Damascus and Lebanese Power Centers in the Church of Antioch under Patriarch Theodosius VI (1958–1970)

Article in Elibrary

Received: 04/28/2023

Accepted: 06/29/2023

Keywords: Theodosius VI (Abou Rjaileh); Alexander III (Tahan); Patriarchate of Antioch; the Orthodox Arabs; Russia and the Orthodox East; Syria; Lebanon

Available in the on-line version with: 27.10.2023

To cite this article

Evgeny M. Kopot’ Damascus and Lebanese Power Centers in the Church of Antioch under Patriarch Theodosius VI (1958–1970). // Lomonosov Oriental Studies Journal. 2023. Vol. 67. N 2,67 p.60-69 https://doi.org/10.55959/MSU0320-8095-13-67-2-4.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribiution - NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Evgeny M. Kopot’ (Moscow Pedagogical State University (MPGU))

Abstract

The article deals with the situation of Antiochian Orthodox Church in contemporary Syria and Lebanon. With the example of Antioch Patriarch Theodosius’s reign the author makes an attempt to analyze the Patriarchate’s inner life as well as a set of external factors that had an influence on it. In the middle of the 20th century, the canonical territory of the Antioch Patriarchate became an object of intense rivalry between the Cold War blocs. The traditional competition between Damascus and Beirut is coupled with the emergence of the independent states of Syria and Lebanon, which leads to a church management crisis, which has repeatedly been on the verge of a split. At the same time, the Greek and Russian influence, which has a long history, is filled with a new content, becoming an internal factor in the life of the Orthodox community. The Lebanese region and the Greek party within the patriarchy had a pronounced pro-Western orientation, while the Syrian group was closer to an alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church and the USSR. Great value in the transformation of the patriarchate was played by “The Orthodox Youth Movement”, which by the end of Patriarch Theodosius’s reign had won key synodal positions and determined the pro-Greek bias in the external church relations.

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