Anglicans and Assyrians

... Sadly, there seem to be few of us non-Assyrians who are much interested in the life and history of this glorious and venerable Church. The Church of the East should have a unique and dear place in the heart of every Anglo-Catholic: in the nineteenth century High Church Anglicans, authorised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, sent a mission to modern Iraq to help save the Assyrian Church and to preserve its heritage, culture and civilisation. I have loved the Assyrian Church since I first learned of its existence, for it is the oldest Eastern Church - with a direct linguistic and cultural link straight back to Our Lord and the Apostles. Thank you for your wonderful questions - here are a few thoughts on what you ask.

1. As I understand it, a number of local Synods and Councils of the Church of the East formally accepted the Christological Defintion of the Council of Chalcedon in the years immediately following AD 451, although the Church of the East has never formally accepted the canons, synodical actions or disciplinary decrees of the said Council. The liturgical texts of the Church of the East clearly assert two distinct natures in the Person of Our Lord, emphasising the Antiochene tradition of clearly distinguishing the divine and human natures in Jesus Christ. The differences of Assyrian theology with that of the wider Catholic Church is primarily semantic, and great confusion has emerged over the centuries because of the nuances and complexities of the Syriac language. The Church of the East has always held to what we would loosely translate as 'One Person' and 'Two Natures' in the Person of God the Son. The words they employ are patient of different meanings and interpretations, but it is clear that the Assyrian Church has always believed in the hypostatic union of Our Lord, a true Incarnation of the Word, and has never held to the widely-believed and falsely-presented caricature of Nestorius's teaching that Jesus Christ is merely a saint or God-possessed human being. I vividly recall both Bishop Kallistos Ware and Mar Bawai Soro asserting the fact that the Assyrian Church holds to the Definition of Saint Leo the Great in a lecture I heard on the subject in 2001, although I sadly fail to remember the exact Assyrian synod which affirmed Chalcedonian orthodoxy. The Roman-Assyrian Christological Agreement of 1994 certainly settles the question for us in a permanent way, as it directly embraces the Christology of Chalcedon.

2. The Assyrian Church still strictly refers to Our Lady as 'Mother of Christ,' Christotokos, in her liturgical texts - and employs the phase often, both in the Anaphora and in the liturgical texts for feasts and special celebrations. In theological writings, sermons and commentaries I have come across the term 'Mother of God' in a conditionalised sense. Theologically the Assyrians no longer object to the term, or at least no longer object to the theological implications of the term, although in deference to the Antiochene Fathers and especially 'Saint' Nestorius, it is not used in public worship. The Church of the East is very eager to conserve and preserve its liturgical patrimony, which is the oldest extant in Christendom. This was a point of severe contention in the now-suspended dialogue of the Assyrian Church with the Oriental Orthodox: the Oriental Churches demanded that the Assyrians remove Christotokos and replace the word with Theotokos. The Assyrians felt they could afirm Ephesine and Chalcedonian orthodoxy without the necessity of altering their ancient liturgical texts.

The Assyrians have a profound love for the Blessed Mother and a deep Marian piety which penetrates the heart of their Eucharistic liturgy. They invoke her in public prayer and ask for her intercession in the Holy Qurbana. They pray to, with and for her in the Communion of Saints. The Assyrian Church even has a tradition of Marian apparitions not unlike those of the Roman and Byzantine Churches, and a great number of parishes and shrine churches in Iraq and Iran (and in the diaspora) are dedicated to her. Assyrians cultivate a stirring filial devotion to Our Lady and frequently include her in their personal acts of prayer. The Assyrians observe annual feast days in honour of Our Lady, including her Assumption into heavenly glory. In this, the Assyrians possess the consensus fidelium of the whole Catholic Church of Christ, and in common with the Latin West and Constantinopolitan and Oriental East venerates the Blessed Virgin Mary as Mother of the Redeemer and Icon of the Church.