Church of Antioch Breaks off Relations with Patriarchate of Jerusalem

As pravoslavie.ru reports:

The reason of the break-off is the dispute on the canonical jurisdiction of Qatar territories, to which both Local Churches have claims

This break has been on the horizon for a couple of years now, and it breaks my heart. Antioch and Jerusalem are among the very earliest Churches and most ancient patriarchates. Although neither of these Churches are in communion with Rome, it’s still very sad to see something, which appears to me as a glorified pissing match, turn into an issue considered so serious that communion with one another is broken. This is an issue which should concern us all. Any break in the unity of the Church is sad, but we are increacingly living in a world where jurisdictional lines between Churches are becoming frayed, complicated and overlapping. If there is any hope of finding a united Church (between Catholics and Orthodox in particular) we will need to develop new approaches to settling these very kinds of arguments. They are the hidden “issue” which keeps us apart. Jurisdictional disputes cause more division, suspicion, and distrust among ecclesial bodies than any of the issues we generaly argue about (the Papacy, filioque, essence & energies, et al.) Join my in praying that Antioch might be reconciled to Jerusalem and that all Christians might be gathered again in unity.