NEWS AND COMMENT

SYRIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IN EUROPE

Introduction
The last ten years or so have witnessed a large-scale influx of Syrian Orthodox
into Europe, mostly as migrant workers from Turkey. Such are their numbers now
that in 1979 a new archdiocese of Middle (Central) Europe and the Benelux
Countries was established. The first occupant of this see is His Eminence Mar
Yulios Yeshu (Isa) Cicek, who was consecrated by the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch,
His Holiness Moran Ignatios Yakub III on 24 June 1979 in the church of St
Ludgerus at Hengelo (Holland). From 1977 until his consecration as metropolitan
Rabban Isa C^icek had been Patriarchal Vicar in Europe, and before that, superior
of the monastery of Mar Gabriel, in Tur 'Abdin south-east Turkey (1962-73). A
short biography of Metropolitan Yulios, written originally in Syriac by Malfono
('teacher') Isa Giilcan of the monastery of Mar Gabriel, and translated and
annotated by Andrew Palmer, will be found at the end of this short report.
Metropolitan Yulios' flock are to be found scattered over West Germany (where
there are now seven priests), Holland, Belgium, France, Austria (with a priest in
Vienna) and Switzerland. By 1978 fifteen local church committees had been
established in these countries, with a single priest often having to minister to
several communities at a time. In Sweden, where considerable numbers of Syrian
Orthodox from Turkey have been allowed to settle, there are six further priests
and a bishop, Mar Timotheos Abbudi, who was appointed bishop of Scandinavia
and Great Britain in 1977 (at present there are only a small number of Syrian
Orthodox in Great Britain). Bishop Timotheos resides at Sodertalje, near
Stockholm.
The original home of the vast majority of this Syrian Orthodox diaspora in
Europe is the area known as Tur 'Abdin, east of Mardin in south-east Turkey,
which has been a centre of Syriac culture since at least the fifth century. Today
it is an economically depressed area, where life is made all the harder for the local
Christian minority by continual harassment from the Kurdish population of the
area. There were large-scale massacres of Syrian Orthodox in this part of Turkey, as
well as of Armenians further north, earlier this century. Besides open robbery and
assault, abductions of girls of marriageable age and assassinations are not
infrequent, yet little or no attempt is ever made by the local authorities to bring
those guilty to justice. It is hardly surprising in these circumstances that*more and
more families have decided to leave their ancestral homeland and emigrate, either to
the comparative safety of Istanbul, or to Europe; at the same time their departure
renders the survival of those who remain all the more precarious.
The exodus of migrant workers from Tur 'Abdin began in the mid sixties, mainly
to Germany as Gastarbeiter. In 1971, the year when the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch
visited Pope Paul VI, Bitris (Peter) Opnc Schiische, a former schoolmaster from
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Midyat (the main town of Tur 'Abdin), was ordained to serve as the first resident
Syrian Orthodox priest in Germany, and it is largely due to his initial efforts, as he
travelled continuously up and down the country visiting the scattered Syrian
Orthodox communities, that the Syrian Orthodox Church has managed to retain
the loyalty of this new diaspora as it began to come into contact with the bewilder-
ing and alien culture of western Europe. Today Fr Bitris' 'parish' covers the whole
of Bavaria, while other parts of Germany are now served by Fr Yuhannon Teber
(Berlin. Hamburg, Bremen, Bergen), Fr Abdullah Qis Efrem (Baden-Wiirtenberg),
Fr Yusuf Harman and Fr Ibrahim Gole (Nordrhein-Westfalen), Fr Yakup Doganay
and Fr Melke Aydin (Hessen).
According to one estimate there are now between 20,000 and 30,000 Syrian
Orthodox in Europe. Although most start out as migrant workers, many try to
settle, sometimes asking for refugee status. In Sweden some 1,500 were granted
asylum between 1975 and early 1976 when government policy altered. In Holland
the three-month sit-in' by 200 Syrian Orthodox in the Catholic Cathedral in
sHertogenbosch, widely reported in the papers last year, was undertaken as an
attempt to persuade*the Dutch Government to allow them to settle in that country.
Having once asked for refugee status a person renders himself liable, if he returns to
Turkey, to a maximum of five years' imprisonment for discrediting the Turkish
State.
Once in Europe, some of the younger generation are attracted by the aims of the
Assyrian Universal Alliance', an essentially political body whose membership was
until recently confined to the Church of the East. Although at first sight this might
appear a welcome means of bridging the theological gap between the Syrian
Orthodox and the Church of the East, in practice it has brought friction within
various Syrian Orthodox communities (especially in Sweden), and the use of the
name "Assyrian' by Syrian Orthodox has now been condemned by a synod held at
Damascus in October 1979. This is clearly a problem that will require skilful
handling by the Syrian Orthodox hierarchy in coming years. Quite apart from
other cogent considerations, it would be lamentable if the genuine Aramean and
Svriac cultural heritage of the Syrian Orthodox Church were to be overlooked in
favour of alleged connections with the ancient Assyrians.
SEBASTIAN BROCK

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SOBORNOST
incorporating
EASTERN
CHURCHES
REVIEW

volume2 number2
1980
EDITORIAL BOARD
:
SERGEI HACKEL editor,
NORMAN RUSSELL reviews editor,
SEBASTIAN BROCK, ROBERT MURRAY
KALLISTOS WARE and HUGH WYBREW
with the Fellowship's Secretary

St Basil's House, 52 Ladbroke Grove, London Wll 2PB

/ r.