The Free Agia Sophia Council of America seeks to free the Agia Sophia church in Istanbul, Turkey from the blockade Turkey has placed on the church. According to the founder’s message, the group hopes “to restore the great church of Agia Sophia located in Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey, as a functioning church of the Orthodox Christian faith, and to re-establish Agia Sophia as the Holy House of Prayer for all Christians of the world and the Basilica (Seat) of Orthodoxy that it was before the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 AD.”
The president, in a press release, says: “Lift the 557 year blockade on the holy Church of Agia Sophia – so we may pray, in it…Mr. Prime Minister – you and your government have it in your power to do the right thing, to undo the sacrilege of the seizure of our holy church, Agia Sophia, and return it to Orthodox Christians, which was and remains the center of worldwide Orthodox Christianity, just as the Vatican represents the locus of worldwide Catholicism.”
