Patriarch Irenaios

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Irenaios Skopelitis (born 1939) was the primate of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem from 2001 to 2005. As Patriarch, he was styled Patriarch Irenaios or Irenaios I; today, he is officially known as Monk Irenaios.

Born Emmanouil Skopelitis in April of 1939, Irenaios was elected patriarch on August 13, 2001 in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

He was enthroned on September 15, 2001 as the 140th "Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine, Syria, beyond the Jordan River, Cana of Galilee and Holy Zion" in the presence of senior church and secular dignitaries, including Archbishop Christodoulus of the Church of Greece and Metropolitan Nicholas of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church.

He was born on the Island of Samos in Greece and came to the Holy City of Jerusalem in 1953 and served for many years as Exarch of the Holy Sepulchre in Athens.

Only a few years into Irenaios' patriarchate, he became embroiled in bitter controversy. Several parcels of church-owned land in the Old City of Jerusalem were sold to Israeli developers. As most of the Orthodox Christians in the region are Palestinian, and the land was in a Arab-populated area that most Palestinians hoped would become as a part of a future Palestinian capital, this caused a great deal of outrage among Church members. On May 5, 2005, other Greek Orthodox Church leaders in Jerusalem announced in a letter they had broken off contact with Patriarch Irenaios, and regard him as dismissed as Patriarch of Jerusalem.

The decision reached by the Holy Synod of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre was made final on May 6, 2005 by a two-thirds vote of that body. Irenaios ceased to be Patriarch at that point as far as the local church is concerned.

On May 24, 2005 a special Pan Orthodox Synod was convened in İstanbul to review the decisions of the Holy Synod of Jerusalem. The Pan-Orthodox Synod under the presidency of the Ecumenical Patriarch voted overwhelmingly to confirm the decision of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulcher 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 June 16, 2005, the Holy Synod of Jerusalem announced that Irenaios had been demoted to the rank of monk.[1]

However, by a longstanding tradition any action of this nature requires the approval of the governments in the regions of the Patriarchate's authority, presently Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Jordan. As of July 13, 2005 only Jordan and the Palesinian Authority have granted their approval. There is no report that Israel has followed suit. Israel's position on the matter is unclear since on March 9, 2005 the Jerusalem District Court ruled that Irenaios' election was illegal in the first place.

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