While studying in Beirut, Lebanon, for a literature degree, he entered the service of the local Antiochian Orthodox diocese, first by becoming an acolyte, then a subdeacon and then a deacon.

From his time in France onwards he was moved not only by a desire to pass on the deposit of the Greek Orthodox faith, but also to take Orthodoxy out of its unhistorical ghetto by discovering in its Holy Tradition living answers to the problems of modern life.

As Dean he sought to provide the Patriarchate with responsible leaders who had received a good spiritual and intellectual training and who were witnesses to an awakened and deeply personal faith.

He was one of the founders of the active Orthodox Youth Movement of Lebanon and Syria in 1942, through which he helped to organise and lead a renewal of Church life in the Patriarchate of Antioch.

The movement worked at the heart of the Church, helping ordinary believers to rediscover the personal and communal meaning of the Eucharist through a practice of frequent Communion, which had become extremely rare.