Ignatius Ephrem II Karim

Ignatius Ephrem II Karim

The patriarch

Moran Mor Ignatius Ephrem II Karim ( Aramaic ܐܝܓܢܛܝܘܣ ܐܦܪܝܡ ܬܪܝܢܐ ܟܪܝܡ Ignaṭius Afrem Trayono Arabic مار أغناطيوس أفرام الثاني كريم Iġnāṭīūs Afrām al-Ṯānī ; * May 3, 1965 in Qamishli , Syria ; born as Sa'id Karim ) has been the 123rd “Patriarch of Antioch and the whole Orient” of the Syrian Orthodox Church since March 31, 2014 . His enthronement took place on May 29, 2014 in Maarat Saidnaya near Saidnaya .

Life

Karim comes from a Syro-Aramaic family from the village of Ehwo (today Güzelsu ) in Tur Abdin (today in the province of Mardin in Turkey ), who was expelled to Kamishli in the course of the genocide of the Syrian Christians from 1915. He was baptized as the son of Issa and Chanema Karim under the name Saʿid Karim and studied in 1977 at the St. Ephrem Theological Seminary in Atchaneh, Lebanon . From 1982 to 1984 he was a student of the Metropolitan Gregorios Youhanna Ibrahim in Aleppo, who was kidnapped in April 2013 . From 1984 to 1988 he studied at the Coptic Theological Seminary in the Egyptian capital Cairo , where he received his Bachelor of Theology before graduating.

In 1985 he was ordained a monk. From 1988 to 1989 he served both as the secretary of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I. Iwas and as a teacher at the St. Ephrem Theological Seminary in the Syrian capital Damascus . In 1989 he entered the St. Patrick's College in Ireland Maynooth , where he was a 1991 Licentiate in Theology ( Licentiate of Sacred Theology , STL) and 1994 his graduation as Doctor of Divinity received. During this time he also served as a priest for the Syrian Orthodox community in the United Kingdom .

On January 28, 1996, he was ordained by Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I. Iwas in the Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Mary in Qamishli as Metropolitan and Patriarchal Vicar of the Archdiocese of the Syrian Orthodox Church for the eastern United States . It arrived in the United States on March 2, 1996 and was officially introduced at the Syriac Orthodox St. Mark's Cathedral in Teaneck .

In June 2016, the patriarch narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. A suicide bomber disguised himself as a priest and wanted to drag Ignatius Ephrem II with him to his death during a service in Qamishli. Christian security forces were able to stop the man just outside the Mor Gabriel Brotherhood building . Shortly afterwards he blew himself up. One man from the Sutoro Christian security forces was killed in the attack and ten other Sutoro members were injured, some seriously.

Political activity

In an open letter dated April 19, 2015 to the German leadership on the genocide of the Armenians and the Aramaeans / Assyrians , he was “very surprised” that the word “genocide” was avoided for political reasons. He explains that the Turkish state stubbornly denies this genocide to this day. He also describes it as the "first genocide of the 20th century (s)". Furthermore, he leads u. a. from "Because if we demand recognition of the genocide as such, then we also demand the beginning of a reconciliation process."

Awards

• Honorary Doctor of Theology (Ph.D.) from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens , for his efforts to spread the word of God and to make the voices of persecuted Christians (especially those in the Orient ) reach the whole world, November 13, 2018
• Honorary Doctor of Theology (Ph.D.) from St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, New York City (for the same reason as above), May 18, 2019

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} New Patriarch of Antioch elected ( Memento of March 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Patriarch - Syrian Orthodox Church in Germany. In: www.syrisch-orthodox.org. Archived from the original on April 2, 2016 ; Retrieved April 2, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Syrian Archbishop against the US attack in Syria on YouTube
4. ↑ Stefan Meining : Assassin disguised as a priest: Church head escapes suicide attack. In: BR.de. Bayerischer Rundfunk, June 20, 2016, accessed on December 12, 2016 . 
5. ↑ The ecumenical representative of the Evangelical Lutheran regional church of Hanover “To the denominational ecumenical representatives and ACKN delegates in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Regional Church of Hanover and those interested ”with email from April 20, 2015
6. ↑ bestowing of Honorary Doctorate to His Holiness - University of Athens. Syrian Orthodox Patriarachate of Antioch, November 13, 2018
7. ↑ Receiving an Honorary PhD from St. Vladimir Orthodox Theological Seminary. In: syriacpatriarchate.org. May 18, 2019, accessed on May 20, 2019 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Ignatius Zakka I. Iwas	Patriarch of Antioch since 2014	---
Athanasius Yeshue Samuel	Syriac Orthodox Bishop of the Eastern USA 1996–2014	Dionysius John Kawak