A Publication of Saint Andrews Assyrian Church of the East-Glenview, Illinois

WINTER- 2015
The
Annunciation to the Virgin
Mother
The Advent Season in the Holy
Church is the
time of miracles.
It lists before us
several impossible acts of God,
insofar as the mind of man is concerned. First Sunday of advent
we learned of the coming of John
the Baptist, the son of the barren
couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth.
The announcement was made to
Zechariah, a temple priest, while
he was within the temple offering
his service unto God and for the
people of God and himself.
Gabriel, a Hebrew name meaning
the strength of God for it was by
his testimony that he was in the
presence of God, and (that he)
was sent to bring the good news
of the conception and birth of
John to the barren couple.
Again, it was this very self-same
Angel Gabriel who had appeared
to the Virgin Mother, St Mary the
Blessed, to announce to her that
she was to bear a Son, and that
she was to name Him Jesus for He
was to save his people from their
sin.
Within this Gospel lesson, for the
Second Sunday of Advent, we
have an emphasis upon the teaching of the Holy Church, which is a
direct statement concerning the
perpetual virginity of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, the Mother of Emmanuel, which is: God with us!

QUARTERLY MAGAZINE

VOLUME 6, ISSUE 3

This is demonstrated by the

phrase that Jesus is Perfect
God and Perfect Man coming
to us in this world by a different
route than that of a normal human being. His entrance is not
in the norms of the laws of nature. However, as we look
through the eyes of faith, we see
that nothing is impossible with
God; these supernatural acts of
God cannot be explained naturally, they are recorded for us in
the Sacred Scriptures and we
are bound to accept and believe
by a simple trusting faith. It is
written: . . . to a Virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph . .
. The Virgin Mother replies to
the Angel Gabriel with these
words: . . . How can these things
be, since I know not a man? The
answer is simply stated within
the writings of the Gospel: . . .
the Power of the Holy Spirit will
come upon thee . . .

and, she recognized that the Merciful God was most powerful, and that
nothing was impossible with Him.
And, that she knew her place in her
role as a member in the race of humankind! She recognized her place
as the handmaiden of The Lord. Be
it unto me as you have said. She
knew and understood the Words of
God, for she makes reference to the
God of Abraham and of his seed.
How can we relate this information
to our present generation?
How
can we help our younger generation understand the piety of a godly
life; and about their purpose in this
present society? To apply this lifestyle to our individual lives in this
day and age, requires that we too
are to read the Holy Scriptures of
God, written for us to know the
depths of a godly life of our forebearers; these things will help us to
live a godly life to-day; and, to understand our place in God. We will
know our role within the community
of the Body of Christ to which we
Let us return to the opening reare called in this area of our commarks of the Angel Gabriel, let
mitment.
us consider the actions and
words recorded in the gospel of If our younger generation wants to
Luke for us. Highly favored be like the Virgin Mary and to reamong women, meaning that flect her life in our present day, this
which is full of grace! She was is done by each of us when we
full of grace because she was know the Word of God; and, by livgoing to become the bearer of ing a godly life; to know God and to
Jesus Christ, our Lord and our understand our role before Him.
Savior. This indicated to us that Come now, and let us look at this
she is the most blessed woman Sacred passage of Divine truth in
of all time to humanity. The this light; and, let us see what it
Blessed Mother, even though means to be placed in the high
young, had a good grasp of the place as the Virgin Mother of
prospective of The God, she Christ, for it will always bring with it
knew; she understood;
certain difficulties.. Continue Page 5
Copyright 2015 by Assyrian Church of the East

Page 1

HOLY APOSTOLIC CATHOLIC ASSYRIAN CHURCH OF THE EAST

10 Assyrian
Churches From
Around the World
The Church of the
East, the predecessor of our current
H o ly
A p os to li c
Catholic
Assyrian
Church of the East,
had 80 million members at its height. These church members
were not all Assyrian; among them were
the Chinese, Indians, Arabs, and others.
Below is a small collection of Syriacspeaking churches from around the world
that our ancestors helped establish.

Although this is not a photo of a church,

this epitaph featuring Syriac writing from
Mongolia demonstrates how Mongolians
were in fact a part of our church. It is said
that the Mongolian alphabet was influenced by our alphabet.

Mart Mariam Church, Thrissur, India

Our sister church in India is known as the
Chaldean Syrian Church locally. The
church has about 15,000 members.

Daqin Pagoda, Xian, China

Considered by historians to be one of our
churches built in the 600s, some instead
believe it to originally be a Buddhist temple. A supposed drawing of prophet Jonah can be found inside.
Saint Thomas Chaldean Church,
Sarcelles, France
Also belonging to our sister church, a vast
majority of the members of this church
have no problem calling themselves Assyrians. A large number of adherents,
over 20,000, live in the area.

St. Marys Church, Moscow, Russia

Many Assyrians that fled the Assyrian
Genocide (Seyfo) of the early 20th Century found refuge in Russia. According to a
2002 Russian Census, about 14,000 Assyrians were tallied. Some estimate close to
70,000 Assyrians live in the country.

Mor Gabriel Monastery, Tur Abdin,

Turkey
Built in the late 300s this monastery, built
upon on an ancient Assyrian temple, currently belongs to our sister church, the
Syriac Orthodox Church.
Merv, Turkmenistan
An ancient church said to date back to the
9th century in an Asian country many Assyrians no longer have a connection with
unfortunately.

Jubail Church, Saudi Arabia

This Nestorian church was built in the
300s. Christianity is not openly practiced
in Saudi Arabia and churches cannot be
built.
Rabban Hurmizd Monastery, Alqosh,
Iraq
Carved into the mountains, the monastery
was completed in 640. Originally belonging to the Church of the East, the monastery is now affiliated with our sister
church, the Chaldean Catholic Church.

Mongolia

By: Ramsen Shamon

Copyright 2015 by Assyrian Church of the East

Nestorian Church in Famagusta, Cyprus

Two wealthy Assyrian brothers from Syria
built the Saint George the Exile church in
the 1300s. The church now functions as the
Cultural Center of the Eastern Mediterranean University. Church services occasionally
occur.

Page 2

HOLY APOSTOLIC CATHOLIC ASSYRIAN CHURCH OF THE EAST

Fulfilling the Will of our Lord and Savior

As we know God has a will for all of us and it is our duty to fulfill to the best
our ability even through our weakness. I wanted to serve the Holy Church
and after prayer I knew I could start my journey to do as the Lord has
planned. After being spiritually ready which is establishing and maintaining
relationship with our Lord, I along with a few of my brothers sought to find a
teacher to help us grow and learn the teachings and language of our Holy
Church. Our parish priest, Very Rev. Cor-Bishop Gewargis Toma gave the
blessing to Reverend Father Benjamin Benjamin to teach us and lead us to
our goal. Since the beginning of this year, Rev. Benjamin tirelessly taught us
the ancient Aramaic language which is used in the liturgical services of the
Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East. After gaining a few
months of experience of reading, we began to do evening prayer every
Wednesday and Friday. The evening prayer reinforced language skills but also taught us many new
skills including learning the liturgical tunes (qalleh) and how to use the Book of the Before and After
which is the official book of our Church's prayer services. Both of our beloved priests taught and instilled the love our Lord within our hearts which brought us to the point of being able to accept and
begin the Holy Sacrament of Priesthood as accepting the rank of Sub-Deacon (Hupadyaqna) from the
blessed hands of our diocesan bishop, His Grace Mar Paulus Benjamin. We are the future of the Church,
therefore it is our duty to learn our language and faith so we can continue to preserve it until the second
coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My brothers (Chris Aoraha, Daniel Eshow, and Emanuel Yalda) and I request the prayers of the congregation so we can continue to serve the Holy Church with faith,
hope, love, and respect.
1 Peter 4:10-11
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that
God suppliesin order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
By: Peter Azzo

The mission.

Saint Andrews Church Committee

Honor and glorify God the father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit and make Him known. Preach His word (The
Gospel) through the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian
Church of the East, established by the teachings of our
Lords Disciples and the Churchs Saints, Patriarchs,
Bishops and Priests, as the source of the good news.

Teach the Assyrian Language (Neo-Aramaic), one of

our Lords main Languages, to our Children and educate them on the importance of speaking and preserving it.

Page 3

Copyright 2015 by Assyrian Church of the East

HOLY APOSTOLIC CATHOLIC ASSYRIAN CHURCH OF THE EAST

Why do we believe in canonized saints?
The word Saints
is of a Greek
origin which
means holy or seta-part. In our
Eastern Church theology; Saints are
canonized (declared) after their
death. Sainthood is conferred upon a
special class of people based on their
Christ dedicated life and their deeds.
Saints are selected and spiritually
equipped by God to build the church
(the body of Christ)! Ephesians ( 4:11
-12) says And he has assigned some
as apostles and some as prophets and
some as evangelists and some as pastors and some as teachers; 12 For the
perfecting of the saints for the work
of the ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ Saints are especially
respected in the bible. In Romans
16:1-2 Paul charges the believers to
regard deaconess Phebe and treat
her with the special respect due
saints. I entrust to your care Phebe,
our sister, who is a deaconess of the
church which is at Cenchrea. 2 That
you may receive her in our Lord with
the respect which is due saints and
that you may assist her in whatever
she may need of you

and total devotion to God. We ask

our fellow believers to pray for us all
the time , so why not the saints who
have dedicated themselves to the
Lord?
In Revelation; the bible teaches us
that the saints are in prayers before
the throne. We know for a fact that
saints are praying in Gods presence
and asking them to pray for us is very
natural. And when he had taken the
book, the four beasts and four [and]
twenty elders fell down before the
Lamb, having every one of them
harp, and golden vails full of odours,
which are the prayers of saints
(Revelation 5:8). And another angel
came and stood at the altar, having a
golden censer; and there was given
unto him much incense, that he
should offer [it] with the prayers of all
saints upon the gold altar which was
before the throne.
In conclusion, there are many derogatory remarks related to worshiping
saints made by others about us. We
only worship one God. And our belief
in saints stems from the many biblical
instances that endorsed their righteousness, confirmed their respect,
and denoted their dedication to the
Lord.
By: Mariam Amro

Many of our saints endured a lot of

suffering and various tortures, yet
they didnt renounce their Christian
faith. Many of them were rather martyred for their faith in Christ. Saints
also performed countless miracles
and made miraculous appearances to
believers.

THE MEANING OF THE ASSYRIAN FLAG

At the center of the Assyrian flag is a
golden circle, representing the sun. Symbolically, it generates heat and light to
sustain the earth and all living things. The
star surrounding the sun stands for the
land, its light blue color representing tranquility.
The three major rivers of our homeland
are represented by the wavy stripes that
extend from the center of the flag to its
four corners. The dark blue is for the Euphrates river, which stands for the Assyrian word peruta meaning abundance. The
red stripes symbolize the Tigris river, its
crimson color honoring courage, glory,
and pride. The white lines between the
two represent Zawa, as tranquility and
peace. Many view the three stripes as
roads that will lead the dispersed Assyrian
people back to their homeland. Above the
blue star, at the top of the flag, sits the
ancient Assyrian God Ashur, who guards
the people the flag represents. It is an
ancient symbol.
On top of the flagstaff is the standard of
King Sargon I, who established the first
Assyrian empire. During the ancient times
this insignia stood by the king's side to let
everyone know his whereabouts.
Source:
http://www.ninevehlives.com/history/onenation-one-flag/

Despite our strong belief in saints;

make no mistake that we dont worship them! We ask saints to pray for
us. We ask our departed brothers
and sisters in Christ (the Saints) to
intercede between us and God, because we believe in their holiness
Copyright 2015 by Assyrian Church of the East

Page 4

HOLY APOSTOLIC CATHOLIC ASSYRIAN CHURCH OF THE EAST

At the time when Gabriel called the Virgin Mother, she was greatly troubled. Without a doubt she was not expecting to encounter an angel; after all, she was engaged to Joseph.
Engagements of that era were much more serious than that of this day and age. An engagement was binding; a bill
of divorcement was required to be loosed from the betrothal. If there was any suspicion of unfaithfulness she would
have been either stoned to death or given a bill of divorcement.
Please note here; if the fiance dies or is killed as a casualty in war; she is then considered as a virgin who is a
widow. However, if a child was conceived during the time of betrothal, the child was considered illegitimate.
Therefore, as this particular pregnancy became known, The Virgin Mother faced many possible difficulties; 1) rejection by Joseph; 2) the task of rearing her Child alone; 3) jeopardize her role and reputation in Nazareth; 4) risk
her life, (i.e. being killed by stoning) in the event that she would be rejected by her righteous spouse. Perhaps the
Virgin Mother Mary felt insecure, or unworthy, or insufficient for this great task of becoming the mother of the Son
of God, the Savior of the World.
Moses was given a message and a task by God Himself, not by an angel as in this setting. He was to bring the Israelites out of Land of Egypt. Moses was alarmed, stating that he wondered who he was to go to the Pharaoh and demand that he was to bring them out of the land of bondage. What if they will not listen? O, God send someone else,
not me!
Indeed, Moses did have a challenging experience imposed upon him, but it was not greater than that of the Virgin
Mother, who had been instructed that she would bear Jesus Christ who is the Redeemer or Savior of the World.
Perhaps The Virgin Mother could have said the same thing that Moses said, Lord, I am not worthy, I am a simple
teen-ager, or I am not wealthy, nor am I well educated, perhaps Youd do best to use/send someone else. . .
The Virgin Mother said, simply, Yes, Lord, here am I.
After considering all of the possibilities from rejection to stoning to death, The Virgin Mother did respond to the
call of God yes Lord, here am I the handmaiden of the Lord.
Are you, beloved in Christ, willing to accept all the blame, the heartache, and the responsibilities imposed upon
your life as did the Virgin Mother when she said yes to God?
That He who is born of Mary demonstrates Christs human nature, but that The Virgin will conceive and bear a Son,
reveals the Divine Nature of Christ, noting here The Holy Trinity engaged in the manifestation of the coming of Jesus and the act of salvation for humankind. (God the Father is revealed as The Power of the most high; and, God
the Son is revealed as the Holy One to be born; and, the Holy Spirit will come upon you. This is the revelation of
the Holy Trinity)
Jesus having no earthly father is born without the sin of Adam. Jesus humanity was taken by the power of the Holy
Spirit from the Virgin Mary; therefore we confess that Jesus Christ is perfect man of His mother, and Perfect God of
His Father.
The Virgin Mothers faithful response to God makes her the highest model of obedience unto our worshipful God.
The Incarnation not only requires the work of the Holy Trinity, but also, that of the Virgin Mother who willingly, in
faith, cooperates with the same by submitting her will unto Him.
The Virgin Mary receives both exaltation from the Angelic being and that of humankind: The Angel said: Rejoice,
highly favored one, The Lord is with you, blessed are you among women . . . From the voice of humankind, Elizabeth
states: . . . Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb; but why is this that the mother of my
Lord should come unto me?
St. Mary the Virgin is confessed as the mother of my Lord, by Elizabeth. He was no mere Man that the blessed Virgin was carrying in the depths of her hidden parts. The Church derives the name the Mother of Christ from this
particular confession of Elizabeth, the mother of my Lord. The Virgin Mary carried in her womb and gave birth to
Christ who is a perfect man and a Perfect God! It is He whom we call Emmanuel, which is: God with us.
In the Magnificat, we learn from all time unto all generations the Virgins hymn offering praises unto God. The
Christian believers from all time and unto all ages will honor and venerate this Virgin Mother (St Mary) of our Lord,
calling her Blessed! It is not possible for us to believe the Holy Bible and not to venerate she who is The Virgin
Mother of our Lord. (Hail Mary, full of grace, The Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among woman, and blessed is the
fruit of Thy womb.)
By: Fr. George Toma

Page 5

Copyright 2015 by Assyrian Church of the East

HOLY APOSTOLIC CATHOLIC ASSYRIAN CHURCH OF THE EAST

Copyright 2015 by Assyrian Church of the East

Page 6

HOLY APOSTOLIC CATHOLIC ASSYRIAN CHURCH OF THE EAST

.1

. .2

Created by Hewi S. Arkis

Are you in High School or College and

want to join youth?
If so, join us every Friday at 8:00 PM in
Saint Andrews Church. Classes will be
lead by Cor-Bishop Dr. Gewargis Toma.
Register your Child at Mar Dinkha IV
School Assyrian Language and Bible
study classes for all ages on Fridays at
7:00 p.m. and Sundays at 9:00 a.m.

Copyright 2015 by Assyrian Church of the East

This edition sponsors

Published by Saint Andrews Assyrian

Church of the East. 901 N. Milwaukee

Ave. Glenview, Illinois.

Articles reflect point of view of writers

in a positive encouraging way. Editing staff reserve the right to reject any
article that dont represent the view of
the Church.

Edited by: Hewi S. Arkis

Chief editor: David Arkis
Printed by: Niles Express Copy &

Printing, 7542 W. Oakton, Niles, IL.

For more information, comments or

suggestions email us at:

info@standrewsassyrianchurch.com

If you want to sponsor seeds of faith,

please stop by Saint Andrews Church

office, or email us at:

info@standrewsassyrianchurch.com
Like us on Facebook!

St. Johns Church

St. Marys Church

Mar Sargis Church

St. Andrews Church

Mar Gewargis Church

1421 W. Lawrence

660 Larson Lane

1850 W. Cuyler

901 N. Milwaukee

7201 N. Ashland

Chicago, IL 60640

Roselle, IL 60172

Chicago, IL 60613

Glenview, IL 60025

Chicago, IL 60626

Ph. (773) 271-1116

Ph. (630) 295-5977

Ph. (773) 248-0052

Ph. (847) 486-7522

Ph. (773) 465-4777

Fax (773) 271-1489

Fax (630) 295-5978

Fax (773) 248-7094

Fax (847) 486-7528

Fax (773) 973-2311

Copyright 2015 by Assyrian Church of the East

Page 8