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Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch

(Redirected from Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East)
"Orthodox Church of Antioch" redirects here. For the Syriac Orthodox church, see Syriac Orthodox Church. For the early Orthodox Church, see Church of Antioch.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch (Greek: Ελληνορθόδοξο Πατριαρχείο Αντιοχείας), also known as the Antiochian Orthodox Church and legally as the Rūm Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East (Arabic: بطريركيّة أنطاكية وسائر المشرق للروم الأرثوذكس, romanized: Baṭriyarkiyyat ʾAnṭākiya wa-Sāʾir al-Mašriq li-r-Rūm al-ʾUrṯūḏuks, lit. 'Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East for the Orthodox Rum'[6]), 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.[7]

Coat of arms Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all East
Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East
بطريركيّة أنطاكية وسائر المشرق للروم الأرثوذكس
Mariamite Cathedral, Damascus, Syria, headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch since 1342 AD, with the 'Umariyya Minaret at the front, to the right
TypeAntiochian
ClassificationEastern Orthodox
OrientationGreek Orthodox
ScriptureSeptuagint, New Testament
TheologyEastern Orthodox theology
PolityEpiscopal
PrimateJohn X (Yazigi), Patriarch of Antioch and All the East (since December 17, 2012)
LanguageKoine Greek (historical),
Aramaic (Classical Syriac) (historical),[1]
Arabic (official),[2]
Turkish (in Turkey),
English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and other languages (extended)
HeadquartersMariamite Cathedral, Damascus, Syria
Traditionally: Church of Cassian, Antioch, Byzantine Empire
Monastic residence: Balamand Monastery, Koura, Lebanon
TerritoryPrimary: Syria, Lebanon, part of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia (formerly also Cyprus, Georgia and parts of the Central Caucasus area)
Extended: North America, Central America, South America, Western, Southern and Central Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines
FounderApostles Peter and Paul
IndependenceA.D. 519[3]
RecognitionOrthodox
Branched fromChurch of Antioch
SeparationsMaronite Church – 685
Georgian Orthodox Church – 1010[4]
Melkite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch – 1724
MembersApprox. 4.3 million (2012)[5]
Official websitewww.antiochpatriarchate.org

Its adherents, known as Antiochian Christians, are a Middle-Eastern semi-ethnoreligious Eastern Christian group residing in the Levant region including the Hatay Province of Turkey.[8][7] 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.[9]

Background

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Patriarchatus Antiocheni, 1640, by Melchior Tavernier

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.[10] 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 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 (2008–2013). 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[11] 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

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Pauline Greco-Semitic roots

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Church of Saint Peter in Antioch

According to Luke the Evangelist- himself a Greco-Syrian member of that community:

The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

— Acts 11:26 (New Testament, NIV translation)

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 (known as Mityavnim in Hebrew) and gentile Greek proselyte converts to mainstream Judaism played an important part in the formation of the Melkite-Antiochian Greek Orthodox tradition.[12] 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.[13]

Some historians believe that a sizable proportion of the Hellenized Jewish communities and most gentile Greco-Macedonian settlers in Southern Turkey (Antioch, Alexandretta and neighboring cities) 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" (or "Imperial") Hellenistic Churches in Western Asia and North Africa:

As Jewish Christianity originated at Jerusalem, so Gentile Christianity started at Antioch, then the leading center of the Hellenistic East, with Peter and Paul as its apostles. From Antioch it spread to the various cities and provinces of Syria, among the Hellenistic Syrians as well as among the Hellenistic Jews who, as a result of the great rebellions against the Romans in A.D. 70 and 130, were driven out from Jerusalem and Palestine into Syria.[14]

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 (the generally more conservative) Aramaic-speaking Jewish converts to Christianity based in Jerusalem and neighboring Israeli towns:

The 'Hebrews' were Jewish Christians who spoke almost exclusively Aramaic, and the 'Hellenists' were also Jewish Christians whose mother tongue was Greek. They were Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora, who returned to settle in Jerusalem. To identify them, Luke uses the term Hellenistai. When he had in mind Greeks, gentiles, non-Jews who spoke Greek and lived according to the Greek fashion, then he used the word Hellenes (Acts 21.28). As the very context of Acts 6 makes clear, the Hellenistai are not Hellenes.[15]

"There is neither Jew nor Greek"

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These ethno-cultural and social tensions were eventually surmounted by the emergence of a new, typically Antiochian Greek doctrine (doxa) spearheaded by Paul (himself a Hellenized Cilician Jew) and his followers be they 1. Established, autochthonous Hellenized Cilician-Western Syrian Jews (themselves descendants of Babylonian and 'Asian' Jewish migrants who had adopted early on various elements of Greek culture and civilization while retaining a generally conservative attachment to Jewish laws & traditions), 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" (Greek: προσήλυτος/proselytes or 'newcomers to Israel') 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' (Libyan) 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:

[North African] Cyrenian Jews were of sufficient importance in those days to have their name associated with a synagogue at Jerusalem (Acts 6:9). And when the persecution arose about Stephen [a Hellenized Syrian-Cilician Jew, and one of the first known converts to Christianity], some of these Jews of Cyrene who had been converted at Jerusalem, were scattered abroad and came with others to Antioch [...] and one of them, Lucius, became a prophet in the early church there [the Greek-speaking 'Orthodox' Church of Antioch].[16]

These subtle, progressive socio-cultural shifts are somehow summarized succinctly in Chapter 3 of the Epistle to the Galatians:

There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither slave nor free: there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).[17]

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

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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 (Southeastern Turkey) and Syria/Lebanon:

The mixture of Roman, Greek, and Jewish elements admirably adapted Antioch for the great part it played in the early history of Christianity. The city was the cradle of the church.[18]

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 (Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople) and Vatican (Roman Catholic) 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 (روم) which means "Eastern Romans" or "Asian Greeks" in Arabic. In that particular context, the term "Rūm" is used in preference to "Yūnāniyyūn" (يونانيون) which means "European Greeks" or "Ionians" in Biblical Hebrew (borrowed from Old Persian Yavan = Greece) 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

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Following the fall of the Turkish Ottoman Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire (long the protector of Greek-Orthodox minorities in the Levant), 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 (viewed as ideologies potentially exclusive of Byzantine Christian minorities).

This often led to interfaith conflicts with the Maronite Church in Lebanon, notably regarding Palestinian refugees after 1948 and 1967. Various (sometimes secular) 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.[19]

Abraham Dimitri Rihbany

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In the early 20th century (notably during World War I), Lebanese-American writers of Greek-Orthodox Antiochian background such as Abraham Dimitri Rihbany, known as Abraham Mitrie Rihbany (a convert to Presbyterianism), 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

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

The Patriarch

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Main article: Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch

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.[20]

Archdioceses and metropolitans

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World jurisdictions of Eastern Orthodox churches as of 2022.

Source:[21]

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

Western Asia

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Asia and Oceania

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Europe

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The Americas

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Titular dioceses and bishops

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Source:[43]

  • Diocese of Shahba: Niphon Saykali (1988–), elevated to archbishop in 2009 and elevated to metropolitan in 2014, Representative of the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East at the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
  • Diocese of Darayya: Moussa Khoury (1995–), Patriarchal Assistant – Damascus
  • Diocese of Saidnaya: Luka Khoury (1999–), Patriarchal Assistant – Damascus
  • Diocese of Banias: Demetrios Charbak (2011–), Auxiliary Bishop in Safita, Archdiocese of Akkar
  • Diocese of Arthoussa: Elias Toumeh (2011–), Auxiliary Bishop in Marmarita, Archdiocese of Akkar
  • Diocese of Zabadani: Constantine Kayal (2011–), Abbot of St Elias – Shwayya Patriarchal Monastery
  • Diocese of Palmyra: Youhanna Haikal (2011–), Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Germany and Central Europe
  • Diocese of Edessa: Romanos Daoud (2011–), Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of São Paulo and Brazil
  • Diocese of the Emirates: Gregorios Khoury-Abdallah (2014–), Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch
  • Diocese of Erzurum: Qays Sadek (2014–), Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch
  • Diocese of Resafa: Youhanna Batash (2017–)
  • Diocese of Apamea: Theodore Ghandour (2017–)
  • Diocese of Diyarbakır: Paul Yazigi (2021–)[24]

Retired bishops

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Daughter churches

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Arman Akopian (December 11, 2017). "Other branches of Syriac Christianity: Melkites and Maronites". Introduction to Aramean and Syriac Studies. Gorgias Press. p. 217. ISBN 978-1-4632-3893-3. The main center of Aramaic-speaking Melkites was Palestine. During the 5th-6th centuries, they were engaged in literary, mainly translation work in the local Western Aramaic dialect, known as "Palestinian Christian Aramaic", using a script closely resembling the cursive Estrangela of Osrhoene. Palestinian Melkites were mostly Jewish converts to Christianity, who had a long tradition of using Palestinian Aramaic dialects as literary languages. Closely associated with the Palestinian Melkites were the Melkites of Transjordan, who also used Palestinian Christian Aramaic. Another community of Aramaic-speaking Melkites existed in the vicinity of Antioch and parts of Syria. These Melkites used Classical Syriac as a written language, the common literary language of the overwhelming majority of Christian Arameans.
  2. ^ All the metropolitans are now required to be proficient in Arabic per the Church's statutes.
  3. ^ Hore, Alexander Hugh (1899). Eighteen Centuries of the Orthodox Greek Church. James Parker. pp. 281–282.
  4. ^ Ioseliani, P. (1866). A Short History of the Georgian Church. Saunders, Otley and Company.
  5. ^ Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East Archived May 30, 2019, at the Wayback Machine at World Council of Churches
  6. ^ Wehr, Hans. Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (4th ed.). p. 428.
  7. ^ a b "Fragmented in space: the oral history narrative: of an Arab Christian from Antioch, Turkey" (PDF).
  8. ^ Gorman, Anthony (2015). Diasporas of the Modern Middle East: Contextualising Community. Edinburgh University Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-7486-8613-1.
  9. ^ Eastern Orthodox Churches Archived March 29, 2019, at the Wayback Machine at World Council of Churches
  10. ^ Todt, Klaus-Peter (2004). "Antioch in the Middle Byzantine period (969–1084): the reconstruction of the city as an administrative, economic, military and ecclesiastical center". Topoi. Orient-Occident. 5 (1): 182, 189. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  11. ^ Bailey, Betty Jane; Bailey, J. Martin. Who Are the Christians in the Middle East? (1st ed.). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. p. 63.
  12. ^ PR Ackroyd: The Cambridge History of the Bible: Volume 1, From the Beginnings to Jerome, CUP 1963
  13. ^ Abou Ackl, Rand. "The Construction of the Architectural Background in Melkite Annunciation Icons." Chronos 38 (2018): 147–170
  14. ^ " History of Christianity in Syria ", Catholic Encyclopedia
  15. ^ " Conflict and Diversity in the Earliest Christian Community" Archived 2013-05-10 at the Wayback Machine, Fr. V. Kesich, O.C.A.
  16. ^ " Epistle to the Cyrene", International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
  17. ^ "Epistle to the Galatians" Archived 2020-12-30 at the Wayback Machine, New Testament
  18. ^ "Antioch," Encyclopaedia Biblica, Vol. I, p. 186 (p. 125 of 612 in online .pdf file. Warning: Takes several minutes to download).
  19. ^ Geschichtskonstrukt und Konfession im Libanon, Wolf-Hagen von Angern, Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH, 2010
  20. ^ "Election de SE Monseigneur Jean Patriarche d'Antioche et de tout l'Orient". December 17, 2012.
  21. ^ "Archdioceses – Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East". Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  22. ^ "بطريركية انطاكية للروم الأرثوذكس 2021 Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch". Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  23. ^ أبرشية عكار وتوابعها للروم الأرثوذكس | موقع ابرشية عكار للروم الارثوذكس (in Arabic). Archived from the original on March 3, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  24. ^ a b "Bishop Ephreim Maalouli: Metropolitan of Aleppo, Alexandretta and their Dependencies". Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. October 7, 2021. Archived from the original on October 8, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  25. ^ "Welcome to the website of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Beirut". www.quartos.org.lb. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  26. ^ "GoCarch – Baghdad, Kuwait and Dependencies". Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  27. ^ "Baghdad, Kuwait and Dependencies – Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East". Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. Archived from the original on April 18, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  28. ^ الرئيسية – أبرشية بصرى حوران وجبل العرب و الجولان للروم الأرثوذكس. www.orthodoxhauran.com. Archived from the original on September 11, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  29. ^ "Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of Mount Lebanon". Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of Mount Lebanon. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  30. ^ "Hama and Dependencies – Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East". Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. Archived from the original on April 18, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  31. ^ "Homs and Dependencies – Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East". Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. Archived from the original on April 18, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  32. ^ "Lattakia and Dependencies – Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East". Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. Archived from the original on September 11, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  33. ^ "الرئيسيّة". archtripoli.org. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  34. ^ "Tyre, Sidon and Dependencies – Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East". Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. Archived from the original on September 15, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  35. ^ الموقع الإلكتروني لأبرشيّة زحلة وبعلبك وتوابعهما للروم الأرثوذكس. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  36. ^ "Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America". www.antiochian.org. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
  37. ^ "Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America". www.antiochian.org. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
  38. ^ "Antiochian Diocese of Miami and the Southeast – Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of America". domse.org. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  39. ^ "Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America". www.antiochian.org. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
  40. ^ "Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America". www.antiochian.org. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
  41. ^ "Español". July 4, 2020. Archived from the original on July 4, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  42. ^ "Igreja Ortodoxa Antioquina". arquidiocese. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  43. ^ "Auxiliary Bishops – Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East". Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. Retrieved February 6, 2022.

Sources

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