The Antioch Patriarchate received the annual spiritual retreat of Nativity for the clergy and monastics of Damascus, who gathered under the protection of Saint Mary’s Church in the presence of Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, and the Supreme Head of the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church and Patriarch of Antioch and of All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Youssef the First Absi, and the Apostolic Nuncio to Syria, Cardinal Mario Zenari, with the heads and hierarchs of the Christian Communities in Damascus.