Metropolitan Cornelius

Metropolitan Cornelius of Petra (né Emmanuel Rodousakis) is a senior bishop of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem He was locum tenens in 2001 following the death of Patriarch Diodoros I and served again upon the deposition of the previous patriarch, Irenaios I. With the election of Theofilos III on August 22, 2005, Cornelius's second tenure as "locum tenens" ended.

He was born in 1936 in Magarikario of Herakleion, Crete. Arriving in Jerusalem in 1951, he graduated from the Patriarchal School and was tonsured a monk in 1958 and ordained to the diaconate the following year. He studied theology at the Theological School in Halki, Turkey. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1964, and elevated to the rank of archimandrite in 1965. In 1967 he continued his education at the Ecumenical Institute of Geneva, and in 1972 he was made a member of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem.

He served as archivist and principal of the Patriarchal School, also serving as editor and director of the "New Zion" magazine and chairman of Education. In October of 1976, he was elected to the episcopacy and consecrated Archdiocesan of Sevasteia. On July 2, 1978, he was appointed Patriarchal Commissioner for Bethlehem, and in 1981, he was appointed Chairman of the School Inspectorate. In 1991, he was elected Eparch of Sevasteia, and in 1998 Eparch of Petra.

He served as a suffragan bishop of the Patriarch. In 2001, he was appointed General Patriarchal Commissioner. Representing the Jerusalem Patriarchate, he has also participated in various conventions and missions.