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The Holy Apostolic and Catholic Assyrian Church of the East is a Christian church that traces its origins to the See of Babylon, said to be founded by Saint Thomas the Apostle. In India, it is known as the Chaldean Syrian Church. In the West it is often known, inaccurately, as the Nestorian Church. The Assyrian Church is the original Christian church in what was once Parthia; today Iraq and western Iran. Geographically it stretched in the medieval period to China and India: a monument found in Xi'an (Hsi-an), the Tang-period capital of China (originally Chang'an), in Chinese and Syriac described the activities of the church in the 7th and 8th century, while half a millennium later a Chinese monk went from Beijing to Paris and Rome to call for a crusade with the Mongols against the Mamelukes. Prior to the Portuguese arrival in India in 1498, it provided "East Syrian" bishops to the Saint Thomas Christians.
Current Synod members
Patriarch
Mar Khanania Dinkha IV
Mar Khanania Dinkha IV (Born September 15, 1935), is the present Patriarch of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East. He was born in Darbandoki and baptized in the church of Mar Qaryaqos. Later on he was ordained a deacon by Metropolitan Mar Yousip Khnanisho in the church of Mar Youkhana in Harir. He then became the bishop of Tehran, Iran where he brought many changes to the Assyrians of Iran. At a conference in London in 1976 he was chosen as Patriarch.
In 1994 he agreed to a Joint Christological Declaration with the Vatican. In 1996 he signed an agreement of cooperation with Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, Raphael I Bidawid, in Southfield, Michigan. In 1997 he entered into negotiations with the Syrian Orthodox Church and the two stopped anathemizing each other. Mar Dinkha currently lives near Chicago and Illinois is now generally the center of the Assyrian Church of the East.
Metropolitans
Mar Aprem Mooken
Mar Aprem Mooken, is the Metropolitan of all India and is based in Thrissur. He is the author of several books on theology, church history, social affairs, and even humor.Mar Gewargis Sliwa
Mar Gewargis Sliwa, is the Metropolitan of all Iraq and Russia.Mar Narsai D'Baz
Mar Narsai D'Baz, is the Metropolitian of all Europe, Lebanon and Syria.Bishops
Mar Aprem Khamis
Mar Aprem Khamis, of Western United States.Mar Aprem Natniel
Mar Aprem Natniel, is the Bishop of Syria.Mar Odisho Oraham
Mar Odisho Oraham, is the Bishop of Europe with residence in Sweden.Mar Emmanuel Emmanuel
Mar Emmanuel Emmanuel, is currently the Assyrian Church of the East's Bishop of Canada. He was ordinated as a Bishop in 1990 on June 3. Before becoming a bishop, he was the priest at Mar Gewargis Church in Chicago.Mar Iskhaq Yousip
Mar Iskhaq Yousip, is the Bishop of the Northern Iraq and Russia.Mar Meelis Zaia
Mar Meelis Zaia, is the Bishop of Australia and New Zealand. He was ordained a priest of the Church in 1982 in California, USA. He was appointed Bishop of the Church’s diocese of Australia and New Zealand in 1984 and arrived to take up that position in March 1985 which he has held up until the present time.Mar Sargis Yousip
Mar Sargis Yousip, is the Bishop of Baghdad, Iraq.Previous Synod members
Patriarchs
Mar Benyamin Shimon XXI
Mar Benyamin Shimon XXI, was at one time the Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East. He was assassinated by a Kurdish Leader named Simko. After his murder in 1915 the Kurdish people stripped and dragged his dead body in the village streets.Mar Benyamain was ordained Metropolis by his uncle the then Patriarch, Mar Rowil (Ruben) Shimun, Catholicos Patriarch, XX. Upon Mar Rowil's death, Mar Benyamin was ordained the twenty first Patriarch by Mar Yousip Khnanisho, Bishop of Rustaqa and Mar Zaia Sargis, Bishop of Jilu. He was murdered in 1918 by an ambush of Simco and his men when Simco invited His Holiness Mar Benyamin under false pretenses of a peace accord. The Rab Khaila Dawid d'Mar Shimun, Mar Benyamin's brother accompanied him and survived the onslaught of Kurdish gun fire.
Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII
Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII, sometimes known as Mar Shimun XXI Ishaya, Catholicos Patriarch of the Church of the East from 1920 until his assassination on November 6, 1975. (The difference in regnal numbers depends on which members of the Shimun family one counts as Patriarchs; Mar Eshai himself came to use the regnal number XXIII.)Born into the patriarchal family in Qudshanis in 1908, Mar Eshai was chosen as patriarch on the death of his uncle. He was educated in Britain and was the translator or author of several books on the theology and history of the Church of the East. The uncertainties caused in 1933 by the independence of Iraq from colonial rule forced the patriarch's relocation to Cyprus and then, in 1940, to Chicago. Mar Eshai became an American citizen about 1949 and settled in the San Francisco area in 1954.
Metropolitans
Mar Yosip Khnanisho
Mar Yosip Khnanisho, who was the spiritual leader of the Shamizdin Assyrians and he was Metropolitan of the Assyrian Church of the East, who, in the old days was styled as the Metropolitan of Rustaqa. His Diocese in 1914 included Shamizdin, Tergawar, and Margawar. Under him were bishop Mar Dinkha IV in the village of Tis, an ancestor of the present Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Dinkha IV; bishop Mar Youkhana of the village of Tulaki in Tergawar, and after 1914 his own nephew bishop Mar Yousip who was ordained on the eve of WWI in Qochanis by Patriarch Mar Benyamin Shimon XXI.See also
"Holy Synod of the Assyrian Church of the East"