VERGHESE, (PAUL)-GREGORIOS, PAULOS MAR

VERGHESE, (PAUL)-GREGORIOS, PAULOS MAR, metropolitan, educator, theologian (9 August 1922– ). Metropolitan of Delhi, Orthodox Syrian Church of the East (India), Paulos Mar Gregorios is the most distinguised theologian of the Oriental Orthodox churches (q.v.). Born and raised on the Malabar Coast of India in that country’s native non-Chalcedonian church, he was educated at Princeton and Yale and received his doctorate from Serampore.

He is the author of a dozen books and various articles on Orthodox anthropology, cosmology, and selected Church Fathers, in particular Gregory of Nyssa (qq.v.), and an editor and contributor to Koptisches Christentum, Die Syrischen Kirchen in Indien, and Does Chalcedon Divide or Unite?. After serving as adviser to Emperor Haile Selassie, he held several leadership positions in the World Council of Churches dealing with ecumenism (q.v.) and UNESCO. He has also been an active member of the Oriental Orthodox-Orthodox Dialogue (q.v.) since its inception in the 1960s.