Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch


The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, also known as the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, Antiochian Orthodox Church and legally as the Rūm Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, is an autocephalous Greek Orthodox church within the wider communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity that originates from the historical Church of Antioch. Headed by the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch, it considers itself the successor to the Christian community founded in Antioch by the Apostles Peter and Paul. It is one of the largest Christian denominations of the Middle East, alongside the Copts of Egypt and the Maronites of Lebanon.
Its adherents, known as Antiochian Christians, are a Middle-Eastern ethnoreligious Eastern Christian group residing in the Levant region, including the Hatay Province of Turkey. Many of their descendants now live in the global Eastern Christian diaspora. The number of Antiochian Greek Christians is estimated to be approximately 4.3 million.

Background

The seat of the patriarchate was formerly Antioch, in what is now Turkey. The Church of Cassian was the cathedral church of Antioch to the Melkite and Latin patriarch during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. However, in the 14th century, it was moved to Damascus, modern-day Syria. Its traditional territory includes Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait, the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, and also parts of Turkey. Its territory formerly included the Church of Cyprus until the latter became autocephalous in 431. Both the Orthodox Churches of Antioch and Cyprus are members of the Middle East Council of Churches.
Its North American branch is autonomous, although the Holy Synod of Antioch still appoints its head bishop, chosen from a list of three candidates nominated in the North American archdiocese. Its Antiochian Orthodox [Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand, and All Oceania|Australasia and Oceania branch] is the largest in terms of geographic area due to the relatively large size of Australia and the large portion of the Pacific Ocean that the archdiocese covers.
The head of the Orthodox Church of Antioch is called Patriarch. The present Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch is John X (Yazigi), who presided over the Archdiocese of Western and Central Europe. He was elected as primate of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East as John X of Antioch (Yazigi) on December 17, 2012. He succeeded Ignatius IV who had died on December 5, 2012. Membership statistics are not available, but may be as high as 1,100,000 in Syria and 400,000 in Lebanon where they make up 8% of the population or 20% of Christians who make up 39–41% of Lebanon. The seat of the patriarch in Damascus is the Mariamite Cathedral of Damascus.
The Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch is one of several churches that lay claim to be the canonical incumbent of the ancient see of Antioch. The Syriac Orthodox Church makes the same claim, as do the Syriac Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, and the Melkite [Greek Catholic Church]; the latter three are Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See and mutually recognize each other as holding authentic patriarchates, being part of the same Catholic communion. Their fellow Catholic particular church, the Latin Church, also appointed titular patriarchs for many centuries, until the office was left vacant in 1953 and abolished in 1964 with all claims renounced.

History and cultural legacy

Pauline Greco-Semitic roots

According to Luke the Evangelist- himself a Greco-Syrian member of that community:
St Peter and St Paul the Apostle are considered the cofounders of the Patriarchate of Antioch, the former being its first bishop. When Peter left Antioch, Evodios and Ignatius took over the charge of the Patriarchate. Both Evodios and Ignatius died as martyrs under Roman persecution.
Hellenistic Judaism and the Judeo-Greek "wisdom" literature popular in the late Second Temple era among both Hellenized Rabbinical Jews and gentile Greek proselyte converts to mainstream Judaism played an important part in the formation of the Melkite-Antiochian Greek Orthodox tradition. Some typically Grecian "Ancient Synagogal" priestly rites and hymns have survived partially to the present in the distinct church service, architecture and iconography of the Melkite Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic communities of the Hatay Province of Southern Turkey, Syria and Lebanon.
Some historians believe that a sizable proportion of the Hellenized Jewish communities and most gentile Greco-Macedonian settlers in Southern Turkey and Syria/Lebanon – the former being called "Hellenistai" in the Acts – converted progressively to the Greco-Roman branch of Christianity that eventually constituted the "Melkite" Hellenistic Churches in Western Asia and North Africa:
Acts 6 points to the problematic cultural tensions between the Hellenized Jews and Greek-speaking Judeo-Christians centered around Antioch and related Cilician, Southern-Anatolian and Syrian "Diasporas" and Aramaic-speaking Jewish converts to Christianity based in Jerusalem and neighboring towns:

"There is neither Jew nor Greek"

These ethno-cultural and social tensions were eventually surmounted by the emergence of a new, typically Antiochian Greek doctrine spearheaded by Paul and his followers be they 1. Established, autochthonous Hellenized Cilician-Western Syrian Jews, 2. Heathen, 'Classical' Greeks, Greco-Macedonian and Greco-Syrian gentiles, and 3. the local, autochthonous descendants of Greek or Greco-Syrian converts to mainstream Judaism – known as "Proselytes" and Greek-speaking Jews born of mixed marriages.
Paul's efforts were probably facilitated by the arrival of a fourth wave of Greek-speaking newcomers to Cilicia, Northwestern Syria, Galilee and Jerusalem: Cypriot and 'Cyrenian' Jewish migrants of non-Egyptian North African Jewish origin and gentile Roman settlers from Italy — many of whom already spoke fluent Koine Greek and/or sent their children to Greco-Syrian schools. Some scholars believe that, at the time, these Cypriot and Cyrenian North African Jewish migrants were generally less affluent than the autochthonous Cilician-Syrian Jews and practiced a more 'liberal' form of Judaism, more propitious for the formation of a new canon:
These subtle, progressive socio-cultural shifts are somehow summarized succinctly in Chapter 3 of the Epistle to the Galatians:

Dual self-designation: "Melkites" and "Eastern Romans"

The unique combination of ethnocultural traits inhered from the fusion of a Greek cultural base, Hellenistic Judaism and Roman civilization gave birth to the distinctly Antiochian "Eastern Mediterranean-Roman" Christian traditions of Cilicia and Syria/Lebanon:
Some of the typically Antiochian ancient liturgical traditions of the community rooted in Hellenistic Judaism and, more generally, Second Temple Greco-Jewish Septuagint culture, were expunged progressively in the late medieval and modern eras by both Phanariot European-Greek and Vatican theologians who sought to 'bring back' Levantine Greek Orthodox and Greek-Catholic communities into the European Christian fold.
But members of the community in Southern Turkey, Syria and Lebanon still call themselves Rūm, which means Eastern Romans or Asian Greeks in Arabic. In that particular context, the term Rūm is used in preference to Yūnāniyyūn, which means European Greeks or Ionians in Biblical Hebrew and Classical Arabic. Members of the community also call themselves Melkites, which literally means monarchists or supporters of the emperor in Semitic languages – a reference to their past allegiance to Greco-Macedonian, Roman and Byzantine imperial rule. But, in the modern era, the term tends to be more commonly used by followers of the Greek Catholic Church of Antioch and Alexandria and Jerusalem.

Interaction with other non-Muslim ethnocultural minorities

Following the fall of the Turkish Ottoman Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire, and the ensuing rise of French colonialism, communism, Islamism and Israeli nationalism, some members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch embraced secularism and/or Arab Nationalism as a way to modernize and "secularize" the newly formed nation-states of Northern Syria and Lebanon, and thus provide a viable "alternative" to political Islam, communism and Jewish nationalism.
This often led to interfaith conflicts with the Maronite Church in Lebanon, notably regarding Palestinian refugees after 1948 and 1967. Various intellectuals with a Greek Orthodox Antiochian background played an important role in the development of Baathism, the most prominent being Michel Aflaq, one of the founders of the movement.

Abraham Dimitri Rihbany

In the early 20th century, Lebanese-American writers of Greek-Orthodox Antiochian background such as Abraham Dimitri Rihbany, known as Abraham Mitrie Rihbany, popularized the notion of studying ancient Greco-Semitic culture to better understand the historic and ethnocultural context of the Christian Gospels: his original views were developed in a series of articles for The Atlantic Monthly, and in 1916 published in book form as The Syrian Christ.
At a time when most of the Arab world area was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, France and Britain, Rihbany called for US military intervention in the Holy Land to fend off Ottoman Pan-Islamism, French colonialism, Soviet Communism and radical Zionist enterprises- all viewed as potentially detrimental to Christian minorities.

Administration and structure

The administration and structure of the Antiochian See are governed by statutes.

The Patriarch

The Patriarch is elected by the Holy Synod from among the metropolitans who compose it. The Patriarch presides the Holy Synod and executes its decisions. He also acts as metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Antioch and Damascus.
The current Patriarch, John X (Yazigi), was elected on December 17, 2012, succeeding to Metropolitan Saba Esber, who had been elected locum tenens on December 7, 2012, following Ignatius IV (Hazim)'s death.

Archdioceses and metropolitans

There are at present 22 archdioceses, each headed by a metropolitan.

Western Asia