History of The Chaldean Church ????????? Fr. Mahen Gurges?????

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History of The Chaldean Church?????????Fr.
Mahen Gurges?????

• Guidelines
• Hong Kong 2013 ??

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• THE PEOPLES OF MESOPOTAMIA
• THE SUMERIANS
• The history of Ancient Iraq is truly an epic of
  human endeavor.
• In 3000 B.C., Sumerians pioneered
• They are the inventors of the first system of
  writing (Cuneiform ), the founders of the first
  school, the pioneers of mathematical principles
  and calculations.
• The first legislature and jurisprudence the
  first library and the first pharmacy the first
  irrigation system and the first city plan the
  first principles of morality and the first
  attempt at theology
• through mythology. The Sumerians
• are those who made Mesopotamia
• the Cradle of Civilization.

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• Chaldeans 626-539 B.C.-
• (For best reference, Wiseman, D.J.,
  Chronicles of Chaldean Kings (626-556 B.C.) in
  the British Museum, London 1956)
• Origins of the name The name "Chaldea, Kaldu,
  Chaldean, Chaldeans" appears in historical
  documents around 900 B.C.
• Then, we find the Chaldeans first as Aramaic
  tribes in the neighborhood of Babylon later they
  conquered Babylon itself in 625 B.C.,
  establishing a splendid empire, first Jewish
  exile 597 BCE
• until its collapse in 539 B.C. at the hand of
  Cyrus the Persian.(Genesis. 1131 -12 3)

??629-539 ???? Chaldea??????????????900???? ??,
????????????,?????,625??????????,?????,???539?????
???????(?1131-123)
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• In 627 B.C., Nabupalassar, with the help of
  Chaldean tribes became King of Babylon, declared
  independence from Assyria, and allied himself
  with the Medees, causing the collapse of the
  Assyrian empire and the fall of Nineveh in 612
  B.C. he then expanded the rule of Babylon over
  all of Mesopotamia and beyond.

??627?,????????????, ??????, ??????, ?Medees??,??
612??? ??????????,???? ??????????,????????
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Chaldean empire ???(???)??
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• The break out of the Good News
• Acts Go and baptise
• all nations in the
• name of the father
• and the Son and
• The Holy spirit.
• Do not leave Jerusalem,
• but wait there for what
• my Father promised,
• which you heard about
• from me. For John
• baptized with water,
• but you will be baptized with the
• Holy Spirit not many days from now

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• CHRISTIANITY IN MESOPOTAMIA
• The Establishment of the Church of the East
• Christianity spread to Mesopotamia and areas
  of the Persian Empire as early as the first
  Christian century. Many Chaldeans and Assyrians
  accepted the Gospel and gradually established the
  Church of the East. According to ancient
  tradition, the Apostle Thomas was the first to
  evangelize those regions in his journey to India,
  followed by Mar Addai, one of the Seventy
  Disciples of the Lord.

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Church of the East ????

• The geat persecution fall upon the Christians in
  Persia about 340. Though the religious motives
  were never unrelated, the primary cause of the
  persecution was political. When Rome became
  Christian, its old enemy turned anti-Christian.
• It was about 315 that an ill-advised letter from
  Christian Emperor Constantine to his Persian
  counterpart Shapur II probably triggered the
  beginnings of an ominous change in the Persian
  attitude toward Christians. Constantine believed
  he was writing to help his fellow believers in
  Persia but succeeded only in exposing them.

?340?,??????????????????????(????)?????????,??????
?????? 315?????????????Shapur??,??????,??????????
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????Roman\ Persian????
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• The shah Shapur II's response was to order a
  double taxation on Christians and to hold the
  bishop responsible for collecting it. He knew
  they were poor and that the bishop would be
  hard-pressed to find the money. Patriarch Simon
  refused to be intimidated. He branded the tax as
  unjust and declared, "I am no tax collector but a
  shepherd of the Lord's flock...
• multitude of Christians had been martyred, some
  of 190 thousand Persian Christians.

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• At the beginning of the seventh century, prior to
  the Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia (634 A.D.),
  about one half of the population was Christian,
  following the Islamic Conquest, Islam became
  gradually the religion of the majority of the
  population. Christians and Jews were accepted in
  the Islamic state and society as "the People of
  the Book," and they were organized as
  religious-social-and-cultural communities under
  their own leaders and laws.
• But unfortunately things changed toward a fanatic
  religious awareness and starts a big
  discrimination followed by sever persecution.

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Christianity in China seventh and eighth
centuries
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• The missioners of the church of the East -
  Nestorian - made their way to China during the
  period of Tang Dynasty before that period and
  early 360, Bishop ,Mar Shaba Christianized
  central Asia what its known now Uzbekistan,
  Chronicle of Seert
• even during the Sassaian era Christianity had
  advanced from centeral Asia into far East with
  missionary activity begining during the reign of
  emperor Tai- tsung of Tang Dynasty,

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In China
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• in 635 the first monk Alopen from Sogdia
  arrived at the imperial court bearing pictures
  and books who was received by the Chinese emperor
  who commissioned him to translate the books into
  Chinese,
• the improper subsequently issued an edict in
  which he granted the religion of enlightenment
  freedom to preach and permission to found a
  monastery in the imperial capital, since
  Christianity emphasized goodness and benefited
  the people,

635?,????????????????,?????,????????????,?????
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• under the empress WU 690-705 Christianity was
  regarded as competition for Buddhism and was
  persecuted, not until 745 did Emperor Hsuan -
  Tsung again legitimate Christianity and present
  the monasteries with tablets expressing this
  official recognition,

690-705?,??????,??????????????,????????????,??????
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• on the stele dedicated to Issu- , a priest from
  Balch, which was erected in Xian in 781 and
  discovered in 1625, the entire early history of
  the East Syriac missionary endeavors is recorded.
  And Patriarch Henanisho is mentioned.
• Sianfu Stele 781
• rediscovered in 1625

?????781???,1625?????????????????????,??????Henani
sho
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The set back ??

• In 845 under emperor Wu- tsung , persecution of
  Christians who numbered about 260 thousands
  began.
• Countless churches were destroyed ,and 2 thousand
  monks and nuns are believed to have been
  laicized. Patriarch Thedosius I 853- 868
  noted that china did not participate in his
  Synod.

845?,?????????26????? ??????,?????????????Thedosi
us????????????????853-868????????
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The Mongol khan Hulago and his Christian queen
Doquz Khatun
There were also temporary Christian gains further
appeard. The Mongol conquest of China in the
second half of the 13th century allowed the East
Syrian church to return to China, and by the end
of the century two new metropolitan provinces had
been created for China, Tangut and 'Katai and
Ong'
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Timur Lung Khan (Timur the Lame borne 1336 south
of Samarkand in modern day Uzbekistan)

• Biography of Tamerlane, more properly known as
  Timur, the
• Central Asian conqueror.
• Baghdad was destroyed
• in 1401, and 20,000 of its
• people slaughter include
• 9, 000 Christians.

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Reunited with Rome 1553

• The first official attempt on the part of the
  Church of the East in Mesopotamia to be reunited
  with the Catholic Church of Rome was realized
  when the elected Patriarch John Sulaka went to
  Rome and made his profession of the Catholic
  Faith before Pope Julius III in 1553. By 1592.
  The term Chaldean Church was first used in 1445
  A.D. by Pope Euginus V to distinguish the
  Nestorians of Cyprus, who were newly reconciled
  with Rome, from the Nestorians in general,
  henceforth called Assyrians.

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19th century persecution

• The most significant recent persecution against
  Christianity population was the Christian
  genocide which occurred during the First World
  War and Second World War. Between 250,000 and
  300,000 Christians were estimated to have been
  slaughtered by the armies of the Ottoman Empire
  and their Kurdish allies, totalling up to
  two-thirds of the entire Assyrian Chaldean -
  Syaric population. This led to a large-scale
  migration of Turkish-based , into countries such
  as Syria, Iran, and Iraq.

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Ephesus The Third Ecumenical Council 431
A.D.???(???)???
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451? ??????
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Churchs History
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1054??????
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1548????(??????)
1529? ????/????
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Ephesus 431
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1552? ?????????????,???????(???)
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Eastern Churches

• Known later as Oriental Orthodox Church
• ???????
• Coptic Orth. ??????
• Syrian Orth.??????
• Indian Orth. ?????
• Ethiopian Orth. ????????
• Eritrean Orth. ????????

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• Why these divisions ????
• Clash between two theological schools???????????
• Antioch and Alexandria
• ????? ? ????

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Mother of Jesus
Mother of God
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Antioch School / Nestorius
Ephesus Council (431)
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Roman Empire ????
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Chaldean Synod with His Holiness Pope Benedict
XVI ?????????????????
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