the ranking bishops of autocephalous churches. Cardinals, who are unique to the Catholic Church, do not possess that particular role.
The Patriarchs are on the same level with the Pope. The Pope separated himself from the other Patriarchs about 1,000 years ago by claiming authority over the other Patriarchs. Since then the Pope not only claims superiority over the other Patriarchs, but also Infallibility. These claims are not believed by the other Patriarchs. The original Patriarchs included the Patriarch of Antioch, Pope of Alexandria, Patriarch of Constantinople, Pope of Rome and Patriarch of Jerusalem. Since the Pope of Rome left communion, the Church has continued to grow with new Patriarchs in Moscow & other places.
This is misleading. The Great Schism was not a simple case of one lone patriarch (the Pope) opposing four others of equal influence. By the 11th century, there was essentially the Latin Church and the Byzantine Church. The Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem were under the sway and shadow of Constantinople. The bulk of the original, ancient Churches of Alexandria and Antioch, the Coptic and Syriac Churches, had long since gone into schism with both Rome and Constantinople by this time (at the Council of Chalcedon five centuries earlier).
I agree. It has been suggested that the patriarchs and major archbishops of the Eastern Churches be invited to participate as electors in papal conclaves without being made Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church.