His Eminence Metropolitan Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim is the Archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch for the Eastern United States of America.
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Born in Qamishli, Syria on May 3, 1965, Archbishop Cyril entered St. Ephrem’s Theological Seminary in Lebanon in 1977. From 1984 to 1988, Archbishop Cyril pursued higher studies at the Coptic Theological Seminary in Cairo, Egypt, receiving a Bachelor of Divinity degree upon graduation.
In 1985, Archbishop Cyril took the vows of a monk and was elevated to the sacred priesthood. From 1988 to 1989, he served as both the secretary of His Holiness Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, and as a teacher at St. Ephrem’s Theological Seminary in Damascus, Syria. In 1989, His Eminence entered St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland from where he received a licentiate of Sacred Theology degree in 1991 and his Doctor of Divinity degree in 1994.
On January 28, 1996,he was consecrated as Metropolitan and Patriarchal Vicar of the Archdiocese of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch for the Eastern United States by His Holiness Patriarch Ignatius Zakka Iwas at St. Mary’s Syriac Orthodox Church in Qamishli. Archbishop Cyril arrived in the United States on March 2, 1996, and was officially installed at St. Mark’s Syriac Orthodox Cathedral in Teaneck, New Jersey.
In 2003, Archbishop Cyril published the Book of the Order for the Burial of the Clergy, the last of the series of liturgical texts produced under the editorship of the late Mor Athanasius Yeshue Samuel. Additionally, Archbishop Cyril has seen to the reprint of such works as the Shorter Catechism of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch (1999) by the late Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem I Barsoum and the Book of Scripture Readings for Sundays and Feasts Days (2000) originally published by the late Metropolitan Mor Philoxenus Yuhanon Dolabani of Mardin. His Eminence has encouraged the American Foundation for Syriac Studies to publish several issues of a quarterly entitled Syriac Studies and has helped cosponsor a series of public lectures by scholars on Syriac culture, history, literature and theology. In 2004, Archbishop Cyril authored Symbols of the Cross in the Writings of the Early Syriac Fathers, and he also published a children's book In The Tree House.
Barsom, Murad. (2000) Book of the Order for the Burial of the Clergy. New Jersey: Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch.
Barsoum, Patriarch Ephrem I. (1999) The Shorter Catechism of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch. New Jersey: Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch.
Dolabani, Philoxenos. (2000) Scripture Readings for Sundays & Feast Days: According to the Tradition of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch. New Jersey: Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch
Karim, Archbishop Cyril Aphrem. (2011) In The Tree House. New Jersey: Parables & Books.
Karim, Mor Cyril. (2004) Symbols of the Cross in the Writings of the Early Syriac Fathers. New Jersey: Gorgias Press.