Patriarchate of Antioch

THE PATRIARCHATE OF ANTIOCH
The city of Antioch on-the-Orontes was the most important city of the Roman Province of Syria, and, as such, served as the capital city of the Empire's civil "Diocese of the East." The Church in Antioch dates back to the days of the foremost apostles, SS. Peter and Paul, as is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. Scripture refers to Antioch as the place where the followers of Jesus Christ were first called "Christians" (Acts 11.26), and records that Nicholas, one of the original seven deacons, was from that city -- and may have been its first convert (Acts 6.5). During the persecution of the Church which followed the death of St. Stephen the Proto-Martyr, members of the infant community in Jerusalem sought refuge in Antioch (Acts 11.19), and while St. Peter served as the first bishop of the city, SS. Paul and Barnabas set out on their great missionary journeys to Gentile lands (Acts 13.1) -- establishing a tradition which would last for centuries, as from Antioch missionaries planted churches throughout greater Syria, Asia Minor, the Caucasus Mountains, and Mesopotamia. At the first Ecumenical Council , convened in the city of Nicaea in the year 325 by Emperor Constantine the Great, the primacy of the bishop of Antioch over all bishops of the civil Diocese of the East was formally sanctioned. Following the third Ecumenical Council , held in Ephesus in the year 431, the first of several divisions occurred in the Patriarchate of Antioch. The followers of Nestorius disputed the council's definition of the nature of Christ, and formed a separate, parallel hierarchy. Most Nestorians lived outside the Byzantine Empire in Persia, today known as Iran. At the fourth Ecumenical Council , held in Chalcedon in the year 451, the Bishop of Antioch was "promoted" to the rank of "Patriarch". Thereafter, continuing disputes about the nature of Christ caused another portion of the ancient Patriarchate to separate, forming a hierarchy often referred to as the "Jacobites" after their theological leader, Jacob Baradai. Today they are usually known as the "Syrian Orthodox Church". They are a member of the Oriental Orthodox family of churches. The Orthodox were termed "Melkites" -- meaning followers of the [Byzantine] Emperor. From the seventh century onward , many Christians living in isolation on Mount Lebanon identified themselves with the Monk Marun, and came to organize another separate hierarchy, the Maronites . In the twelfth century the Maronites became the first part of the Patriarchate to unite with Rome. The "Great Schism" of 1054 resulted in the separation of Rome, seat of the Patriarchate of the West, from the four Eastern Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. In 1724 a portion of the Orthodox Patriarchate vowed allegiance to Rome and appropriated for themselves exclusively the ancient name "Melkite" , joining the family of "Greek-Catholic" or "Uniate" churches. The Orthodox continued to be known as the "Greek-Orthodox" -- or "Rum" in Arabic. During the reign of the Egyptian Mamelukes, conquerors of Syria in the 13th century, the Patriarchal residence was transferred to the ancient city of Damascus , where a Christian community had flourished since apostolic times (Acts 9), and which had succeeded earthquake-prone Antioch as the civil capital of Syria. The Patriarchate has jurisdiction over all dioceses within its ancient geographic boundaries (Syria and Lebanon) as well as others in the Americas, Australia, and Western Europe. Its headquarters is located in Damascus on the "Street called Straight" (Acts 9.11).

THE ANTIOCHIAN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN ARCHDIOCESE
OF NORTH AMERICA -- A History from its beginnings until the granting of "Self Rule" status by the Patriarchate of Antioch (October 2004)
In the late 19th century , events in their homelands forced Antiochian Christians to join the ranks of Europeans who emigrated to other parts of the world. The spiritual needs of those who settled in North America were first met through the "Syro-Arabian Mission" of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has had a presence in North America since 1794. in 1895, a "Syrian Orthodox Benevolent Society" was organized by Antiochian immigrants in New York City, with Dr. Ibrahim Arbeely, a prominent Damascene physician, serving as its first president. Conscious of the needs of his fellow countrymen and co-religionists, Dr. Arbeely wrote to Raphael Hawaweeny , a young Damascene clergyman serving as Professor of the Arabic Language at the Orthodox Theological Academy in Kazan, Russia, inviting him to come to New York to organize and pastor the first Arabic-speaking parish on the continent. Fr. Raphael, a missionary at heart, went to the imperial capital of St. Petersburg to meet with His Grace, Nicholas, ruling bishop of the Russian Diocese of the Aleutian Islands and North America, who was then in Russia to recruit new missionaries. After being canonically received under the omophorion of Bishop NICHOLAS, Father Hawaweeny arrived in the United States on November 17, 1895. Upon his arrival in New York, Archimandrite Raphael established a parish at 77 Washington Street in lower Manhattan, at the center of the Syrian immigrant community. By 1900, approximately 3,000 of these immigrants had moved across the East River, shifting the community center to Brooklyn. Accordingly, in 1902, the parish purchased a larger church building in that borough, at 301-303 Pacific Street. The Church, assigned to the heavenly patronage of St. Nicholas, the Wonderworker of Myra in Lycia, was renovated for Orthodox worship and consecrated on October 27, 1902, by NICHOLAS' successor, Archbishop TIKHON . St. Nicholas Cathedral later relocated to 355 State Street, Brooklyn, and is today considered the "mother parish" of the Archdiocese. At the request of Archbishop TIKHON, Hawaweeny was elected to serve as his vicar bishop, to head the Syro-Arabian Mission. His consecration as "Bishop of Brooklyn" took place at St. Nicholas Church on Pacific Street on March 12, 1904. Bishop RAPHAEL thus became the first Orthodox bishop of any nationality to be consecrated in North America. He crisscrossed the United States and Canada, and even ventured deep into Mexico, visiting his scattered flock and gathering them into parish communities. He founded al-Kalimat [The Word] magazine in 1905, and published many liturgical books in Arabic for use in his parishes, in the Middle East, and in emigration around the world. After a brief but very fruitful ministry, Bishop RAPHAEL fell asleep in Christ on February 27, 1915, at the age of fifty-four. Not long afterwards, the tragedy of the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia brought financial and administrative ruin to the Orthodox churches in North America, and shattered the measure of unity they had enjoyed. Movements arose in every ethnic group to divide it into ecclesiastical factions. Deprived of its beloved founded and bishop, the small Syro-Arabian Mission fell victim to this divisiveness, and it would take sixty years from the death of Bishop RAPHAEL -- in June of 1975 -- for total jurisdictional and administrative unity to be restored to the children of Antioch in North America. Some communities desired to remain under the jurisdiction of the Russian Church, while others opted to be received into the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Antioch. The hierarchs of that period were: Metropolitan GERMANOS (Shehadi), Archbishop AFTIMIOS (Ofiesh), Archbishop VICTOR (Abo-Assaley), and Bishop EMMANUEL (Abo-Hatab). By 1936, all of the parishes were in one or two Antiochian archdioceses -- the Archdiocese of New York, headed by Metropolitan ANTONY (Bashir) , and the Archdiocese of Toledo, Ohio, and Dependencies, headed by Metropolitan SAMUEL (David). A pioneer in the use of the English language in the Orthodox churches in the New World, the Antiochian Archdiocese has since 1917 kept in print and available Isabel Hapgood's pioneering English Service Book ; it printed the first English music books for choirs in the 1920s; and its Father Seraphim Nassar produced in 1938 the first - and still the only - comprehensive collection of texts needed for the chanting of complete services in English (The Book of Divine Prayers and Services). A full-fledged publishing department was established in 1940, and it has produced and distributed numerous titles in religious education sacred music, and liturgical services. Thousands of people of various ethnic and racial backgrounds have "come home" to the Orthodox Church and have found a spiritual home in the parishes of the Antiochian Archdiocese, joining with Americans and Canadians of Middle Eastern descent to make the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America a vibrant witness for Christ and his Church. The New Future On June 24, 1975, Metropolitan PHILIP (Saliba) succeeded Antony Bashir in 1966. Together with his counterpart in the Antiochian Archdiocese of Toledo, Ohio, and Dependencies, Metropolitan MICHAEL (Shaheen), he signed Articles of Reunification restoring administrative unity among all Antiochian Orthodox Christians in the United States and Canada. This document was presented to the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate, which ratified the contents on August 19, 1975, recognizing PHILIP as Metropolitan-Primate and MICHAEL as Auxiliary-Archbishop. Archbishop MICHAEL fell asleep in the Lord on October 24, 1992.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: V.Rev. Antony Gabriel, "A Retrospective: one hundred years of Antiochian Orthodox Christianity in North America," in The First one hundred years: a centennial anthology celebrating Antiochian Orthodoxy in North America (Englewood, NJ: Antakya Press, 1995), pp. 237-286.
Garrett, Paul D., "Eastern Christianity," Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience (New York, Scribner's), I:325-344 -- an extended treatment of the broader historical context of Orthodoxy in North America.
Fitzgerald, Thomas, The Orthodox Church (Denominations in America, 7) (Westport, CT : Greenwood Press, 1995) -- the first full-length study of Orthodoxy in America.
http://www.antiochian.org/671

The Patriarchate of Antioch

Patriarch Ignatius IV

by Patriarch Ignatius IV of Antioch
Member of the WCC's Central Committee, and Moderator of the Sub-unit on
Renewal and Congregational Life.

To understand our situation, it may help to know a little about the history of the Middle East from which I come. The region has not known much peace throughout its history. The first crusade - that is, the first war of a religious nature - came in the seventh century from the south; the second from Europe. The third, which has probably just started, comes again from the south. We will thus have had three movements: Islam coming to the Church, the Oriental churches; then, in the so-called Christian crusades, the West adding a new element; and, as some believe, the third crusade, the strong thrust of the ancient Jewish religion. We have always been in a state of turmoil; we have been for long years, for centuries, the battlefield of various crusades.

SITUATION OF THE MIDDLE EAST REGION

The See of Antioch includes Lebanon, Syria and Iraq - and reaches out even to Australia and North America. So when I speak of my Church, I do not set it in a country, but in a region. We are a minority in that region; this fact has psychological as well as ecclesiastical, or rather ecclesial, repercussions.

The Church in our region is face to face with other religions, and by religion I do not mean just Islam but also the political religions. One sometimes forgets that these religions are over against ours. And it is necessary to take some sort of position vis-a-vis them but not against them.

It seems that everyone has the right to speak out openly against the Church, against Christ and Holy Scripture, but the Church and Scriptures do not have the same right to express themselves in face of, or over against, the others. Many seem to find this normal, but we do not; we in our region would like to be able to speak out because we believe that our long history shows that we are truly rooted there, that we are authentically there, an integral part of it and at home there by the will of God and not by some historical accident. We are called to witness, therefore, in a certain way.

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

We have the great hope that God is not just behind us in history but also ahead of us. He is an object of hope. We believe deeply that the future belongs to God. For us, witness is carried on in the community and through the community, by grace, modestly, and in humility. We sow and then leave to God the time of harvest.

The Church belongs to the very heart of God's intentions. Every Orthodox believes that the Church is an expression of God's will on earth. That is why we take it very seriously and do not regard it as a kind of committee, an office, an administration, or a rigid body. That which is understood by the word "Church" is exactly that which is understood by the word "community." Whenever an Orthodox speaks of community he is ipso facto speaking of the Church and if the Church is not that, it has no raison d'etre at all. It could be replaced by other agencies established to fulfill certain practical purposes. For me, what we call the confessing community, the Church, is made up of three components.

THREE COMPONENTS OF THE CHURCH

The first, and very important, is the family. I know that the family is not very important in some western societies. For us the concept of the family is absolutely essential for the life of the Church. Why? Because above all, life in a community is existential; it is not something rational and conceptual. It is a way of living that involves one's whole being in relationships with other human beings who are the members of the family. What are some of the characteristics of this family life which foreshadow for us the full life of the Church? There is first of all love, that love of which we talk much but which is not often lived. This love gives rise to a faith and trust in others; it gives rise to hope in the total family life and manifests itself in both sacrifice and joy.

Another component of the Church, one that is related directly to the family, is the religious community. This religious community is a model for the community at large in that the relationship between the community members is founded on forgetfulness of self. We are often self-centered, concerned about our own interests. In the religious community personal interests, when they exist, take second place and the interests of the other have first place.

We often regard ourselves as infallible and are encouraged in this attitude by the systems under which we live. In a religious community one admits that "my sin is the cause of all this in the world". Then the question of purification becomes very important and this purification can only take place through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, through the relationship to the Holy Trinity.

In the religious life we refuse to recognize any other saviour than the Lord, any other spirit than the Holy Spirit, and any other god than the Father. This is a very radical position, radical enough to hold its own over against the radicalism of this world; that radicalism in which, to a large degree, we share.

The third component is more serene. It does not have the tensions that exist between the reality of this world and the reality that is asked by God and Holy Scriptures; it is the community of the saints. We forget the saints. They are heroes; they are fools. In their spiritual life for God they are people who are ready to be called crazy. The saints who contemplate God do not have the kind of split personality that many of us have. One of our biggest problems is that we are so split apart, so disoriented, that we no longer see the relationship and the unity between the many divisive elements that we try to hold together. A very important element in the community of the saints is unity. They are one in the Lord; they are one around the Lord. They prefigure the Kingdom which we hope and pray for.

This element of unity so necessary in the unity both of the family and of the life of the religious community is the unity of the community of the saints; that is what we are really looking for. This unity is an expression of love. Where there is disunity there is a failure of love. Those who love each other do not find that their differences lead to schism, to division, to separation and to antagonism. Here, it seems to me, are the components of the life of the confessing community; together they show us the confessing community at its most dynamic and in its truest form.
The Word Magazine, September, 1981 Page 6-7

Welcoming His Beatitude
Patriarch Ignatius to America
Brooklyn, New York, July 11, 1999

Address delivered on behalf of the
Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops (SCOBA)
By Metropolitan + Theodosius
Archbishop of Washington, DC
Metropolitan of All America and Canada,
Primate of the Orthodox Church in America

Your Beatitude, Saidna Ignatius:

It is a great privilege for me to welcome you to the United States on behalf of the Standing Conference of Orthodox Canonical Bishops in America. It is also a personal joy for me to share your table and to stress to you how important your visit is for all Orthodox Christians in America.

Your Beatitude is aware of the abnormal state of affairs that has weakened the ministry of the Church in North America. The core of our ecclesiology has been weakened by a plurality of jurisdictions. The very fiber of the Church has been frayed by the lack of canonical ecclesial unity which has compromised the existence and vision of the Church so powerfully expressed by Saint Paul in his letter to the Ephesians "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, Who is above all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:4-6).

The oneness existing between the living God and the human person has as its very context the oneness of the local Church, which so many in America yearn to realize. Yet, it is no secret that this oneness has been forsaken because of fear, ignorance, pride and indifference.

Dear Brother and Concelebrant, I turn to you, the Patriarch of the Holy See of Antioch and All the East to help by encouraging all the hierarchs in America to understand that there is no viable alternative to having one, local and canonical Orthodox Church in America. I turn to Your Beatitude hoping that the Church of Antioch and All the East will help convince the Primates of the Mother Churches that ecclesial normalcy in America can only bolster the mission of the Church throughout the world and that a local American Church can only strengthen the ties with the Mother Churches.

The Antiochian presence in North America has been instrumental in raising the call for ecclesial unity. It was Metropolitan Anthony Bashir of blessed memory who saw that the Church could be faithful to its missionary calling only if it opened its doors to all people. His successor, Metropolitan Philip, has not only continued this legacy but is one of the strongest voices calling for canonical unity. Through Metropolitan Philip the Church of Antioch is seen in North America as one of the most vibrant Churches in the world. Saidna Philip continues to teach America that in spite of the many difficulties and challenges, in spite of its many persecutions and betrayals, the Church of Antioch will never cease to proclaim the Gospel. I may add here that through Metropolitan Philip the voice of Antioch will never cease calling for ecclesial unity in North America. Together with the Orthodox Church in America, the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese has consistently called for an end to jurisdictional pluralism. Together with the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Philip has forcefully and eloquently rejected the uncanonical notion of Orthodox Diaspora.

As this century comes to an end, we need to remember another great son of Antioch, Bishop Raphael Hawaweeny. Born in the Middle East, educated in Halki and Kazan, Russia, and serving first as a priest then as a bishop of the Russian Archdiocese of North America, Bishop Raphael personifies the universality of Orthodox Christianity. As the first consecrated Orthodox bishop in North America, Bishop Raphael witnesses to the fundamental fact that Christ, His Gospel and His Church cannot be confined or restricted by ethnicity. Truly he was a man of God for all people, Orthodox and non-Orthodox. He was a man whose purpose in life was the salvation of souls. This simple yet powerful and profound lesson must not be allowed to be undermined by jurisdictional pluralism. Indeed, Bishop Raphael has shown us that the universality of the Church -- the universality of the living body of Christ -- can only be truly expressed in the context of ecclesial unity.

Your Beatitude, I along with so many others now look to you as the one who will boldly proclaim out to the Orthodox world the need for ecclesial unity in North America. I and so many others look to you and your holy Church to speak out against the fear, ignorance, pride and indifference which seeks to maintain the status quo. May God grant that your words will touch the minds and hearts of all those responsible for maintaining the ecclesial integrity of the Gospel throughout the world. With love and deep respect we embrace and welcome you.
Posted on the Orthodox Church in America Website, July 11, 1999

One of the most persuasive voices for change
in the Orthodox church today comes from the current
Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius IV

Published in The Chicago Tribune , July 23, 1999
posted on Voithia (www.voitiha.org)

by Steve Kloehn

From ancient tradition comes a persuasive voice for change.
Antioch was the city where the early Christian church learned that most modern of skills, accommodating change.

It was in Antioch, according to the New Testament Book of Acts, that controversy broke out over whether newcomers to the church, Gentiles, had to be circumcised to gain salvation.

It was to Antioch that the apostles delivered a letter declaring that Gentiles need not be circumcised to become followers of Jesus, but were required to follow certain scriptural laws that would allow Gentiles and Jews to live and worship Jesus together.

That particular adaptation of sacred tradition to new conditions was not universally acclaimed at that time; it wasn't how they did things in the more conservative church of Jerusalem.

But the compromise has been cited by scholars as the turning point, a moment of genius that allowed the movement to burst out of the Jewish world and spread throughout Europe and Asia Minor.

So perhaps it should not come as a surprise that one of the most persuasive voices for change in the Orthodox church today comes from the current Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius IV.

"We think, really, that we should be preparing for the future," Patriarch Ignatius said in an interview this week during his visit to Chicago. "The future cannot always be a copy of the past."

At 79, with a gray beard and collar-length white hair, dressed from head to toe in white, the Patriarch of Antioch looks every bit the occupant of one of the four ancient seats of Orthodoxy, overseeing an Arab Christian minority in the ancient Middle East.

But he also presides over the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, one of a tangle of overlapping Orthodox jurisdictions that followed immigrants to the new world. The patriarch thinks that having separate Greek Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, Antiochian Orthodox and a host of other Orthodox Churches in America is wrong, and he says so freely. He favors one jurisdiction for all of North America.

"I myself said that we expect new patriarchates," he explained. "Why not? A patriarchate in North America, a patriarchate in South America, elsewhere. We don't see why not."

That is the explosive talk in Orthodox circles. Ignatius' visit coincides with a particularly tense moment in the Greek Orthodox Church, in which the hierarchy that has resisted moves toward pan-Orthodox unity in America is under fire from under its own people.

But it is not just Greek Orthodox who are struggling over authority and tradition here in America. The escalating Methodist battle over homosexuality is also a battle over authority - where it comes from, who has it, how it is used? Catholic controversies seem to return, inevitably, to questions of authority. And those are just the most prominent controversies; most every denomination has one if you look closely enough.

Patriarch Ignatius is hardly arguing that all traditions be ignored. Even as he calls for a unified Orthodox Church in America he wars against Western tendencies to rationalize, democratize and ultimately bulldoze ancient mysteries.

"We cannot come with a parliamentary spirit to the church," he said. "It's not a matter of the majority determining the truth. The truth comes from the Lord."

"There should be a very serious interest and concern about how to keep the spiritual orientation with the mother church? It is to the benefit of Christianity that the churches of the East not disappear, not become symbols. We are not a symbolic religion. We are an incarnational religion."

But despite the apparent reliance of many of the ancient patriarchates on the money and influence of their American offshoots, the Patriarch of Antioch seems unruffled by the idea of giving up direct control over the Antiochian church in America, if it is for the good of the faith.

Maybe that has something to do with the history of the church in Antioch as well. Torn by schism in the 5th Century, the patriarchate has existed side by side with the rival Syrian Orthodox Church for 1,500 years. In the 7th and 8th Centuries, the patriarchate survived persecution by the Arab invaders; from the 11th to the 13th Centuries, a Byzantine patriarchate continued in exile, as a Latin patriarchate set up by Crusaders took over in Antioch.

The patriarchate moved to Damascus in the 14th Century and was transferred from ethnic Greek to Arab Christian leadership at the end of the 19th Century.

In short, the Patriarchate of Antioch knows something about both the pain of division among Christians and about the resiliency of the faith even as its institutions take a beating.

And now, he says, the reality of instant global communication, of cultures that spread and blend, leaves the church no option than to look beyond old boundaries.

"We have to be in contact with everyone, not a tribe or a sect or a race. Through faith we talk to everyone," he said. "There is no human being on Earth we should not talk to. The Lord is the Lord of everyone." v

Brief Biography of His Beatitude
Ignatius IV
Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East

Phimi: The Most Reverend and Most Holy Father, Patriarch of Antioch, the Great City of God, of Syria, Lebanon, Arabia, Cilicia, Mesopotamia and all the East; Father of Fathers, Shepherd of Shepherds, Master of Masters, and Thirteenth of the Holy Apostles, our Father and Chief Shepherd: May God Grant Him Many Years!

The See of Antioch

The See of Antioch ranks third in honour among the 15 self governing Orthodox Churches all of whom are in communion with each other. The city of Antioch of Syria was founded in 301 BC on the banks of the Orontes River, about 20 miles inland from the East coast of the Mediterranean and 250 miles north of Jerusalem. Antioch was considered the third most important city of the Roman world after Rome and Alexandria. Christianity came to Antioch from among those converted at Pentecost. St. Paul and St. Barnabas preached there and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. There are references to the Christian community of Antioch throughout the Acts of the Apostles. The first Bishop of Antioch was St. Peter the Apostle, and the third, St. Ignatius, who became Bishop in 67 AD. and whose letters can still be read in the volume: "The Apostolic Fathers." St. John Chrysostom, whose Liturgy is served throughout the Orthodox world, and St. John of Damascus, the scholar and theologian who defended the Faith at the Seventh Ecumenical Council, were also from the Church of Antioch.When the Turks took the city of Antioch in the 15th Century, the See of Antioch was moved to Damascus, the capital of Syria, where it remains to this day.

Patriarch Ignatius lV

The present Patriarch of Antioch, His Beatitude, Ignatius lV (Hazim) is the one hundred and seventieth Patriarch after Saint Peter. He was born in 1921 in the village of Mhardey near Hama in Syria. He is the son of a pious Arab Orthodox family and from an early age was attracted to service within the Church. Whilst studying in Beirut, Lebanon, for a literature degree, he entered the service of the local Orthodox diocese, first by becoming an altar server, then a deacon. In 1945 he went to Paris where he graduated from the St. Sergius Theological Institute. From his time in France onwards he has been moved not only by a desire to pass on the deposit of the Faith, but also to take Orthodoxy out of its unhistorical ghetto by discovering in its Holy Tradition living answers to the problems of modern life. On his return to the Middle East, he founded the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Balamand, Lebanon which he then served for many years as Dean. As Dean he sought to provide the Patriarchate with responsible leaders who had received a good spiritual and intellectual training and who were witnesses to an awakened and deeply personal faith.

He became bishop in 1961 and Metropolitan of Lattaquiey in Syria in 1970. The new Metropolitan was a reserved and friendly man, who manifested a deep and courageous straightforwardness; he was simple, direct and down to earth. His style broke with the former tradition of episcopal grandeur and he inaugurated an authentic practice of frequent Communion. On 2 July 1979, under the name of Ignatius lV, he became the Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, the third ranking hierarch of the Orthodox Church after the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria. After his election as Patriarch he said:

"I know that I will be judged if I do not carry the Church and each one of you in my heart. It is not possible for me to address you as if I were different from you. No difference separates us. I am an integral part of you; I am in you and I ask you to be in me. For the Lord comes, and the Spirit descends on the brothers gathered, united in communion, as they manifest a diversity of charisms in the unity of the Spirit.

As Patriarch he has given a new dynamism to the Holy Synod and seen it name Bishops who are close to the people and who are motivated to develop the Church's ecclesial and spiritual life, detached from political factions. Above all, the Patriarch has sought and still seeks pastors who are as dedicated to their spiritual calling as he is himself.

http://www.balamandmonastery.org.lb/ignatios.htm