QUOTE:

To the orthodox patriarchs

my dear christian brothers, it has been a long time without a note from the orthodox leaders. There are rumors here in Rome that all seats are vacant. Could you please kindly answer back to us so we do not have to assume that all Patriarchs have abanonded their positions and Rome has to fulfill their position?

With the best wishes
Urban III
*signed and sealed*

QUOTE:

His Holiness Urban III, Pope of Rome

My Brother:

It seems the Lord may still have work me to do. I remain in Ravenna, awaiting the Ecumenical Council contemplated by myself and your late mentor, Cardinal Mournier. Unless things have changed very recently, the posts of Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople remain vacant, though I understand that Protosebastos Smelgar intends to remedy the latter situation. I will let our Brother of Jerusalem speak for himself.

Macarias of Antioch

QUOTE:
To His Holiness Urban III of Rome

Amatissime,

Please forgive my superior, His Beatitude Thephilos, for his present inability to answer your missive with his own hand, as he is regretfully absorbed in his responsibilities outside of Jerusalem. I have been chosen by His Beatitude to respond to letters such as yours in his place, for upon his acceptance as Patriarch by the people of Palestine we became close friends. It is such that I should also apologise, in good humour, for His Beatitude's reserve over these past years: he is, I can assure you, no admirer of public announcements.

It is somewhat a relief to be able to inform you that the Patriarchate is in good order under the guidance of an organisation called the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre, which Thephilos himself set up some twenty years back. I have always had the pleasure of leading the Brotherhood in its cause, and so I can say with some resolve that the Christians in and around Jerusalem are protected, at least in spirit.

There is one small matter I would like to address, given this opportunity to communicate. His Beatitude addressed this matter to me and to the Brotherhood some years back, and so here in the Patriarchate it has been official for quite some time. However, I would like to spread this further.

You addressed your letter, Your Holiness, to the Orthodox Patriarchs. Now by no means do I speak for Antioch or Alexandria, and certainly not Constantinople herself, in this. It came to His Beatitude's attention all those years ago that, given his Catholic upbringing in the West and indeed the equal presence of both Latin Rite followers and Eastern Rite followers in the Holy Land, it would be improper to continue the tradition and call it an Orthodox Patriarchate; so it is that we here in Jerusalem simply call it the Patriarchate, or the Christian Patriarchate. This is something that the Christians of Jerusalem have come to accept.

By this I place His Beatitude and the Patriarchate on no different standing; it is merely a clarification of the Patriarch's true mission in Jerusalem.

That matter aside, I trust I have assured you that the Patriarchal Seat of Jerusalem, though presently unoccupied, is shall we say 'compensated for'? A copy of your missive is on its way to His Beatitude as I write along with a summary of my reply, so he will not be left uninformed. Given his predicament, however, all things patriarchal shall come through me for the time being.

Pax vobis.


Yours in Faith,

Isidorus de Naiera
Archbishop of Tyre
Rector of the Brotherhood