The Antochian Christians Heritage

A Brief History of the Church of Antioch

And the Antiochian Church in the United States

        Church tradition maintains that the See of Antioch was founded by Saint Peter the Apostle in A.D. 34 (Acts 2:26). Peter was either followed or joined by the Apostles Paul and Barnabas who preached there to both Gentiles and to Jews, who seem to have been numerous in the city. It was in Antioch that one of the first conflicts within the Church developed between Peter and Paul. This conflict regarded the necessity of circumcision for male Gentile converts to Christianity. It was the resolution of this conflict at the Council of Jerusalem under Saint James the Apostle that determined the direction of the Antiochian mission to the Gentiles, and the dynamic nature of that Christian community in its missionary outreach. It was from Antioch that Paul and Barnabas departed for their great missionary journeys to the Gentile lands (Acts 13:1).

        The Apostles directed a truly universal ministry. After spending some seven years in Antioch, Peter left for Rome. To succeed him as Bishop of Antioch he appointed Euodius, who is thus counted in early Episcopal lists as the first successor to the Antiochian Throne of Peter. The multiple Apostolic foundation of the See of Antioch, the early missions centered there and the active nature of the community, as recorded in the New Testament, have been a unique heritage to all who trace their spiritual and ecclesiastical roots to the Antiochian Patriarchate.

        The Church of Antioch has maintained a continuous succession in the Apostolic Faith down to the present. The current Bishop/Patriarch of Antioch is His Beatitude Ignatius IV.

The Archdiocese of North America

        In the late 19^th century, events in their homelands forced Antiochian Christians to join the ranks of Europeans who emigrated to other parts of the world. The spiritual needs of those who settled in North America were first met through the “Syro-Arabian Mission” of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has been a presence in North America since 1794.

        In 1895, a “Syrian Orthodox Benevolent Society” was organized by Antiochian immigrants in New York City, with Dr. Ibrahim Arbeely, a prominent Damascene physician, serving as its first president. Conscious of the needs his fellow countrymen and co-religionists, Dr. Arbeely wrote to Raphael Hawaweeny, a young Damascene clergyman serving as Professor of the Arabic Language at the Orthodox Theological Academy in Kazan, Russia, inviting him to come to New York to organize and pastor the first Arabic-speaking parish on the continent. Fr. Raphael, a missionary at heart, went to the imperial capital of St. Petersburg to meet with His Grace, Nicholas, ruling bishop of the Russian Diocese of the Aleutian Islands and North America, who was then in Russia to recruit new missionaries. After being canonically received under the omophorion of Bishop Nicholas, Father Hawaweeny arrived in the United States on November 17, 1895.

Upon his arrival in New York, Archimandrite Raphael established a parish at 77 Washington Street in lower Manhattan, at the center of the Syrian immigrant community. By 1900, approximately 3,000 of these immigrants had moved across the East River, shifting the community center to Brooklyn. Accordingly, in 1902, the parish purchased a larger church building in that borough, at 301-303 Pacific Street. The Church, assigned to the heavenly patronage of St. Nicholas, the Wonderworker of Myra in Lycia, was renovated for Orthodox worship and consecrated on October 27, 1902, by Nicholas’ successor, Archbishop Tikhon. St. Nicholas Cathedral later relocated to 355 State Street, Brooklyn, and is today considered the “mother parish” of the Archdiocese.

        At the request of Archbishop Tikhon, Hawaweeny was elected to serve as his vicar bishop, to head the Syro-Arabian Mission. His consecration as “Bishop of Brooklyn” took place at St. Nicholas Church on Pacific Street on March 12, 1904. Bishop Raphael this became the first Orthodox bishop of any nationality to be consecrated in North America. After a brief but very fruitful ministry, Bishop Raphael fell asleep in Christ on February 27, 1915m at the age of fifty-four. Not long afterwards, the tragedy of the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia brought financial and administrative ruin to the Orthodox Churches in North America, and shattered the measure of unity they had enjoyed. Movements arose in every ethnic group to divide it into ecclesiastical factions. Deprived of its beloved founded and bishop, the small Syro-Arabian mission fell victim to this divisiveness, and it would take sixty years from the death of Bishop Raphael- in June of 1975- for total jurisdictional and administrative unity to be restored to the children of Antioch in North America.

        On June 24, 1975, Metropolitan Philip (Saliba) of the Antiochian Archdiocese of New York and Metropolitan Michael (Shaheen) of the Antiochian Archdiocese of Toledo, Ohio, and Dependencies signed the Articles of Reunification, which restored administrative unity among all Antiochian Orthodox Christians in the United States and Canada. This document was presented to the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate, which ratified the contents on August 19, 1975, recognizing Philip as Metropolitan-Primate and Michael as Auxiliary bishops serving the Archdiocese are Bishop Antoun (Khouri), consecrated January 9, 1983, at Brooklyn’s St. Nicholas Cathedral; Bishop Joseph (Zehlaoui), consecrated May 8, 1991, at Damascus’ St. Mary Cathedral; Bishop Basil (Essey), consecrated May 31, 1992, at Wichita’s St. George Cathedral; and Bishop Demetri (Khoury), consecrated on March 12, 1995, at Damascus’ St. Mary Cathedral.

The Antiochian Orthodox Churches of the Greater Detroit Area

        Along about the turn of the century there began an emigration to the city of Detroit, Michigan. The founders of the present St.George Parish came from the towns and villages of Lebanon and Syria carrying nothing with them except a spirit of hope, a quest for freedom and devotion to their Orthodox faith.

        The first Arabic priest to visit Detroit was the Rev. George Mahfouz who celebrated the first Divine Liturgy in 1913. On January 30, 1916, the congregation officially organized the St. George as its standard. By 1918 they purchased a parcel of Land at 148 Arndt St. for the building of a new Church. As the Detroit parish began to grow, a special meeting was called in the year 1920, to officially change the jurisdiction of the Church to “Syrian Orthodox Church as prescribed and expounded by the Patriarch and Synod of the Apostolic Antiochian Orthodox Church of Syria, being the Mother Church of said Syrian Antiochian Orthodox Church of North America.”

        In 1934, the Archdiocese was deeply grieved by the death of the beloved Archbishop Victor. He was succeeded by Anthony Bashir who was elevated to that rank while serving as pastor of St. George in Detroit.

        The year 1939 saw the congregation move from Arndt St. to a location on E. Grand Blvd. After moving to the new location, the Church experienced growth and began to organize a Sunday School and Choir.

        On June 6, 1965, a new parcel of land on E. Grand Blvd. was dedicated for the building of new facilities by Thrice Blessed Metropolitan Antony Bashir. By 1968, construction was finished on the new “Church in the Round” and the move from 2903 E. Grand Blvd. to 2760 E. Grand Blvd. and I-75 of Chrysler Freeway was made.

        At a special General Parish Meeting, March 4, 1990, after formal presentations, approval was granted for purchase of the first parcel of land located on Fifteen Mile Road, East of John R. in Troy, Michigan. This first parcel of land, 4.4 acres, cost $180,000.00. The adjacent parcel of 2 acres cost $115,000.00. There is a brick home on the smaller parcel which is presently being leased. The total of the two parcels is approximately 6.4 acres. A down payment was made on the first parcel to hold pending topographical, boring and a variety of other studies, which proved positive, the committee approved a motion, on April19, 1990, to proceed with offer to purchase the parcel, and to proceed with work on a land contract.

        “From little acorns grow great trees”, and from that small nucleus who met and prayed together in 1916, we have grown in the glory of our Heavenly Father to the third largest parish in North America.

        On Sunday, October 24, 1994, our new location in Troy, MI, was consecrated by our Primate, the Most Reverend Metropolitan Philip. In the last nine decades of its history, St. George stood steadfast, praying and working together, and growing in the love of God.

        It is noteworthy to mention that in addition to St. George there are three Antiochian Orthodox Churches in the area: St. Mary’s of Livonia, St. Mary of Berkley and the Church of the Annunciation in Detroit.

Prepared by Very Rev.  Joseph Antypas, St. George Church.