Message of Congratulations from His Eminence Mar Meelis Zaia   to His Grace Mar Awraham Youkhanis     Beloved brother in Christ, His Grace, Mar Awraham Youkhanis  , Bishop of Western Europe. Greetings to the Lord Jesus Christ “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, for he chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight in love” (Eph 1-3-4) I am rejoiced to see our Lord Jesus Christ choosing a great and distinguished priest, with the grace given to him from the heights, devoting himself to serve the Church of the East. In that holy hour of your episcopal consecration, as the Holy Spirit was descending upon you, I thanked the Lord for that, and for His good divine will and His heavenly blessings, for setting me a witness to all your consecrations from deacon to bishop. As you serve His holy Church in the heart of London and lead the diocese of Western Europe; which you will make it a spiritual lighthouse for the advancement of the blessed Assyrian Church of the East, as you have …

The Assyrian Schools Council publishes new Assyrian Language Curriculum including 12 new textbooks   The Assyrian Schools Council of the Assyrian Church of the East in Australia under the leadership of his beatitude Mar Meelis Zaia has published the Assyrian Language Curriculum, which includes twelve textbooks from the kindergarten to tenth grade, as well as a book for beginners who are recently enrolled in the schools. The course is written by Assyrian Language Coordinator Anwar Atto and designed by Mr. Ashur Harmis. Each book is divided into four units of work. Each covers a topic that reflects students’ interests, suits their age and meets their language needs using the modern standard Assyrian language in a communicative and comprehensive method of teaching the language including listening, understanding, speaking, reading and writing skills as well as the Assyrian culture, heritage and history integrated in the teaching of the topics.

His Grace Mar Benyamin Elya attends launch of Sarah Lindenmayer’s new book, Debt of Honour On Saturday 8 September 2018, His Grace Mar Benyamin Elya, Bishop of Victoria and New Zealand attended the launch of Ms Sarah Lindenmayer’s new book, Debt of Honour, at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance. This important new book tells the remarkable and almost unknown history of how one of Australia’s great military heroes, Lieutenant General Sir Stanley George Savige became instrumental in saving tens of thousands of Assyrians in 1918 while a Captain in the Australian Imperial Force. His Grace was accompanied by The Rev’d Fr Antawan Mikhail and gave the closing benediction on the historic occasion, expressing the prayers of the Assyrian Church of the East for the success of the book and congratulating Ms Lindenmayer on many years of devoted research in bringing it to fruition. The launch was well attended by descendants of the late Lieutenant General Savige along with The Hon. Bruce Atkinson MP, President of the Victorian Legislative Council, members of Melbourne Legacy, clergy from the Anglican and Coptic churches, current and former members of Australia’s armed forces and Assyrian community members. The Diocese once again congratulates Ms Lindenmayer on this …

2nd session of Commission for dialogue between Russian Orthodox Church and Assyrian Church of the East takes place   On October 23-26, 2017, 2nd session of the Commission for Dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Assyrian Church of the East took place in the city of Modesto, USA. The delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate consisted of Bishop Kliment of Krasnoslobodsk and Temnikov, co-chair, and hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov) secretary for inter-Christian relations of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations. The Assyrian Church of the East was represented  by His Grace Mar Awa Royel, Bishop of California and secretary of the Holy Synod of the Assyrian Church of the East, co-chair; Chorbishop George Kanon Toma, clergyman of the Assyrian St. Andrew church in Glenview, Illinois, USA; an d priest Ephraim Alkhas, assistant to the Secretary of the Holy Synod. A main aspect of the Commission’s work is the coordination of inter-Christian cooperation in supporting the suffering Christians of Iraq and Syria, many of whom are members of the Assyrian Church of the East. The communiqué issued on the results of the session says:-“The Commission expressed profound concern over the situation of the cruelly persecuted Christians in the Middle …