In a rare meeting, Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios (l) embraces Archbishop Christodoulos (r) at Macedonia Airport in Thessaloniki yesterday. Relations between Vartholomaios, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, and Christodoulos, the head of the Church of Greece, have often been tense. Meanwhile, Vartholomaios said that contacts had begun between Turkey and the Vatican over a visit to Istanbul by Pope Benedict XVI. Vartholomaios has invited Benedict to Istanbul for the feast of St Andrew in November in a bid to heal the rift between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.