Thread by @Kaleb_Atlanta

☦️ Thread:

Jerusalem is the Mother Church

Within the Orthodox Church, there of course is a particular order of the local jurisdictions, which is enumerated in the Diptychs. However, the place of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem as the origin and rightful Mother of all Churches is solidified by history.

Jerusalem, as we all know, was the place of the Temple, and the center of the pre-incarnation faith of Abraham. When the Lord incarnated, His primary place of operation in spreading the good news was Jerusalem. From here is where He gave the Great Commission for the whole world.

The Apostles were given areas to evangelize all over the world, but the Shepherd of the flock in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas was Saint James, the Lord's Brother. To him was given, by Christ, the first Liturgy to show how He ought be worshiped: the Liturgy of Saint James.

The Liturgy of Saint James would become the groundwork for all Liturgies in the Church of Jesus Christ from then on.

Jerusalem would become the site of the most critical event in the beginning of Christian history, namely, Pentecost and the tongues of flame.

Even further, Jerusalem would be the location of the first Council of All Christendom. All the Apostles would gather to establish a ruling for all Christians to follow. Saint James would make the final proclamation: that the Gentiles weren't subject to the burdens of the Old Law.

The importance of Jerusalem to the Church was not lost on the Bishops of the world at the time of the Apostles. Saint Clement of Rome, in a letter to Saint James, called him "Bishop of bishops, who rules Jerusalem, the holy Church of the Hebrews, and the Churches everywhere."

Source: The Ante-Nicene Fathers, The Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325: the Epistle of Clement to James: ()books.google.com/books?id=9MsUG…

Saint Augustine says that, to be a Catholic, one must be in communion with Jerusalem.

"If you be Catholic Christians, communicate with that Church from which the Gospel is spread abroad over the whole earth: communicate with Jerusalem ... "

... Christ made there the beginning of the preaching of His name: and you shrink back with horror from having communion with that city! No marvel that being cut off you hate the root."

Source: Homily 2 on the First Epistle of John ( …)newadvent.org/fathers/170202…

Saint Avitus of Vienne, a Latin Bishop in France, says in a letter to the Patriarch of Jerusalem: "Your apostolate exercises a primacy granted to it by God: and it is careful to show that it occupies a principal place in the Church, not only by its privileges, but by its merits."

Source: The Papacy; Its Historic Origin and Primitive Relations with the Eastern Churches by Abbe Guettee ()books.google.com/books?id=fp5eA…

Saint John of Damascus: "Zion is the Mother of Churches in the whole world"

Source: Sermon II On the Dormition of the Mother of God () https://t.co/DoMDEtF0k0sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/johndama…

Saint Sophrony of Essex: Jerusalem is the Mother of all the Churches, including the first Rome because of the Lord's ministry and Crucifixion

The Synodical Letter of the Third Ecumenical Council, the First Council of Constantinople, defends Saint Cyril of Jerusalem and declares Jerusalem to be the "Mother of all the Churches"

Ecumenical Patriarch John X, refuting the papal claims of Rome, wrote to the Pope:

"And what I do not further understand is, that you call the Church of Rome the Mother of the other Churches. The Mother of the Churches is that of Jerusalem, which surpasses them all..."

Some have inappropriately used the position of Jerusalem as 4th in the Diptychs, after Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, as evidence that Jerusalem is not the Mother Church, but they fail to understand the context for this position.

As we have seen, Jerusalem was regarded as the foremost Church, but the Second Jewish Uprising (132), the "Bar-Kochba revolt," had totally destroyed the Christian community of Jerusalem. They ceased to exist, and jurisdiction of Palestine was taken, out of necessity, by Antioch.

The See of Jerusalem, therefore, had become insignificant. This was reversed in 451 when the Fourth Ecumenical Council, the Council of Chalcedon, returned Jerusalem to it's status as Patriarchate.

However, as we can see by Canon 3 of Constantinople I and Canon 28 of Chalcedon, the order of the Diptychs was according to influence within the Church of God, with Rome and Constantinople occupying the first two places due to being the capital of the Empire.

And since Jerusalem had previously been destroyed while Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch had maintained general stability up to that point, Jerusalem was placed after these. So it does not indicate that the Church of Jerusalem was not the Mother Church.

And how could it? As we saw before, the See of Jerusalem was considered the Mother Church by the First Council of Constantinople despite it not even being autocephalous at the time! This shows that the title is eternal because it is true, not honorary or meaningless.

Patriarch Joachim of Jerusalem had already rejected the Council of Florence, but in 1443, when Met Arsenios of Caesarea was visiting the city, he appealed to Patriarch Joachim to address the situation in the Union-bound Constantinople.

Patriarch Joachim of Jerusalem convoked a council that same year in the Holy City with Patriarchs Dorotheus II of Antioch and Philotheus of Alexandria. Together they condemned Constantinople and gave Met Arsenios the authority to act under their authority preaching Orthodoxy.

This was not the only time Jerusalem called a Pan-Orthodox Council in order to preach the true faith in the face of error.

In 764, Patriarch Theodore of Jerusalem called the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch to condemn the iconoclast Pt Constantine II of Constantinople.

And another time, in 836. Patriarch Basil of Jerusalem called the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch to condemn the iconoclast Patriarch Anthony I of Constantinople and Emperor Theophilus.

Jerusalem's trend in ordering the Pan-Orthodox judgement of another See continues in 1522, when Patriarch Dorotheus II of Jerusalem summons the Eastern Patriarchs to condemn Met Joannicius I for uncanonically seizing the Patriarchal Throne of Constantinople.

One of the more notable times was in 1642, when Patriarch Theophanes of Jerusalem chaired a council in Iași (Jassy) in order to condemn the false Confession of Faith of pseudo-Lukaris. It was also here when the Catechism of Saint Peter Mogila was ratified.

The Catechism of Saint Peter Mogila also speaks of Jerusalem as the Mother Church of All Churches in the Answer of Question 84

The Catechism was formally received as an official Catechism of the Orthodox Church in 1645 by the 4 Ancient Patriarchs at a Council in Constantinople, and again at the 1672 Council of Jerusalem, and many times by the Russian Orthodox Church.

So even synodically, the Church of Jerusalem is called the Mother Church of All. They exercised their defense of the faith in 1672 when Patriarch Dositheus II summoned the Church to refute the errors of the Calvinists and declare the Orthodox Faith as passed down once and for all

Even Liturgically, all Churches sing of Jerusalem as the Mother Church on the 17th Sunday after Pentecost

Jerusalem is also known to be a defender of Orthodoxy on a personal level throughout the whole world. For example, at the request of Hetman Petro Sahaidachny, Patriarch Theophanes III came to Ukraine to ordain bishops to save Ukraine from the terror of the recent Uniatism.

It was only by the intervention of the Patriarch of Jerusalem that the first post-Unia Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev, Saint Job Boretsky, was enthroned and the Orthodox episcopate in Ukraine was restored.

In 1648, Patriarch Paisios of Jerusalem came to Ukraine to bless Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky who recently liberated Ukraine from the rule of the Poland-Lithuania. Bohdan was declared by the Patriarch to be "Prince of the Rus," "liberator of the Rus people," and "New Constantine."

The acknowledgement of Jerusalem as the Mother Church continues to the present day. Late Archbishop Chrysostomos I of Athens wrote an entire work called "The Church of Jerusalem" where it is regarded as the Mother of Churches.

Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina said the Church of Jerusalem is the "Martyr's Throne of the Mother of Churches."

Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk said in a meeting with the Patriarch in Kazakhstan that “in the Russian Orthodox Church they are happy to welcome as a dear guest the head of the Mother of the Churches, Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, within its canonical limits.”

Acting General Secretary of the World Council of Congregations Fr Ioan Sauca greeted the Patriarch of Jerusalem with "The Orthodox look at you as a father and the Patriarch of the Mother Church of Jerusalem."

Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro of Blessed Memory said “Jerusalem is the true Mother of all Orthodox Churches” because, “neither Rome nor Constantinople, but Jerusalem gave birth to all Churches.”

And of course, Jerusalem will actively refer to their own ancient honor as the Mother Church. Patriarch Theophilus said "The Church of Jerusalem, as the Mother of Churches, works its pilgrimage, pastoral and salvific mission at the divine dwelling places,"

The above all shows that the consistent belief from the very beginning and to now is that Jerusalem is the Mother Church of all Orthodox Churches.

Thank you, God be with ye ☦️