Wednesday, January 22, 2025

With Assad’s Ouster, Moscow Set to Lose Important Church Ally in Orthodox World

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Jan. 18 – Assad’s ouster not only is likely to cost Russia its military bases in Syria but also to drive from office the leader of the Antioch Patriarchate who had distinguished himself both by his pro-Assad positions and his support for the Moscow Patriarchate regarding Ukrainian autocephaly and Putin’s war in Ukraine.
    Now with Assad and his Russian supporters gone, Syria’s Antioch Change Movement has called for the resignation of Patriarch John X who in its view had “sullied himself” by collaborating with Assad and  Putin” (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/01/18/antiokhiia-posle-asada).
    The Movement is likely to be successful given that John X has many enemies in Syria given that he and Assad changed church rules so that he could be elected in the first place, he failed to investigate the murders of senior churchmen, and he slavishly followed Damascus and Moscow in his policies.
    John’s removal will affect the 500,000 Christians in Syria, but more than that, it will echo across the Orthodox world, not only because there are roughly three million more Antioch Christians in other countries but because the Antioch Patriarchate ranks third among the ancient Orthodox patriarchates, behind only Constantinople and Alexandria.
    Up to now, the Antioch Patriarchate has been the Moscow Patriarchate’s most reliable ally in Moscow’s dispute with Constantinople. Now, the Russian church won’t be able to count on a similarly close ally in the future – and that likely means the ROC MP will be more isolated in the Orthodox world than at any time since the death of Stalin.
    That in turn will mean that the ROC MP will have less to offer the Kremlin and that it will feel compelled to follow ever more closely Putin’s nationalist and imperialist line.

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