Genuine Antiochian Orthodox Synod elects Mark Anthony as sixth Archbishop

Metropolitan Mark Anthony

Genuine Antiochian Orthodox Synod has elected a new Metropolitan Archbishop of North America for the True Vestige of the Antiochian Orthodox Church.

The election of Metropolitan Mark Anthony as the sixth Archbishop of North America and Most Honourable Exarch of Africa of the Genuine Orthodox Church of Antioch held recently on the feast of Hieromartyr Pancratius, Bishop of Taorminia in Sicily (1st Century), July 10, 7531 Church Calendar.

The new Metropolitan Archbishop succeeded Metropolitan Stephen as the sixth successor to the throne of the First Hierarch of the Genuine Orthodox Church of Antioch. The election, which was performed in a ceremony that has been part of the statutory process for appointing senior bishops in the Church of North America set up since 1958.

As required by the 1958 Appointment of Bishops Act, a proclamation was issued by the Vice President of the Holy Synod, His Eminence, Archbishop Timotheus at the end of the election ceremony to announce the result. In his proclamation, the Vice President said:

“In the name of the Holy Synod, we, Archbishop Timotheus, being the Hegumen of the Monastery of Saint Cyprian and Vicar General of the Primate and the Vice President of the Holy Synod of the Genuine Orthodox Church of Antioch in America, being required publicly to notify and declare that the See of the Archbishopric of North America having been for some time vacant by the repose of the Most Reverend Stephen Thomas last Archbishop thereof, “We, the said Holy Synod of this Autocephalous Church (in pursuance of and proceeding according to the bull of Ecclesia establishment) have this day elected the Most Reverend +Mark Anthony Metropolitan of Harrisburg and the Archbishop of Nigeria to be our Archbishop and Metropolitan in this Autocephalous Archiepiscopal See of North America whom God long preserve. Read in the Holy Monastery of Saint Cyprian, Sharon PA the twenty third day of July in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-three, By us, Hegumen of St Cyprian Monastery and Archbishop of Pennsylvania.” Metropolitan Mark Anthony’s appointment as Archbishop will be completed in the Confirmation of election ceremony to be held on the Seventh Sunday of Saint Matthew 24th at 10:30am in a Divine Liturgy, the feast by His Holiness Ignatius Peter III, Patriarch of Antioch. Arrangements for Metropolitan Mark’s enthronement service at Saint Cyprian Monastery will be announced later in the year.

His Eminence, Archbishop Mark, Metropolitan of Nigeria and Exarch of Africa, Civil Name Akinnugba Macfonse Osmond was born into the family of a Catechist and raised by the devout Roman Catholic parents in Ondo Kingdom, Nigeria. He attended St Paul’s Roman Catholic Mission Primary School, Ondo from 1981 to 1987. At the conclusion of his primary education, he was admitted into Sacred Heart Minor Seminary, Akure in 1987 and completed his Secondary Education at St Joseph College, Ondo, Ondo State in 1993.

Between 1993 and 1996, he devoted his life to teaching catechism and evangelism through legionary work at St Patrick Catholic Church, Ondo, St Matthew’s Catholic Church and Saint John Bosco Parish of the Salesians in Oke Odunwo, Ondo, Ondo State, Nigeria. He joined the religious life of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in 1996 and soon became a religious educator having taught Catechism and Christian Religion in schools and Roman Catholic churches.

He had ministered to people living in abject poverty, including those living with HIV/AIDS, and those whose cases were considered hopeless. He had worked at Kuwinda and Kibera slums in Kenya.

In 2001, Archbishop Mark was received into the Byzantine Seminary in Northridge, California in the USA to study Theology. His Eminence, Mark Anthony worked as a Pastoral Religious Counsellor and a foster father to the orphans at the Nyumbani Children of God Relief Institute, home for the HIV/AIDS Orphans in Nairobi, Kenya. He also worked with Africa Peace Point (a Non-governmental Organization for children’s right) in Kenya and also in Tanzania for another two years before coming to Nigeria to continue his charity and evangelical work and to established a Non-profit Making Organisation that caters for the needy and those living with the scourge of HIV/AIDS pandemonium while spreading the gospel.

In 2009, he completed Master’s degree in Pastoral Counseling at the California International University of Theology, Los Angeles. In January 2010, His Eminence, Mark Anthony was ordained a Deacon by Archbishop Peter Tang in Yaounde and on January 29, 2010 the feast of the Veneration of the Chains of the Apostle Peter, he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood.

He later completed his Doctorate Degree in Divinity, both from California International University of Theology, Los Angeles and was entrusted with the mission to establish the Byzantine Catholic Church in Nigeria as well as coordinate the evangelistic activities across the continent of African and beyond.

His Eminence Metropolitan Mark Anthony was consecrated on April 18, 2011 to the Episcopacy of the Byzantine Catholic Church by Archbishop Peter Tang and co-consecrated by Archbishop Jean Ndjewel of the Byzantine Catholic Church at the Cathedral of Saint Catherine. In April 2012, he was elevated to the rank of Exarch of Africa of the Byzantine Catholic Church

In 2013, he was received into the Antiochian Orthodox Church through Cheirotesia and given the mandate to oversee the church in Africa for the Jurisdiction and given the title of Primate Legate to Africa, and Exarch of Africa, subsequently the co-adjuctor of the Metropolitan Primate. In 2017, he made a True Orthodoxy Declaration of Faith and began the conversion of the clergy and missions under his jurisdiction into the Genuine Orthodox Church repudiating the heresy of ecumenism and new calendar.