Assyrian Church of the East
The Assyrian Church of the East[a] (ACOE), sometimes called the Church of the East[5][6] and officially known as the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East (HACACE),[5][7][b] is an Eastern Christian church that follows the traditional Christology and ecclesiology of the historical Church of the East.[9] It belongs to the eastern branch of Syriac Christianity, and employs the Divine Liturgy of Saints Addai and Mari belonging to the East Syriac Rite. Its main liturgical language is Classical Syriac, a dialect of Eastern Aramaic, and the majority of its adherents are ethnic Assyrians.
Not to be confused with Syriac Orthodox Church, Church of the East, or Ancient Church of the East.
Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East
ACOE
East Syriac theology
Central Middle East, India; diaspora
Chaldean Syrian Church (1907)
- Chaldean Catholic Church (1830) (Eliya Line)
- Ancient Church of the East (1968)
400,000+ (2021)[3]
The church also has an archdiocese located in India, known as the Chaldean Syrian Church of India. The Assyrian Church of the East is officially headquartered in the city of Erbil, in northern Iraq; its original area also spread into southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria and northwestern Iran, corresponding roughly to ancient Assyria. The current Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Awa III, was consecrated in September 2021.
The Assyrian Church of the East claims continuity with the historical Church of the East, and it is not in communion with either the Oriental Orthodox Churches or the Eastern Orthodox Church. The faction of the Church of the East that came to be in full communion with the Holy See of Rome is the Chaldean Catholic Church. After the Common Christological Declaration in 1994 between the Church of the East and the Catholic Church, and a 2001 theological dialogue between the churches, they drew up guidelines for faithful to have mutual admission to the Eucharist between the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East.[10]
The Assyrian Church of the East has a traditional episcopal structure, headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch. Its hierarchy is composed of metropolitan bishops and diocesan bishops, while lower clergy consists of priests and deacons, who serve in dioceses (eparchies) and parishes throughout the Middle East, India, North America, Oceania, and Europe (including the Caucasus and Russia).[11]
Liturgy[edit]
The church employs the Syriac dialect of Eastern Aramaic in its liturgy, the East Syriac Rite, which includes three anaphoras, attributed to Addai of Edessa and Mari, Theodore of Mopsuestia and later also Nestorius.[49]
Feast of the Discovery of the True Cross, from a 13th-century Nestorian Peshitta Gospel book written in Estrangela, preserved in the SBB.
An angel announces the resurrection of Christ to Mary and Mary Magdalene, from the Nestorian Peshitta Gospel.
In their homes, Christians belonging to the Assyrian Church of the East hang a Christian cross (without the corpus) on the eastern wall of the main room.[71]
The Assyrian Church of the East does not currently make use of icons and the interior of its houses of worship are simple.[72] Iconography has been present in the Church of the East's history; opposition to religious images eventually became the norm due to the spread of Islam in the region, which forbade any type of depictions of saints and biblical prophets. As such, the church was forced to get rid of her icons.[73][72]
A Nestorian Peshitta Gospel book written in Estrangela, from the 13th century, currently resided at the State Library of Berlin. This illustrated manuscript from Upper Mesopotamia or Tur Abdin proves that in the 13th century the church was not yet aniconic.[74] The Nestorian Evangelion preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which contains an illustration depicting Jesus Christ (not a crucifix) in the circle of a ringed cross (in the form of Celtic cross) surrounded by four angels.[75]
Three Syriac manuscripts from the early 19th century and earlier—they were edited into a compilation titled The Book of Protection by Hermann Gollancz—containing a number of illustrations which are more or less crude. These manuscripts prove the continuous use of images. Moreover, a life-size male stucco figure was discovered in a church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon from the late 6th century. Beneath this church were found the remains of an earlier church. Although it cannot be determined which Nestorian Church was involved, the discovery nevertheless proves that the Church of the East also used figurative representations.[74]
Ecumenical relations[edit]
On November 11, 1994, a historic meeting between Patriarch Dinkha IV and Pope John Paul II took place in Rome. His Holiness, the Pope, and the patriarch signed a document titled "Common Christological Declaration Between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East". One side effect of this meeting was that the Assyrian Church of the East's relationship with the fellow Chaldean Catholic Church began to improve.[81]
Since 1995, the Assyrian Church of the East is a full member of the Middle East Council of Churches.[6]
The lack of a coherent institution narrative in the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, which dates to apostolic times, has caused many Western Christians, and especially Roman Catholics, to doubt the validity of this anaphora, used extensively by the Assyrian Church of the East, as a prayer of consecration of the eucharistic elements. In 2001, after a study of this issue, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, promulgated a declaration approved by Pope John Paul II stating that this is a valid anaphora. This declaration opened the door to a joint synodal decree officially implementing the present Guidelines for Admission to the Eucharist between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East.[82]