The Holy Synod of the Syriac Orthodox Church, our Sister Church in the faith, met on March 31, 2014 under the leadership of Catholicos Abune Basalios Thomas I of India and Archbishop Mor Severios Hawathe of Baghdad and Basra, the locum tenens of the Patriarchal See, and elected Metropolitan Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim Elected as the 123rd Patriarch of Antioch and All East.
Since January 1996, he has served as the Metropolitan and Patriarchal Vicar to the Archdiocese of the Syriac Orthodox Church for the Eastern United States.
We congratulate our brothers and sisters in the Syriac Orthodox Church as we await his official consecration as the new Patriarch.
