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Terminology of Syriac Denominations

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Terminology of Syriac Denominations TERMINOLOGY OF SYRIAC DENOMINATIONS It is best immediately to clarify often delicate questions of terminology concerning faiths of Syriac language and tradition, inherited from the Aramean world. These denominations are divided (setting aside the Marionites of Lebanon) into four branches: The Syriac Orthodox Church. We prefer this name to the one that has been long used to refer to it, “Jacobite”, a term overly tinted with a western view of the history of Christianity (the name derives from its supposed founder, Jacob Baraddaeus in the 6th century). The term “Jacobite” was often used by their Nestorian, Byzantine and Latin adversaries as a pejorative term. Nonetheless, we have preserved this name whenever it was used by an author or when the context of the report was favorable. This Church, like the Coptic, refused the doctrine of the two natures of Christ as defined at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. The Syriac Catholic Church. Ex-“Jacobite”, this church was born of a 17th century separation from the Syriac Orthodox Church, which was encouraged by French diplomats present in Aleppo at the time. The diplomats favored the separation in the hope of one day uniting the Eastern Churches with that of Rome. The Syriac Catholic Patriarch was enthroned in the 19th century in Mardin, also the place of residence of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch, in order to compete with him. Monsignor Gabriel Tappouni was its first cardinal, named in 1937 by the Vatican. The expression Uniate Syrian Church or Syriac Catholic Church may be used indiscriminately, the term “Syrian” referring to a geographical zone, and not to the inhabitants of modern day Syria. The Assyrian or Nestorian Church. This name derives from that of Nestorius, who inspired the religious doctrine that was rejected by the Council of Ephesus in 431. This Church developed within the Persian Empire, beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. Discovering a missionary vocation by reason of its geographical context, starting in the 7th and 8th centuries, it founded churches throughout Asia, all the way to India and China. The Nestorians, like the other Syriacs, bridged the gap between Hellenistic thought and the Arab world. At the time of its greatest extension, the Nestorian church numbered 230 dioceses and 27 xv xvi THE FORGOTTEN GENOCIDE metropolitan sees. In the 19th century, the remaining Nestorians were mainly concentrated in the high Hakkari Mountains, the heart of modern Kurdistan, as well as in the Urmia basin in Persia, from which the Turks and Kurds drove them between 1915 and 1918. The Chaldean Church is a Catholic branch of the Nestorian church. The term “Chaldean” came into use in the 16th century. For a long time, their patriarch resided at Baghdad (hence the term “Patriarch of Babylon”) until he moved to Mosul, in northern Iraq, before returning to Baghdad. It was often urban Nestorian populations that converted to Catholicism, since they were the most accessible to the missionaries’ influence. They of course belong to the same ethnic and cultural group. According to Michel Chevalier, at the end of the 19th century, there still remained a few Chaldean mountain folk in regions around Tur Abdin (Zakho, Amadia, Akra, etc.) and also a very small minority in Hakkari. The name Assyro-Chaldean is used in modern terminology to refer to the whole Syriac population. It was used publicly for the first time at the peace conference of 1919. The concept is based on the idea that the Syriac populations of Mesopotamia are descended from the Assyrians of antiquity. This single term gathers all denominations of Syriac extraction, referring to common elements of identity, ethnicity, language and religion. Traditionally, this term mainly covers the Nestorian and Chaldean communities. Finally, devotion to the Aramaic heritage is found essentially in the language used, both in liturgical and in everyday speech. Syriac belongs to the family of Semitic languages, of which it represents an Aramaic branch based on the Edessa (Urfa) dialect. TERMINOLOGY OF SYRIAC DENOMINATIONS xvii General Table of Syriac Eastern Churches (excluding the Maronite Church) Name of the Other names Title Present Liturgical Church used borne by seat of language Foundation the Patriar- used Patriarch chate Seat of Patriarchate before 1914 Syriac Syrian Patriarch Damascus Syriac/ Orthodox Orthodox of Antioch (Syria) Arabic Church Church; and of All Mardin Opposition to the Jacobite the East (Monastery council of Church; of Deir Al- Chalcedon (451). Church of Zaafaran) Jacob Baradaeus, as Antioch and of of 542 all the East; (Metropolitan of Western Syriac Edessa) Church Syriac Catholic Syrian Church; Patriarch Beirut Syriac and Church Syrian Catholic of Antioch (Lebanon);C Arabic Formerly Syriac Church; harfeh (until Orthodox Church, Uniate Church 1831) became Catholic at Aleppo Aleppo in 1659 (1831-1850) Mardin Apostolic Nestorian Catholicos Officially Syriac Assyrian Church; of the East Baghdad Church of the Church of (Iraq), but East Mesopotamia; presently in Opposition to the Orthodox- Chicago Council of Ephesus Assyrian Kotchannes in 431, 1st Church; Syrian (in Turkish: independent church, Church of the Hakkari) its name comes from East; Ancient Nestorius Apostolic Church of the East Chaldean Catholic Chaldean Baghdad Syriac and Church Chaldean Patriarch (Iraq) Arabic 1555, 1681, Church of Babylon; Diyarbakir, recognition by Rome or Mosul of the patriarchal Patriarch lineage of Babylon of the Chaldeans .
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