page_title: Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem
section_title: Current position
hierarchical_section_title: Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem / Current position
caption_attribution_description: Facade of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem עברית: כנסיית הקבר English: The front of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem around 1900 Français&#160;: Vieille ville de Jérusalem – façade du Saint-Sépulcre vers 1900 Deutsch: Die Jerusalemer Grabeskirche um 1900
context_page_description: The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem or Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, officially Patriarch of Jerusalem, is the head bishop of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, ranking fourth of nine Patriarchs in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Since 2005, the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem has been Theophilos III. The Patriarch is styled "Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Holy Land, Syria, beyond the Jordan River, Cana of Galilee, and Holy Zion." The Patriarch is the head of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre, and the religious leader of about 130,000 Eastern Orthodox Christians in the Holy Land, most of them Palestinians.
  The Patriarchate traces its line of succession to the first Christian bishops of Jerusalem, the first being James the Just in the 1st century AD. Jerusalem was granted autocephaly in 451 by the Council of Chalcedon and in 531 became one of the initial five patriarchates.
  On the importance of Jerusalem in Christianity, the Catholic Encyclopedia reads:
  During the first Christian centuries the church at this place was the centre of Christianity in Jerusalem, "Holy and glorious Sion, mother of all churches."
context_section_description: Today, the headquarters of the patriarchate is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
  The number of Eastern Orthodox Christians in the Holy Land is estimated to be about 200,000. A majority of Church members are Palestinian Arabs, and there are also a small number of Assyrians, Greeks and Georgians.
  The patriarchate was recently involved in a significant controversy. Patriarch Irenaios, elected in 2001, was deposed, on decisions of the Holy Synod of Jerusalem, in the aftermath of a scandal involving the sale of church land in East Jerusalem to Israeli investors. The move enraged many Eastern Orthodox Palestinian members, since the land was in an area that most Palestinians hoped would someday become part of a Palestinian state.  On May 24, 2005 a special Pan-Orthodox Synod was convened in Constantinople (İstanbul) to review the decisions of the Holy Synod of Jerusalem. The Pan-Orthodox Synod under the presidency of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, voted overwhelmingly to confirm the decision of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre and to strike Irenaios' name from the diptychs, and on May 30, Jerusalem's Holy Synod chose Metropolitan Cornelius of Petra to serve as locum tenens pending the election of a replacement for Irenaios. On August 22, 2005, the Holy Synod of the Church of Jerusalem unanimously elected Theophilos, the former Archbishop of Tabor, as the 141st Patriarch of Jerusalem.
caption: Church of the Holy Sepulchre
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