A Greek Orthodox bishop has called on Turkey's President Erdogan to repent and convert to Orthodoxy, with Russia's President Vladimir Putin as his godfather.
Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, one of the most hard-line clerics in Greece's conservative Orthodox Church, wrote a rambling 37-page letter in which he urge Erdogan to convert and be baptised by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul.
According to a translation by the Keep Talking Greece website, he says: 'If you want to save yourself and your family you should convert to Greek Orthodox Church, the only real faith.
'We propose and we advise you to come to the arms of the Greek Orthodox Church before the end of your life on earth.
'Otherwise, you will unfortunately find yourself, your family and your people in the same place where Allah, Muhammad and his followers are, ie in the place of suffering, eternal and unending hell.'
He calls on Erdogan to 'repent, cry, be humble and believe in Christ', stressing that he is certain that 'the Holy Trinity of God will open the arms for you'.
In the letter posted on his official website, Seraphim attacks Islam as a false religion and says Muhammad was not a true prophet. However, he praises some aspects of Erdogan's policies and congratulates him for surviving the attempted coup against him.
The letter will cause acute embarrassment to Bartholomew. Relations between the Ecumenical Patriarchate, nominally the centre of the Orthodox world but representing only a few thousand Orthodox Christians in Turkey, and the Turkish authorities, are always complex and frequently strained. Following the attempted coup against Erdogan, Bartholomew was accused by conservative websites of being implicated, though no evidence was ever provided.
The coup has led to a draconian crackdown by the president and the passing of a referendum giving him vastly increased powers, with fears that the increasing Islamisation of the country will lead to greater pressure on Turkey's minorities. The Ecumenical Patriarchate is expert at the diplomacy needed to protect its existence and the Church in Turkey; it is unlikely to welcome an intervention that would generally be seen as inappropriate and unhelpful.
