His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the ecumenical patriarch of Orthodox Christianity, spoke of the nature of progress at a lecture co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress and Georgetown University in Gaston Hall at Georgetown. In His All Holiness's words, true progress is a "balance between preserving the essence of a certain way of life and changing things that are not essential." Orthodox Christianity he said, "is a revolutionary faith and is dedicated to change." And even though the faith has never taken up the banner of progressivism per se, it has taken up many causes over the centuries that are progressive by definition. His All Holiness addressed three of these causes at his lecture: nonviolence, philanthropy (specifically in the form of health care), and environmentalism.