File talk:Saint George's Cathedral, Hama.jpg

Conflicting information

The description says "Greek Orthodox" and the category says "Antiochan Orthodox". Which is it? - Jmabel ! talk 01:28, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

"Antiochian Orthodox" is a part of "Greek Orthodox". The term "Greek Orthodox" is used for the four ancient patriarchates and the modern Churches of Greece, Cyprus and, somewhat, Albania. See w:Greek Orthodox Church for more details.

Ah, thanks. I knew about Greece and Cyprus (and also the Patriarchate of Constantinople, no?) but Antiochan being part of that is new to me. - Jmabel ! talk

Yep, among the "Eastern Orthodox" communion, the so-called "four ancient patriarchates" (Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria) are Greek, as opposed to Russian, Serbs, Romanians and Bulgarians which form the bulk of this communion and have small differences in their local traditions. To be a bit more precise, inside this "Greek Orthodox" group, the Antiochian Orthodox Church has had for some time an arabic clergy and arabic liturgy, but Syrians of that rite still call themselves "Greek Orthodox", contrasted for instance with the "Greek Catholics", another important church in this country.

However, it is a bit improper to say that everything Antiochian is Greek Orthodox (that's the beauty of Eastern Christianity) as there are 5 different patriarchs of different religions claiming the legacy of this prestigious title. w:Patriarch of Antioch should be explaining this, however I see that it's a mess and if you read Spanish you'll find es:Patriarca de Antioquía a lot more clear.

In American terms, it's a bit like it would be wrong to say that baptists have Tennessee and Lutherans have Iowa and Mormons have Utah: they are spread a bit all over the place, although unevenly. Antiochian orthodox Christians (most of whom are in Syria and Lebanon) are very close to Russian orthodox Christians in their practice and beliefs, and even closer to Greek orthodox Christians in Greece, but a lot more different from Syriac orthodox Christians, who originate from the same country and whose leader also calls himself Patriarch of Antioch. Clear, no? Place Clichy 16:43, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Moderately clear. When I waded into this a few weeks ago, with few exceptions the categories were a complete mess. In particular, there was a "by country" metacategory that was a total hodgepodge of partriarchates and physically locations of church buildings. I've separated those two concepts in the category hierarchy, for the most part, and have managed to sort a good number of pictures appropriately, but I believe there are still an enormous number that are not in appropriate categories. - Jmabel ! talk 00:50, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Church name

I am still very skeptical that the fact that it is a St. George church means it is not a Church of the Entrance of the Theotokos. Plenty of Orthodox churches have more than one name.

I have no way to independently evaluate the Arabic-language source cited for the change. - Jmabel ! talk 16:08, 7 June 2019 (UTC)