*Instanbul or Constantinople are both Greek definitions and toponyms

(Reuters) - Patriarchs of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians ended a rare summit in Istanbul on Sunday calling for a peaceful end to the crisis in Ukraine and denouncing violence driving Christians out of the Middle East.

Twelve heads of autonomous Orthodox churches, the second-largest family of Christian churches, also agreed to hold a summit of bishops, or ecumenical council, in 2016, which will be the first in over 1,200 years.

The Istanbul talks were called to decide on the council, which the Orthodox have been preparing on and off since the 1960s, but the Ukraine crisis overshadowed their talks at the office of spiritual leader Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

Metropolitan Athanasius of Lemessos, Cyprus explains why there still exist holy people in today's world.

The Holy and Sacred Synod convened today, Tuesday, January 13, 2015, with His All-Holiness presiding for its regular monthly meeting, for the purpose of examining various items on its agenda.

During this session, the Holy and Sacred Synod: a) unanimously accepted the proposal of the Canonical Committee to incorporate the monk Paisios of Mt. Athos into the registry of the Saints of the Orthodox Church; and b) at the proposal of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, unanimously elected Archimandrite Irenaios Avramides of the Metropolis of France as its new Auxiliary Bishop to serve under His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of France with the title Bishop of Rhegion.

At the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the 13th of January, 2015
From the Chief Secretariat of the Holy and Sacred Synod