Philip (Saliba) of New York
His Eminence Philip (Saliba) of New York, Metropolitan of New York and All North America (born June 10, 1931), is the current primate of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (1966 to present).
Life
Philip was born Abdullah Saliba in the small village of Abou Mizan in Lebanon. In 1945, at the age of 14, he went to seminary at the Balamand Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tripoli, Lebanon, where he met his nearly lifelong friend, known today as His Grace, Bishop Antoun (Khoury) of Miami. He finished his schooling there in 1947, going to to further his studies at the Orthodox Secondary School in Homs, Syria (1947-1949); Assiyah College, Damascus, Syria (1949-1951); Kelham Theological School, Nottinghamshire, UK (1953); the University of London, London, England (1953); Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, Brookline, Massachusetts (1956); Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan (1956-1959), earning a B.A. in History; and St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, New York (1965), earning the M.Div. degree.
During his schooling, he was ordained a deacon on August 6, 1949, then a priest on March 1, 1959 by Metropolitan Antony (Bashir) of New York. In June of 1966 he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite by Metropolitan Elias (Kurban) of Tripoli.
On August 14, 1966, he was consecrated to the sacred episcopacy and made an archbishop, at St. Elias Monastery in Lebanon, performed by Patriarch Theodosius VI of Antioch. His enthronement as Metropolitan of New York was held in New York on October 13 of that year.
