ArDO: Yes we want Lebanon to be the Switzerland of the East and Beirut the Paris of the East
 

  

His Holiness Patriarch Mar Ignatius Zakka the first Iwas to heaven

عربي

20140321


After a long struggle with the disease, On friday the twenty first of March 2014, His Holiness Mar Ignatius Zakka I Iwas , Patriarch of Antioch and All the East Syriac Orthodox has gone to heaven.
His Holiness was born in Mosul - Iraq 1933.
He completed his elementary discipline in the ¨tahzib lelahdath school and Mar Thoma Syrian Orthodox church in Mosul.
He belonged to the theological school in Mosul in the academic year of 1946 - 1947 and was named Zacchaeus. He graduated with honor and received a diploma in theology, church history, science, laws plus Syriac, Arabic and English languages in 1954. Then he joined the Diwan of writing in Dar Patriarchate in Homs second secretary in 1955 during the reign of the holy mercyful Patriarch Ephrem I Barsoum.
He was appointed by the patriarch Jacob the third as the first secretary of the Patriarchate in 1957.
In 1960 he joined the faculty of the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York to gain from it an honorary doctorate in theology in 1962.

He was appointed an official observer at theVatican for the two sessions of 1962 and 1963.
He was Ordained a bishop of the conductor and accessories on behalf of Severios Mar Zakka Iwas in 1963 and continued in the service of the diocese until 1969 .
Appointed bishop of the Diocese of the Monastery of Saint Matthew proxy in addition to his position bishop of Mosul in 1966 .
He was elected bishop of the Diocese of Baghdad and Basra and was appointed at the same time acting bishop of the Diocese of Australia in 1969 .
In July 1980 he was elected by the Synod of Antioch of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East and as the head of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the world, succeeding the late Patriarch Mar Ignatius Jacob III. On the fourteenth of September of the same year, was installed at the Cathedral of St. George in Damascus - Syria.

He Was elected as one of the four presidents of the Council of Churches of the Middle East in 1990 and as one of the seven presidents of the World Council of Churches in 1998.
He wrote many articles and a lot of books in the fields of theology and church history and science.

On this sad event the Aramean Democratic Organization share its deepest condolences with the Syriac Orthodox Church, clerics and members all over the world. We hope the Lord will inspire the Bishops to choose a great successor to lead the church and to confort the families of the two kidnaped bishops John Abraham and Paul Yazigi and to replace Justice and goodness and peace in the world and in our Aramaic Mashreq.

Aramean Democratic Organization
Political Bureau

The articles published on this site represent the opinion of their writers and not the opinion of the webmasters.