The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios, and the head of the Church of Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos, conducted a service together in Istanbul yesterday and pledged to work more closely.

Ieronymos has used his first official trip to the Patriarchate since becoming archbishop earlier this year to resolve past differences and place relations between the two churches on a new footing.

“We are brothers, united by a common faith and tradition,” said Vartholomaios yesterday. Ieronymos indicated a willingness to operate largely in the ecumenical patriarch’s shadow. “We have nothing to offer you other than the devotion that children can offer to their parents,” he said.

Ieronymos’s predecessor, Christodoulos, had often clashed with Vartholomaios over Church matters.