09-08-2008, 10:09 PM
Shlama Akhi Spyridon,
http://www.indianchristianity.org/assyrian.html
Before 1665, from Apostolic times, the believers in India were of the Church of the East. They were under the leadership of the Catholicos of Babylon. Tamerlane, who slaughtered the Church of the East mercilessly, interrupted our communication, but you were safe in India. You accepted the authority of Antioch in 1665 because it was close to your native Christian heritage (Aramaic/Semitic), and you didn't want Roman rule brought by the Portuguese.
But there still remained a remnant with ties to the Patriarch of Babylon of the Church of the East, and today the CoE in India is led by Metropolitan Mar Aprem who resides in Thrissur, Kerala state. There are churches all over India that are still Church of the East, and didn't submit to either Rome or Antioch.
Unfortunately the Portuguese were successful in forcing the vast majority of Indian believers into Roman Catholicism, and the SOC was another church who came in as an alternative, while the CoE was weak and in exile in the mountains of Hakkari in Turkey. The latter is the Church you now refer to as the "Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church."
But the CoE never died in India and is quite thriving today, although most of its former members are now for a few generations in obedience to two ecclesiastical strangers, historically speaking, Rome and Antioch.
+Shamasha Paul
PS - "Nestorian" is a misnomer. Nestorius was a Greek, the Patriarch of Constantinople. We have nothing to do with either Nestorius, or Constantinople. We are the Church of the East. Our enemies called us "Nestorian", but that is a false name as modern scholarship admits.
http://www.indianchristianity.org/assyrian.html
Quote:Assyrian Church of the East known in India as Chaldean Syrian Church of the East is founded by St. Thomas, the Apostle. The St.Thomas Christian of India from early centuries and relations with Chaldean Syrian Church of the East founded by Mar Thoma, Mar Barthelomeu, Mar Adhai and Mar Mari. Mar Adhai and Mar Mari were among the seventy disciples of Jesus. It was a flourishing Church.??? By 90 A.D. this Church had 19 Episcopal sees from Mesopotamia to China and Japan.??? This Church was also known as Nestorian or Assyrian Church.??? It uses Armaic in liturgy. Bishops and Christian leaders used to come to India from Mesopotomia.?????? The Portuguese missionaries who came to India in the 16th century tried to break this tradition and Latinize them.
.......
Vasco de Gama came to south India in 1498 AD. In the Synod of Diamper in June 1599, Archbishop Alexio de Menezes forced the Syrian Christian community to be under the obedience of the Pope of Rome.
In January 1653 thousands of these Christians in Malabar took an oath with a rope tied on a bend Cross and liberated themselves from the Portuguese fold. In 1665 a Metropolitan came from the East. Mar Gregorius of Jerusalem was his name. The Patriarch of Antioch sent him. The Syrian Christians received him. They were not aware of the split of the Syrian Christian community to East Syrian and West Syrian Churches. At that time no bishops came from the Church in Baghdad. The Patriarchate had been moved from Baghdad to different places and finally it was in Qudshanis in Kurdistan.
Before 1665, from Apostolic times, the believers in India were of the Church of the East. They were under the leadership of the Catholicos of Babylon. Tamerlane, who slaughtered the Church of the East mercilessly, interrupted our communication, but you were safe in India. You accepted the authority of Antioch in 1665 because it was close to your native Christian heritage (Aramaic/Semitic), and you didn't want Roman rule brought by the Portuguese.
But there still remained a remnant with ties to the Patriarch of Babylon of the Church of the East, and today the CoE in India is led by Metropolitan Mar Aprem who resides in Thrissur, Kerala state. There are churches all over India that are still Church of the East, and didn't submit to either Rome or Antioch.
Unfortunately the Portuguese were successful in forcing the vast majority of Indian believers into Roman Catholicism, and the SOC was another church who came in as an alternative, while the CoE was weak and in exile in the mountains of Hakkari in Turkey. The latter is the Church you now refer to as the "Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church."
But the CoE never died in India and is quite thriving today, although most of its former members are now for a few generations in obedience to two ecclesiastical strangers, historically speaking, Rome and Antioch.
+Shamasha Paul
PS - "Nestorian" is a misnomer. Nestorius was a Greek, the Patriarch of Constantinople. We have nothing to do with either Nestorius, or Constantinople. We are the Church of the East. Our enemies called us "Nestorian", but that is a false name as modern scholarship admits.