Ancient Church of the East
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The Ancient Church of the East broke away from the Assyrian Church of the East; after Mar Shimun XXIII, the patriarch of Assyrian Church of the East; made reforms which were not supported. These reforms were in direct opposition with the sanctity of being one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, changes such as those of using the new Roman calendar rather than the old calendar. For this reason the followers of the Ancient Church of the East resisted the changes made to the church and in 1968 Mar Thoma Darmo, a native of Mesopotamia, who was Metropolitan of the Assyrian Church of the East in Baghdad from 1952 to 1968, based at Trichur split from the Church of the East, and became head of the Ancient Church of the East in October 1968 and relocated to Baghdad. He died the following year.
Mar Addai II Givarghis Addai, 1 August 1950, is the Patriarch of the Ancient Church of the East and resides in Baghdad, Iraq. (See St Zaia Cathedral website, Sydney, Australia). He was elected to the position in February 1970, several months after the death of Mar Thoma Darmo, and was consecrated 20 February 1972.
Both the Assyrian Church of the East and The Ancient Church of the East share the same liturgy although the latter still performs mass in old Assyrian (Aramaic) while the Assyrian Church of the East performs mass in modern Assyrian. The Ancient church still follows the old calendar followed by most Christian Orthodox Churches. The Assyrian Church of the East has adopted the new calendar.
The Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East (as one church prior to 1968) both trace their history to apostolic times. The Assyrian Church refused to accept the decrees of the council of Ephesus against Nestorius (431 AD) and became separated from the rest of Christendom at that time. Nestorius taught that Jesus Christ is the personal union OF two personal natures, two persons personally united, the one and only compounded (ONLY BEGOTTEN) Person Who exists. The Father and the Spirit are each single persons, not compounded persons. Every angel and human is each a single person. Nestorius did not teach Jesus Christ to be two persons, or a dual person, though that is what he was condemned for teaching at the council of Ephesus. Nestorius said Jesus is one person COMPOSED OF two persons (or personal sources), but NOT that He IS two persons. The rest of Christendom (Roman, Greek, and Coptic churches) held that Christ's human nature is impersonal apart from His divine nature, i. e. that God the Word took on only a human body and brain, not a complete human self being.
The rest of Christendom expressed this teaching by declaring Mary to be mother of God, whereas the Assyrian (Nestorian) Church taught and still teaches that Mary is mother of Christ, the God-Man composed of two complete natures, including personality, (qnuma) always and forever personally united. Qnuma is an Aramaic word meaning totality or completeness of being and nature. Jesus is the divine person and Mary is the human person in the redemption, according to the Roman, Greek, and Coptic churches. Jesus is both the divine and human person in the redemption according to the Assyrian Church; always one compounded person, always one and the same self-being, not one and another. The Assyrians hold that a Christ with no human personality could not truly suffer, only separate Himself from His body and brain in physical death without suffering. The rest of ancient Christendom (Roman, Greek, & Coptic churches) believes that God cannot unite what would have been two persons (one and another) into one and the same personal compounded self, always one and the same, not one and another.
Protestantism has never officially decided what it believes on this ancient and ultimately important doctrinal question. Claiming to follow Scripture, Protestantism has, nevertheless, always hesitated on endorsing either side in this ancient Christian controversy going back to the 5th century AD. See the 39 Articles of the Church of England, especially Articles 2 and 21. The Articles declare our Lord to be two whole and perfect natures united in one person, but fail to declare whether Mary is to be regarded as mother of God, or mother of Christ, and whether the one person of Christ is single or compounded. Those same 39 Articles also do not declare which councils of the first seven are to be accepted as authoritative and which are not. The rest of Protestantism says much the same thing in the Lutheran and Reformed confessions. Evangelicals have even less of definitive dogmatic theology on this point.
In 1994, Mar Dinka IV, current head of the Assyrian Church, signed an agreement with Pope John Paul II wherein the Roman Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church recognized each other's doctrinal stance as to Christology and the use of the terms "mother of God" and "mother of Christ". This made the schism with Ancient Church of the East even more deep and less likely to be soon resolved. The Ancient Church of the East under Mar Addai II has not sanctioned any such ecumenical agreements.
[edit] References
- Mar Aprem Mooken, The Assyrian Church of the East in the Twentieth Century. Mōrān ’Eth’ō, 18. (Kottayam: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 2003).
- Bishop James Hess, Nestorian Apostolic Bishop, "Bishops at Large", by Bishop Alan Bain published in the UK. 1985
- Most Rev James H Hess, "A Directory of Autocephalous Bishops" by Bishop Karl Pruter, St Willibrord Press, USA, 1985
- Rev George Badger (Anglican priest and protege of the Archbishop of Canterbury), "Nestorians and Their Rituals", published by Oxford University circa 1860.
- The Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England, as published in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, Cambridge University Press, 1968
[edit] See also
- Assyrian Church of the East
- Chaldean Catholic Church
- Church of the East & Abroad
- Mar Addai II
- Mar Thoma Darmo
[edit] External links
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