For context see the Metropolitan Joseph: The Scandal section in our Archives 2020-22 linked at the top of this page.

Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East

Today the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Antioch convenes under the presidency of Patriarch John X. We at Orthodoxy in Dialogue, together with our readers around the world, pray that “the grace divine, which always heals what is infirm and completes what is lacking” (prayer of ordination), descend once again upon the assembly of our fathers in the Faith to reveal to them in all things what “seems good to us and to the Holy Spirit” (Acts 15:28).

As a word of clarification for our readers, this is not an ad hoc meeting to resolve the scandal of the former metropolitan of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. Rather, this is the normal semiannual meeting required of each local church’s synod of bishops by the canons. (The other falls during Great Lent.) The matter of Joseph Al-Zehlaoui occupies a place of singular importance on the fathers’ agenda.

Whether merited or not, the level of general antipathy, skepticism, and outright cynicism among Orthodox faithful toward our hierarchs of every church and jurisdiction—not just those of the Antiochian Patriarchate—runs high. There is a widespread perception, whether accurate or not, that our bishops around the world impose one set of standards on the laity and clergy while failing to observe those same standards in their own lives, and that they enable and cover up for each other at all costs. Yet we have heard only positive comments about the person of Patriarch John, his integrity, and his genuine pastoral love for the far-flung flock of the Church of Antioch. We pray that he lead his brother bishops by example in restoring the confidence of the faithful of every Orthodox church, not just those under the canonical authority of Antioch, in the inner workings of the institutional church. We hope to see no half-measures in dealing with Metropolitan Joseph, but justice fully served for the sake of our salvation and his own. This would seem to require his deposal from holy orders, not that he should be abandoned by the Church—this would not be like Christ in His mercy to repentant sinners—but provided with all the pastoral support and love he needs in “completing the remaining time of his life in peace and repentance” as a simple monk living in monastic seclusion, obedience, humility, chastity, poverty, fasting, and prayer. May he sell his properties, empty his bank accounts, and give the money to the poor. May he spend the rest of his life praying for all whom he has hurt, led astray, or driven from the Church, those known and those unknown, in the hope of divine and human forgiveness even as we pray unworthily for him.

And may the Lord have mercy on all of us and on His holy Church, for we are all alike sinners.

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