The Melkite Patriarch has episcopal vicars in Both Alexandria and Jerusalem. I'm not sure whether there are a lot of Melkites in Egypt, but the biggest Catholic church (not sure if it is the biggest church) in Israel is Melkite.
I would like to remind that the Melkite Patriarchal vicar in Jerusalem has jurisdiction over the Melkites in Jerusalem and the West bank. The Melkites in the State of Israel are organized in the Archdiocese of Acre, Haifa, Nazareth and all Galilee. (As for the biggest church there I think the Eastern Orthodox are more numerous).
I would mention the fact that the metropolitan see of Alba Iulia and Fagaras of the Romanians didn't have even before the Union of 1698-1700 a tradition of patriarchate, but more of an autonomous metropolitan see. Even the Romanian Patriarchy is very young, belonging to the first part of the 20th century.
The see of Kyiv has a long story way before being undertaken and 'transferred' to Moscow. Even today, the Russian metropolitan of Kyviv - Moscow patriarchate - has the title "Beatitude", as far as I am aware.
About the Patriarchy of Antioch, I believe nobody has a doubt about its tradition.
On a related matter, I must apologize: turns out (from still photographs) that Patriarch Lubomyr was present at Patriarch Sviatoslav's enthronement, although Patriarch Lubomyr did not concelebrate (one must remember that Patriarch Lubomyr is blind).
It also turns out that Patriarch Gregory III of Antioch and so on did concelebrate.
He did send a letter of greeting to His Beatitude which included the following:
Quote
“I hope that during the time of your go-verning [sic] the UOC and the UGCC will develop good and constructive relations, the difficult period of our relationship will stay in the past and we will jointly fight the aggressive manifestations of secularism in our country,...our common goal is to educate the future generations of our compatriots on the basis of gospel values, as it will guarantee a harmonious development of Ukrainian society.” “I believe that by our joint efforts, accordingly to Kobzar ‘we’ll restore our peaceful paradise with the name of Christ.’”
A Patriarchate comes into being in an organic way through the process of tradition; we learn this from history. It has never happened that the Pope "created a patriarchate". This we also learn from hstory. [I am not referring to the "Latin patriarchates" here, although confusion arises because the Latins have often mistakenly thought that the Eastern Patriarchates have no more significance than the "Latin Patriarchates" do or did.]
Patriarch Joseph understood this very well and acted accordingly. It appears that Patriarch Sviatoslav will do the same.
Who is the "Patriarchal Proto-Deacon"? He's cool! (He wears a kamilavka)
(I presume he is not an Archdeacon mostly because he does not have a beard)
I don't know his name, but I believe he is the same gentleman who served as deacon during the papal liturgies in June 2001. He has a wonderful strong voice.
I wonder who represented the other Eastern Catholic Churches at the inthronization? I thought I saw the top of a Syro-Malabar mitre... Does anyone have more information?
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