FREE LECTURE OPEN TO EVERYONE! TUESDAYS SHEPTYTSKY FEBRUARY@ 4, 2020 T PM i Dr. Brian Butcher 5:15-6:30 PWindle House [email protected] February 4, 2020 5 Elmsley Place, next to sheptytskyinstitute.ca Brennan Hall on USMC Campus Chaldeans and Jews: Shared Scriptures, Shared Identity? A Presenter: Bishop Bawai Soro Iraqi Christians are today among the most persecuted follower of Christ in the world. Since 2003, 80% of them have forcefully fled their homeland (one million Christians). But as the political situation in continues to deteriorate, could there be any incentive for their thinking to develop? Our lecturer shall examine such probability by presenting historical data that suggests strong connections of history and identity between Iraqi Christians and the Jewish People. Can Iraqi Christians be catalysts of new thinking in the Middle East, and in the countries of Diaspora (like Canada)? Would they fight anti- semitism? And, would they restore fraternal relations with the Jewish People in Israel and elsewhere? Can there be a hope for a changed world-view in the Middle East . . . and the world?

Bp. Ashur Soro was born in and was raised in Baghdad. In 1982, he was ordained a priest in the Assyrian Church for Toronto, and in 1984 he was elected a bishop of San Jose for the Western United States. In 2008, he and dozens of his clergy along with 3,000 faithful joined the Chaldean Church. In 2017, he was appointed as Eparch of the Chaldean Catholic of Mar Addai in Toronto. Bishop Soro has an MA in Systematic Theology, Catholic University of America (1991) and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology, St. Thomas Aquinas Pontifical University (Angelicum) in Rome (2002).