Thanks for posting the article, however, it failed to distinguish clearly between "autocephalous" and "autonomous." The Antiochians in North America are becoming autonomous within the autocephalous Church of Antioch. Their North American Synod will be a "sub-synod" or "sub-set" of the larger, full Synod in Antioch (Damascus). The Synod in Damascus retains authority to revoke the autonomyif needed, for example.
The boast of 350,000 members is preposterous. If there are 350 Antiochian parishes (I think that the actual number is closer to 250), there would be 1,000 members per parish. And this is not true.
May God guide them as they labour in His garden.
In Christ,
Andrew