The Patriarch

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His Beatitude John X, Patriarch of Antioch All the East

The Orthodox Old Roman Catholic Communion considers itself ultimately under the Apostolic patronage of the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East: St. Peter’s Chair, His Beatitude John X of Syria presiding; as affirmed by the joint Holy Synod of Old Roman Catholic jurisdictions in Brighton, 2014 and in Chicago 2017. We are in spiritual union with His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople the New Rome, with His Holiness Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria, with His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill of the Moscow Patriarchate and with all the Canonical Sees, local and autocephalous Churches of the one Holy Orthodox Catholic Church.

On August 5th, 1911, a conference took place in Bredon’s Norton, Worcestershire, attended by Metropolitan Gerassimos Messarra, Archbishop of Beirut, Legate of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East together with Archbishop Arnold Harris Mathew and others in Great Britain, formerly a mission of the Old Roman Catholic Church of Utrecht. After a long and full discussion, the faith of the Old Roman Catholic Church under Archbishop Mathew was considered in full accord with that of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Archbishop Mathew was then solemnly received by Mgr Messarra on behalf of Patriarch Gregory IV (Haddad) and the Old Roman Catholic Western Orthodox Church into union with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East as an autocephalous i.e. self-ruling jurisdiction of the Holy Synod. On February 26th, 1912, His Holiness, Photius, Pope and Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria also accepted and recognised this union.

Despite the loss of the original Western Orthodox mission in Great Britain after Archbishop Mathew’s demise (memory eternal), the Old Roman Catholic Western Orthodox Church was preserved and continued with Syro Malankara Church Mission. It is the legacy of these prelates that the Orthodox Old Roman Catholic Communion holds extant communion with the Patriarchate and derives its canonical status, currently being revisited with the Patriarchate.