Metropolitan PHILIP on the Vicariate for Palestinian/Jordanian Communities in the USA
On August 7, His Eminence Metropolitan PHILIP (Saliba), Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of All North America released instructions for the clergy and faithful of the Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America regarding the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America's creation of a "Vicariate for Palestinian/Jordanian Communities in the USA." Our Archpastor's message begins:
"On August 5th, 2008, The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America issued a press release which established a vicariate with the name "Vicariate for Palestinian/Jordanian Communities in the USA". The membership of this vicariate will consist of those communities in the USA which were originally a part of the Patriarchate of Antioch, but most recently (since 1993) were uncanonically claimed by the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. From an historical perspective, it has been clear since the disintegration of Orthodox unity which existed in North America until 1917, that the Arabic-speaking Orthodox people in North America have been exclusively under the pastoral care of the Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. Similarly, the Greek-speaking Orthodox people (e.g. Cypriot, Greek, Egyptian, Turkish, etc.) have always been under the pastoral care of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. What reaction would occur if the Antiochian Archdiocese were to establish a vicariate for Greek communities which separate themselves from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese?!"