St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church
Serving Emmaus and the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania
On Saturday, December 6, St. Paul’s pastor Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick attended the enthronement services of the newly-elected Metropolitan Joseph, which were presided over by Patriarch John X of Antioch. Also in attendance were other St. Paul’s faithful and many hundreds of the clergy and faithful from through the Archdiocese, as well as most of the Metropolitans of the Holy Synod of Antioch and many other bishops.
On Wednesday, December 10, 2014, twelve of the faithful from St. Paul’s traveled to St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Little Falls, New Jersey, to attend Vespers and a reception following. St. Paul’s pastor Fr. Andrew concelebrated the Vespers service with other clergy, which was presided over by His Beatitude, Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East.
At the completion of Vespers, a gift icon was given by the local parish to the patriarch, and speeches were made by His Beatitude, along with His Eminence, Metropolitan Joseph and the local pastor, the Archpriest Dmitri Darwich.
At the reception, all those gathered individually received the blessing of the Patriarch and Metropolitan and spoke with them briefly.
We have received word that the Holy Synod of Antioch today elected His Eminence, Archbishop JOSEPH (Al-Zehlaoui) of Los Angeles as Metropolitan of New York and All North America.
You can read Metropolitan JOSEPH’s biography here.
As of the morning of July 3, the synod is still meeting at the Balamand Monastery in Tripoli, Lebanon, and there may well be additional announcements released today.