BASHIR, ANTONY

BASHIR, ANTONY, Metropolitan of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America (15 March 1898–15 February 1966). Born in Lebanon, he studied at the Balamand Theological School and was ordained deacon (1916). He continued his education at the Law School of Baabda and the American University of Beirut, where he taught Arabic literature. The Patriarch of Antioch sent him to America (1922) at which time he was elevated to archimandrite (1923) and where he traveled for thirteen years building and serving parishes and continued his writing. In 1936 he was consecrated Archbishop of the Antiochian Archdiocese (q.v.) of North America, succeeding Archbishop Victor Abu-Assaly, and proceeded to unify the Archdiocese and set it on a sound financial base. Most important among his accomplishments was his vision to promote an American expression of Orthodoxy, both in worship and administratively. He encouraged the use of English in worship, translating and publishing more than thirty books on the faith. This was in addition to accepting converts, ordaining them to the priesthood, and supporting English-language church school education. Administratively, he helped organize the Federation of the Primary Jurisdictions of the Orthodox Greek Catholic Churches in America in 1942, and later the Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops in America (q.v.) in 1960, of which he was vice-chairman.