Five Eastern Christian Patriarchs Meet with President Obama

According to Syriac International News Agency (SINA), on Thursday, September 11, five Christian Patriarchs and several other high-level patriarchal representatives of the Middle East’s principal Christian communities met with President Obama and National Security Advisor Susan Rice at the White House. As SINA reports, the goal of the meeting was “to discuss the protection of Christians in the Middle East ” SINA continues,

In Defense of Christians President Toufic Baaklinisaid, “We want to thank President Obama at this critical moment in history for meeting with the representatives of these Christian communities from the Middle East who face suffering and hardship for professing their religious beliefs.”

Attending the meeting with the President are:

His Eminence, Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Cardinal Raï
Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and All the East

His Beatitude, Gregorius III Laham
Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem

His Beatitude, Mor Ignatius Aphrem II
Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch

His Beatitude, Ignatius Youssef III Yonan
Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East

His Beatitude, Aram I Keshishian
Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church

His Eminence the Most Reverend Metropolitan Joseph Al-Zehlaoui
Archbishop of New York and All North America of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church
(Official representative of His Beatitude Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X of Antioch and all the East)

His Grace Bishop Angaelos,
General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria
(Official representative of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, the 118th Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy Apostolic See of St. Mark the Evangelist of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria)

His Excellency Ibrahim, Ibrahim
Bishop Emeritus of the Chaldean Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle
(Official representative of His Beatitude Louis Rahphael Sako I, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon and the Head of the Chaldean Catholic Church)

As the above list of dignitaries shows, representatives of all the major Christian communities of the Middle East were present, including the Antiochian Greek Orthodox Church, Armenian Apostolic Church, Chaldean Catholic Church, Coptic Church of Alexandria, Maronite Catholic Church, Melkite Greek Catholics, the Syriac Catholic Church, and Syriac Orthodox (non-Chalcedonian) Church. Such an ecumenical gathering of the Middle East’s most senior Christian patriarchs and clergy of its most ancient churches is unprecedented.

It is my hope and prayer that this meeting with President Obama and NSC advisor Susan Rice was more than simply a photo op used by the Obama administration to pacify Christian critics of its tepid response to ISIS’ atrocities against Middle Eastern Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities. Hopefully the Eastern Christian Patriarchs impressed upon the President the sheer evil of ISIS, and the need to take immediate, drastic steps to eradicate the brutal militant group.