Theodosios (Hanna) of Sebastia (born 1965) is the Archbishop of Sebastia from the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Ordained on the 24 December 2005 at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, he is the second Palestinian to hold the position of Archbishop in the history of the diocese.

 

 

The Palestinian filmmaker and artist Hisham Zreiq honors the Archbishop of Sebastia Theodosios (Atallah Hanna), and the Palestinian singer Manl Mousa by giving each of them one of his artworks in The Palestinian Land Day celebration in Dortmund Germany

Born Atallah Hanna in Rameh to Eastern Orthodox parents in the Upper Galilee, Archbishop Theodosios studied Greek in Jerusalem, continuing his studies in Greece where he earned his Master of Theology from University of Thessalonica School of Theology in 1991. Returning to Jerusalem, he was ordained as a priest at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that same year. Active in public life, he has served as the spokesperson and Director of the Patriarchate's Arab Department, has taught in local schools, and lectured on Christianity at the Haifa Arab Teachers' College. For his devotion to ministry in the Holy Land, Theodosios was granted an honorary Doctor of Theology degree from the Sofia Theological Institute in Bulgaria and the title of Archimandrite.

 

Appointed by the late Patriarch Diodoros to serve as the official spokesperson for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem in 2001, Theodosios gained renown for his high-profile political activism, his outspoken denunciation of the occupation, and his stress upon the importance of Palestinian identity - positions that have made him popular with Arabs and unpopular with the Israeli authorities. Before being ordained Archbishop, Theodosios had been arrested, detained and interrogated more than once by the Israeli authorities under various allegations of 'incitement'.

 

Theodosios also served as a member of the Constitutional Consultative Committee that worked on the third draft of the Palestinian constitution of March 2003  and was awarded the Jerusalem Prize by the Palestinian National Authority's Ministry of Culture in 2004. He is also one of the authors of Kairos Palestine together with Patriarch Michel Sabah, Naim Ateeq, Rifat Odeh Kassis, Nora Qort and others.

On 22 August 2002, Theodosios was arrested outside of his home in the Old City of Jerusalem by Israeli Border Police on the order of Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein. He was taken to the Russian Compound where he was charged with 'suspicion of relations with terrorist organisations', 'illegally entering an enemy country' (i.e. Syria and Lebanon) and 'incitement'. Media were present at the site of his interrogation which lasted five hours.

In 2005, Archimandrite Theodosios was active in the movement to dethrone Patriarch Irineos following allegations that land belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church had been sold to Zionist Jewish organizations. After election of new Patriarch Theofilos III in 2005 Archimandrite Theodosios Hanna was appointed and ordained as Archbishop of Sebastia.

 

On June 27, 2015, Archbishop Hanna was arrested by Israeli forces as he partook in a march protesting Israel's alleged seizure of a Christian hospital, which is part of the al-Baraka Presbyterian church complex, north of Hebron; the move is seen as illegal under international law by the international community.