GUEST column Charting the possibilities of the future In a movement marked by courage and inspiration, Chaldeans and Assyrians in the United States and Australia made history when together they enacted in March the largest church merger in the past 180 years. Nearly 1,000 Assyrian families from the Church of the East belonging to six parishes and two missions asked to be accepted in three dioceses in the Chaldean Church. As a result, HE Mar Sarhad Yawsip Jammo, Bishop of Saint Peter Diocese (in the Western U.S.), accepted more than 600 Assyrian and 50 American families. HE Mar Gibrayil Kassab, Bishop of Saint Thomas Diocese (in Australia) accepted 75 Assyrian families. And, HE Mar Ibrahim N. Ibrahim, Bishop of Saint Thomas Diocese (in the Eastern U.S.) still has the matter of 250 Assyrian families in Chicago under consideration. More mergers are anticipated in countries of the Middle East and Europe in the future. Nevertheless, the March event is “déjà vu” because it is history repeating itself. The present-day Chaldean Catholic Church started very small but grew out in numbers and territory through unions similar to these during the 18th and 19th centuries. In the Plains of Nineveh (Iraq), Diar Bakir (Turkey) and Urmia (Iran), tens of thousands of “Nestorian” Assyrians and scores of their churches and villages belonging to the Ancient Church of the East entered the Chaldean Church through the efforts of committed Bishops, devout priests and tireless monks, most of them Chaldeans possessing great love for Christ and BISHOP MAR BAWAI SORO SPECIAL TO THE CHALDEAN NEWS strong evangelical zeal for Catholicism. They were lovers of truth who wanted to share the Good News of the Gospel with their own. Their priority was to promote a unity based on canonical reforms and religious renewal. As a result, today the percentage of Catholics to the non-Catholics among the Chaldean Assyrian people is 2:1. Although Assyrians and Chaldeans have in common the same faith in Jesus Christ and practically belong to one ecclesial patrimony and ethnic background, still some of them are not very clear about our unity movement. “How all of a sudden did this take place?” they ask. Well, what we have witnessed was due to the culmination of decades of reflection, years of preparation and ample sacrifices made by hierarchs, clergymen and the faithful who genuinely concerned themselves with Church and National unity. The realization of three basic issues opened our eyes and helped us converge to communion with Rome and to unity with Chaldeans: • No real theological differences, aside from Papal Primacy, really exist between Assyrians and Chaldeans. • The ecclesial patrimony of the Assyrian Church of the East — canonical, liturgical and patristic — recognizes the Primacy of the See of Rome in a way that allows us to wholeheartedly and immediately accept Papal Primacy. After all, 1.2 other billion Christians have done this for 2,000 years. • The Chaldean and Assyrian people, despite their different designations, are in fact to the greatest extent one and the same people. OK, but what does “Communion with Rome” really mean? Well, it basically ends the ecclesial isolation we Assyrians have had to endure for many centuries from the rest of Christians. As a result, we can now start charting the possibilities of our future, renew our liturgy, Pope Benedict XVI and Mar Bawai Soro in Rome in April. adopt our canons and live out our social and cultural unity with our Chaldean brothers and sisters. But most significantly, we now feel spiritually and morally “connected,” in oneness, with the rest of the Body of Christ through our new relationship with the Successor of Saint Peter, Pope Benedict XVI. I hope this unity movement will gather other Assyrians to unite with Chaldeans. Unity is the fulfillment of God’s vision of human destiny. This is the only way we shall impact history. We may even ultimately survive against the odds we are facing in Iraq and confronting in the West. For those who are concerned that the Assyrian ethnicity and cultural particularities may diminish due to such unity, I say that in the Chaldean Church of the East, Assyrians together with Chaldeans can forge our common destiny and preserve all that we have, including what belongs to our Aramaic liturgical and theological tradition. Today, we have only one healthy way to restore our spiritual energy and cultural zeal — that is to explore the treasure contained in our common spiritual and cultural Mesopotamian patrimony. Mar Bawai Soro is an Assyrian Bishop who for 20 years keenly labored to unite Assyrians with Chaldeans and to re-establish full communion with Rome. 14 CHALDEAN NEWS AUGUST2008
