Subject Catalogue of Publications Relating to Persia [‎7ar] (22/396)

THE
ARCHBISHOP'S MISSION TO THE ASSYRIAN CHURCH.
189 0.
I.—THE CALL FOR THE MISSION.
The Chaldean, Assyrian, or East Syrian Church is a National Church dating from Apostolic
times. At the time of the Nicene Council, which gave us the Creed of that name, this Church
was ruled by a Chief Bishop called the Catholicos of the East. In the fifth century after Christ one
of the great controversies arose respecting our Lord’s Incarnation, and Nestorius, Patriarch of Con
stantinople, was condemned and deposed by the CEcumenical Council of Ephesus, for refusing to
accept the true faith. The Assyrian Church unhappily threw in its lot with Nestorius, and from that
day has been cut off from communion with the rest of Christendom. After this, it existed as a great
missionary Church, spreading over Persia, India,—even to China ; but in the fourteenth century
it w r as broken to pieces by Tamerlane, and various Mohammedan persecutions have reduced it
to its present dimensions—a small community of about 150,000 souls, holding desperately to
Christianity amidst the bitterest enemies of our holy faith, in the almost inaccessible valleys of
the Kurdish mountains, on the frontiers of Persia and Turkey, between lake Urmi and lake Van,
and in the plains of Urmi and Mosul.
The episcopal sees, reduced to about ten in number, lie partly in Turkey and partly in
Persia. The dioceses of the Catholicos and of the Mattran or Metropolitan (the second ruler
of the Chaldean Church) are both in the dominions of the Sultan.
They felt at last that, through ignorance from wuthin and persecution from without, they could
no longer stand alone, but without some assistance must eventually succumb, though with deepest
repugnance, to external organisations at work upon them. The Patriarch, Mar Shimun, still
bears the title “ Catholicos of the East; ” his Bishops still govern the feeble remnant of the
once powerful Church ; and the Assyrian priests and deacons, though many of them have to labour
for daily bread, sometimes on the lands of Mussulman masters, still in their isolation maintain their
native version of the Scriptures, their careful observance of the Lord’s Day, their great congregations,
their primitive customs, liturgies, and services at dawn and sunset, though ignorance may
compel some to repeat the words by rote, and extreme poverty prevent the employment of all
but the meanest adjuncts.
II.—THE STEPS TAKEN AND THE WORK DONE.
In the year 1838, the Patriarch and his Bishops, in their helplessness and distress, sent to
the Church of England a touching appeal for aid. In answer to this, successive Archbishops of
Canterbury endeavoured to assist this ancient community, but no permanent work was established.
In 1876, in consequence of an almost despairing appeal from the Assyrian rulers, the
Rev. E. L. Cutts was despatched to Kurdistan on a mission of inquiry, the narrative of which
is given in his interesting work, The Christians under the Crescent. (S.P.C.K.)
In 1884 the present Archbishop of Canterbury commissioned Mr. Athelstan Riley to
undertake another inquiry. The result of these investigations was, that the Mission was
fairly commenced in the summer of the year 1886 by the despatch of the Rev. Canon
Maclean, M.A., and the Rev. W. H. Browne, LL.M., to Kurdistan. They were received with
enthusiasm by the whole Assyrian Church and Nation ; Bishops and Clergy rode out at the
head of their people to welcome them, and the Patriarch placed the whole education of his
fiock in the hands of the English clergy.