Mar Aprem Mooken

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mar Aprem Mooken, is the Assyrian Church of the East Metropolitan of India. Mar Aprem (formerly George Mooken) was born in Trichur, Kerala, India, in June 1940. Educated in India, England and America, he specialised in Church History. He was the President of the Church History Association of India in 1976-1982.

He holds two master's degrees in Church History, one from the United Theological College, Bangalore (M. Th, of Serampore, 1966) and the other from the Union Theological Seminary, New York (S.T.M. degree, 1967). He was a candidate for Doctor of Theology (Th.D.) degree at Princeton Theological Seminary, U.S.A., when he was consecrated Bishop in Baghdad, Iraq in 1968. Later he earned his D.Th. degree from Serampore University, near Calcutta. Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam granted a Ph.D. degree in Syriac Studies to him in 2002.

Ordained a deacon on June 25, 1961, he became a priest on the day he completed twenty five years of age on 13 June, 1965. He was consecrated Bishop on 21st September, 1968 and promoted as a Metropolitan eight days^{[citation needed]}later in Baghdad. In 1995 he was instrumental in healing the rift that had developed in the church over the question of hereditary appointments since the 1960s. He is the author of 65 books on church history, theology, social issues, and even humour.