On May 13, 2023, at the Antiochian Patriarchate’s Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Brooklyn, New York, the newly elected head of the Antiochian Archdiocese in the USA and Canada, Metropolitan Saba, was enthroned.
He was elected primate of the self-ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America with the title “Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of All North America” at an extraordinary session of the Holy Synod of Antioch held on February 23, 2023, in Balamand, Lebanon.
The enthronement ceremony began with a thanksgiving moleben, after which Metropolitan Saba was presented with the metropolitan’s crozier, and the Patriarchal Vicar of the Church of Antioch, Metropolitan Antonios of Zahleh and Baalbek, who had temporarily headed the North American Archdiocese until the election of its primate, read to him the address of His Beatitude John X, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East.
Then the hierarchs of the Local Orthodox Churches present at the enthronement spoke. Metropolitan Niphon of Philippopolis, the longtime Representative of the Patriarch of Antioch to the Patriarch of Moscow, who had come from Moscow, read to the newly elected head of the Antiochian Archdiocese in North America the congratulatory message of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’. At the festive meal after the enthronement, Metropolitan Niphon, on behalf of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, presented Metropolitan Saba with a commemorative gift — a hierarchical liturgical cross and panagia.
Representing the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA at the enthronement of the head of the Antiochian Archdiocese were the Chancellor, the rector of St. Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral in New York, Archpriest Igor Vyzhanov, and the Vice-Chancellor, the cleric of St. Nicholas Cathedral, Priest Mark Rashkov. They conveyed to Metropolitan Saba congratulations on behalf of Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, Temporary Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA.
