Jacobite church’s new Catholicos Joseph Mar Gregorios to be installed in Lebanon today

Atchaneh (Lebanon): The installation of Joseph Mar Gregorios as the Catholicos of the Jacobite Syrian Church will take place in Lebanon on Tuesday.

Assuming the title Baselios Joseph, his installation service will begin at 8.30 pm IST. The ceremony will be held at St Mary’s Patriarchal Cathedral in the premises of the Patriarchal Center — the headquarters of the Syriac Orthodox Church–in Atchaneh, located about 20 kilometers from Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.

The installation will be led by Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, the Patriarch of Antioch and Supreme Head of the Syriac Orthodox Church, with other metropolitans of the Syriac Orthodox Church serving as co-celebrants. Lebanese President Joseph Khalil Aoun or his official representative is also expected to attend the event.

Following the installation ceremony, the global synod of the Church is set to convene here tomorrow. A large number of Jacobite Church followers from Kerala, including those settled abroad, have travelled to Lebanon for the occasion.

Cardinal Mar Baselios Cleemis Catholicos, Major Archbishop of the Malankara Catholic Church, Joseph Mar Barnabas Suffragan Metropolitan of the Malankara Mar Thoma Church, and delegates from the Central and State Governments of India have also arrived in Lebanon to participate. Representatives from various Christian denominations, including the Vatican’s Catholic Church, will also be present.

Although the Patriarch of Antioch’s official seat is in Damascus, Syria, the installation is being held in Atchaneh due to the ongoing civil war in Syria.

The date of the installation of the new Catholicos is significant as it marks the Feast of the Annunciation of Mary. Interestingly, it was also on a March 25 that Mar Gregorios was first ordained as a deacon and later as a priest.