Mar Dinkha IV (Syriac language: ܡܪܝ ܕܢܚܐ ܪܒܝܥܝܐ and ), born Dinkha Khanania (15 September 1935 – 26 March 2015)
Personal life
Dinkha Khanania was born in Iraq and
baptism in the Church of Mar Qaryaqos located in the village of his birth, Darbandokeh. Khanania (also written as "Denkha Kh'nanya") gained his elementary education under the tutorship of his grandfather, Benyamin Soro. In 1947—at the age of eleven—he was entrusted to the care of
Yosip Khnanisho, Metropolitan and the Patriarchal representative for all Iraq, the second-highest-ranking ecclesiastic of the Assyrian Church of the East.
[Baum, p. 150] After two years of study, he was ordained
deacon in the church of Mar Youkhana in
Harir by Mar Yousip on 12 September 1949. On 15 July 1957, he was
Ordination to the
, and appointed to minister
Urmia,
Iran. He was the fourth in the line of succession to the Bishopric of
Urmia.
Mar Dinkha's priesthood as Metropolitan of Iran and Tehran[Baum, p. 147] In 1962, Mar Dinkha moved from northern Iraq to Tehran.
Mar Dinkha died on 26 March 2015 in Rochester, Minnesota.
Tenure as Catholicos-Patriarch
After the assassination of Mar Shimun XXI Eshai, the Church of the East had an urgent need to restore its leadership. In 1976, the
of the church convened in
London to elect a new Catholicos Patriarch and chose Mar Dinkha as the most qualified candidate to fill the post.
He was consecrated on 17 October 1976, in the West London Church of St. Barnabas, Ealing.
[Joseph, p.252] With this consecration, Mar Dinkha IV became the successor to the
Apostolic see of Seleucia-Ctesiphon (
Babylon). He also announced that the hereditary line of succession for the Patriarchy which had existed for 500 years
[Baumer, p. 247] was discontinued with his tenure, allowing any cleric from the Church of the East to be elevated to Catholicos-Patriarch.
[Baumer, p. 244]
established headquarters—along with four other houses of worship—in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in part due to the instability of the Iran–Iraq War.[Baum, pp. 150–151] During the reign of Shimun XXI and Dinkha IV, American membership in the Church of the East rose from 3,200 in the 1950s[Baum, p. 155]
In 2005, the Patriarch conducted discussions with President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani on returning to the Apostolic See in northern Iraq and constructing a new residence in Ankawa.[Baumer, p. 270] On 15 July 2007, Mar Dinkha celebrated 50 years of his priesthood. A ceremony was held at St. George Cathedral in Chicago, where a portion of Ashland Avenue was renamed "His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV Blvd". In 2008, he received an honorary degree from the University of Chicago,[Baumer, p. 272]
Travels and ecumenism
Dinkha made
ecumenism a priority during his reign,
[Baumer, p. 280] as well as advocacy for the
Assyrian people.
[Baumer, p. 7]
Relations with the Catholic Church
Dinkha promoted closer relations with the
Catholic Church, both with the
Holy See and the Chaldean Catholic Church; he first met Pope John Paul II immediately after the
Pope's election in 1978
[Baum, p. 152] and made his first visit to the
Vatican City in 1984.
[Joseph, p. 253] The two continued to meet informally over the next decade.
After a decision by the Holy Synod of the Assyrian Church of the East to have better relations with the Roman Catholic Church in 1994,
[Bailey, p. 131] Dinkha agreed to a Joint
Christology Declaration with the
Holy See.
[Bailey, p. 42] The "Common Christological Declaration Between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East" declares that it is "a basic step on the way towards the full communion to be restored between their Churches;" emphasized common
Doctrine positions between the two bodies, such as the
Nicene Creed; and clarifies that the centuries the two have spent out of
full communion were due to geographic and cultural issues rather than doctrinal differences.
On 29 November 1996, Dinkha signed an agreement of cooperation with the Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldean Catholic Church—Raphael I Bidawid—in Southfield, Michigan
Middle Eastern and Syriac ecumenism
The Church of the East has been a member of the World Council of Churches since its 1948 inception and Dinkha used this membership as a vehicle for bi- and multi-lateral ecumenism that would have been impossible prior to its inception.
[Baumer, p. 282] In 1984, the Assyrian Church applied for membership in the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), but was denied due to objections by the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, whose Patriarch, Pope Shenouda III, required the Church of the East to condemn its
Church Fathers Diodore of Tarsus,
Nestorius, and Theodore of Mopsuestia.
The dispute between the Assyrians and Copts resulted in a common Christological declaration in 1996, which was later rejected by the Coptic
synod.
[Baum, pp. 151–152] In 1996, the Church of the East was offered membership in the MECC, but declined to join at the time.
[Bailey, p.132] Discussions for the Church of the East to join the MECC have stalled since 1999.
The Pro Oriente Foundation brought together several Syriac churches in Vienna in 1994 to start a common dialogue amongst the Ancient Church of the East, the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Indian (Malankara) Orthodox Church, Maronite Church, Syriac Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, and Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. Representatives of these churches along with academics founded the Commission on Dialogue Within the Syriac Tradition.[Baum, p. 153] Consultations have been convened intermittently since that time. As a product of this process, Dinkha entered into negotiations with the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Mar Ignatius Zakka I Iwas in 1997 and the two churches ceased each other.[Joseph, p. 258] Although Dinkha spent over 20 years in dialogue with the Ancient Church of the East, the two remain out of communion.[Baum, p. 154]
Political work and Assyrian advocacy
In September 2006, Mar Dinkha IV paid a historic visit to northern
Iraq to give oversight to the churches there and to encourage
Masoud Barzani to open a Christian school in
Erbil. During this trip, he also met Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki. Dinkha pursued a pragmatic political course, calling on Assyrians to work together with their respective governments. He sought to de-politicize the office of Catholicos-Patriarch and expanded the church's outreach to the youth by including non-Syriac
Liturgy composed in local languages.
[Baumer, p. 279]
See also
-
List of patriarchs of the Church of the East
Sources
External links
