Job Getcha

Job of Telmessos (born Ihor Wladimir Getcha, Russian: Игорь Владимирович Геча; January 31, 1974) is an Eastern Orthodox Archbishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate who is the Permanent Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the World Council of Churches and the Dean of the Institute for Orthodox Theology Higher Studies at Chambésy, Switzerland.

Bornin Montreal, Quebec, Canada, a Canadian of Ukrainian descent, Ihor Getcha was educated at Collège Français (Montreal) and the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. He studied theology at St. Andrew's College, Manitoba and the, Paris from which he was awarded a doctorate, jointly with the Institut Catholique de Paris, in 2003.

Upon completing his secondary education, he completed post-secondary studies in Humanities at the University of Manitoba and Theology at St. Andrew’s College in Winnipeg and at St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris, where, in 1998 he received his master’s diploma. In 2003, he received his doctorate diploma from the above Institute in cooperation with the Catholic University of Paris and in 2012 he got his Habilitation in Theology at the University of Lorraine in Metz. He was tonsured a Monk and ordained Deacon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada at Saint Sophia Cathedral, Montreal in 1996 by Metropolitan Wasyly of Winnipeg, subsequently serving in Paris. In 1998, he was tonsured in the Small Schema at the Monastery of St. Anthony the Great in Saint-Laurent-en-Royans, France and in 2003, in Paris, Archbishop Gabriel of Comana ordained him as Presbyter, eventually receiving the title of Archimandrite. Between 2001-2008 he lectured at St. Sergius Institute, where he has also served as Dean (2005-2008). Since 2003, he teaches liturgical theology at the Catholic University of Paris. In 2009 he was elected Professor of Liturgical and of Dogmatic Theology at the Institute of Graduate Studies of Orthodox Theology in Chambésy, Geneva, Switzerland, where he teaches to this day.

His Excellency, the Archbishop has published a plethora of studies and articles related to Liturgical Theology and Orthodox Spirituality. He speaks French, English, Ukrainian, Russian and Greek.

His election as Patriarchal Exarch for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe in November 2013 was heavily influenced by the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I of Constantinople, at the suggestion of the Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, his consecration taking place on 30 November of the same year in the Patriarchal Church, by the Patriarch and by Synodal Hierarchs As a consequence, the election of Archbishop Job was achieved after two unknown names were placed on the ballot at a late stage in the election process, inducing the electors to vote for Job Getcha. [1] Job Getcha’s tenure as archbishop was marked by deep divisions within the archdiocese concerning the manner in which he has discharged his pastoral responsibilities.[2]

On 28 November 2015 the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate appointed Archbishop Job as the Patriarchate's representative to the World Council of Churches at Geneva and removedfrom the office of Exarch, thus remaining an Archbishop but free of any further pastoral or administrative role in the Archdiocese he formerly had in his care. Representing the new generation of the ecumenical dialogue with the Christian Churches, Job Getcha is described as a discrete and serious theologian and much appreciated by his Latin Catholic counterparts of Commission for Theological Dialogue.

On February, 20, 2019, Archbishop Job was appointed Dean of the Institute for Orthodox Theology Higher Studies at Chambésy (Geneva).