Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Syrian Orthodox Church'

From ancient times it has been the practice of humankind to build structures in which to worship God. People built centres of various shapes and sizes in which different kinds of worship were conducted. Within the Christian Church, even though the basic concept of worship is the same, there are different doctrines and customs in different Church traditions. In this thesis I attempt to shed some light on the consecration of churches in the tradition of the Syrian Orthodox Church; this is a relatively uncharted field. It is prefaced by an overview of dedication in the early Christian period and of the Jewish liturgical traditions on which the worship was based. Next I consider some Syriac literary works, the importance of Syriac literature and liturgy, and the liturgical books of the Syrian Orthodox Church. I then describe house churches of the first centuries and their gradual development into today’s magnificent and artistic churches. An important part of my work focuses on the Holy ‘Myron’, which is an integral component used in the consecration of Syrian churches. I discuss the importance accorded to 'Myron' in the church and the different types of anointing involving Myron and other oils. The main part of the thesis focuses on the construction of a church from its very beginning until its consecration once it has been completed, referring to biblical and symbolic interpretations. This includes a detailed description of the different tools and utensils used in the Syrian Orthodox Church (some illustrated) with an explanation of their relevance and meaning. The views of the church fathers such as Aphrahat, Ephrem, Moses Bar Kepha, Dionysius Bar Salibi and Jacob of Serugh, and the references and allegories from the Acts of Thomas and the Sugitho on the Church of Edessa are also included in my work. The main sources for this study are my translations of the Vatican Borg. manuscript Syriac 57 and Paris manuscript Syriac 110. The official version of the church consecration used in the Syrian Orthodox Church is a copy of Vatican manuscript 51. The Syriac texts with translations are provided in chapter two.

The Syriac Orthodox Church is one of the oldest churches in the world. It employs the oldest surviving worships in Christianity. The Syriac Orthodox Church has about 5.5 million members, with only 231 remaining churches. This project explores the most important and traditional elements for a church, with a focus on the developing possibilities on traditional structure into contemporary approach. A modern proposal in Södertälje Centrum for both religious and non-religious people.

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Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa
The present research is a case study that has as a goal the study of the Antiochin Orthodox Apostolic Catholic Church in São José do Rio Preto and the immigration of the Syrian-Lebanese to this particular town. Mistaken by Muslims and/or Turkish, the first Syrian-Lebanese to arrive in Brazil were Christians. In São José do Rio Preto, many of them were Orthodox Christian. The context of their mother land in the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th and history about their journey to America are presented in this research as well as the beginning of the Antiochin Orthodox Apostolic Catholic Church in São José do Rio Preto. In order to do so, historical documents were used as well as testimonials and literature. The research also dealt with theological and liturgical factors of this church, which came from several interviews - with priests, church goers, Syrian-lebanese descendents, immigrants and researchers - and from participant observation. It is expected from this research to contribute with the studies of the Brazilian religious context and Religion science.
O presente trabalho é um estudo de caso que tem por objeto de estudo a Igreja Católica Apostólica Ortodoxa Antioquina em São José do Rio Preto e a imigração dos sírio-libaneses para esta cidade. Quase sempre confundidos com muçulmanos e/ou turcos, os primeiros sírio-libaneses a chegar ao Brasil eram cristãos. Em São José do Rio Preto, muitos deles eram cristãos ortodoxos. O contexto de sua terra natal no final do século XIX e começo do XX e histórias sobre a trajetória até chegar à América são apresentados no trabalho bem como o surgimento da Igreja Católica Apostólica Ortodoxa Antioquina na cidade. Para isso, utilizamos documentos históricos, depoimentos e literatura. Também discorremos sobre alguns fatores teológicos e litúrgicos desta Igreja, fruto das entrevistas realizadas com padres, fiéis da igreja, descendentes de sírio-libaneses, imigrantes e estudiosos e de observação participante. Nossa expectativa é contribuir com os estudos do contexto religioso brasileiro e das Ciências da Religião.

In the town of Södertälje, a great number of ecclesiastical denominations are represented, a majority of which with roots in the Middle East. To a person attending several various Christian services at many different churches, the diversified ecclesiastical scene offers many similarities among the different denominations, as well as many differences between them. An obvious difference is the view of ministry. In the Church of Sweden women may be ordained, whereas this is not possible in the Chaldean-Catholic Church or the Syrian-Orthodox Church. This paper describes how some ordinary worshippers, members of the Chaldean-Catholic Church or the Syrian-Orthodox Church, look upon their own religious practices in view of the fact that they belong to minority denominations in a secularized society in which the Church of Sweden is the major church. This paper has a Theological as well as a Sociological perspective, since these two perspectives have a reciprocal effect on each other regarding the creating of identities of both informants and churches. An important aspect of this paper is the informants’ view of the relationship between priesthood and gender. It will be obvious that the informants’ opinions of who may be allowed to take Holy Orders depend more on the person’s eligibility than on gender, irrespective of traditions in their denominations. In spite of the fact that women are not ordained in either of the churches dealt with in this paper, the informants hold the view that this may change with time. Instead, they mean that this is one in a row of adaptations that should be carried out by their churches, in order for them to be able to continue to exist in Södertälje and to achieve an ongoing increase in numbers. However, the question of priesthood and gender is complicated, partly due to traditions in their home countries, but also since the bodies of men and women, respectively, are regarded differently in Orthodox theology, not least so in comparison with that of the Church of Sweden. In this paper the informants also express questions arisen from encounters between their respective home countries and Sweden. Primarily, those questions are about the possible effects that may occur when ecclesiastical traditions meet secular values. That affects the informants’ views of culture and nationality, as well as the meaning of being an individual in a group, profoundly marked by church traditions in a society as individualistic as Sweden.
I Södertälje finns ett stort antal kyrkliga samfund representerade, flertalet med rötter i Mellanöstern. Det kyrkliga landskapet medför att det för den kyrkobesökare som rör sig i flera olika kyrkorum, är lätt att upptäcka många likheter mellan de olika kyrkliga samfunden, men också flera skillnader. En påtaglig skillnad är synen på prästämbetet. I Svenska kyrkan kan kvinnor vara präster, medan detta inte är möjligt i Kaldeisk-katolska kyrkan eller i Syrisk-ortodoxa kyrkan.   Den här uppsatsen handlar om hur några vanliga gudstjänstdeltagare, medlemmar i Kaldeisk-katolska kyrkan eller Syrisk-ortodoxa kyrkan, ser på de egna kyrkotraditionerna och -praktikerna i ljuset av att vara minoritetskyrkor i ett sekulärt samhälle där Svenska kyrkan är majoritetskyrka. Uppsatsen har ett teologiskt såväl som ett samhällsorienterat perspektiv. Anledningen till det är att dessa två perspektiv har en ömsesidig påverkan på varandra beträffande informanternas - och kyrkornas - identitetsskapande. En viktig ansats i uppsatsen är vilken syn på relationen prästämbete och kön informanterna ger uttryck för. Uppsatsen visar att informanternas uppfattning om vem som kan vigas till präst är mer beroende av personlig lämplighet än av kön, oaktat att de kyrkotraditioner de tillhör säger något annat. Trots att kvinnor inte vigs till präster i någon av de kyrkor som uppsatsen belyser, menar informanterna att det på sikt inte alls skulle vara en omöjlighet. Det är istället en i raden av anpassningar som de menar att deras kyrkor bör göra, för att fortsätta att leva och verka i Södertälje och för att tillväxten av medlemmar ska vara god. Dock visar det sig att frågan om prästämbete och kön inte är okomplicerad. Det beror dels på traditioner från hemländerna, men också på att mannens och kvinnans kropp betraktas på olika sätt i ortodox teologi, inte minst jämfört med Svenska kyrkans teologi. I uppsatsen ger informanterna också uttryck för frågor som har väckts genom mötet mellan deras respektive hemländer och Sverige. Främst handlar detta om vad som kan hända när kyrkliga traditioner möter sekulära värderingar. Detta påverkar deras syn på såväl kultur och nationalitet som vad det innebär att vara individ i en grupp, som starkt präglas av kyrkliga traditioner, i ett samhälle som är så individcentrerat som Sverige.

This thesis examines the Lebanese-Syrian Orthodox community of Montreal between 1905-1950 primarily through information found in the marriage registers of the two Orthodox churches. The first purpose of this study is to evaluate the importance of the three pillars of this ethno-religious group's culture--religion, family and hometown. The second purpose is to draw a composite of this immigrant community based on the information provided in the valuable source of an immigrant church's records. This study serves as a beginning for further studies of the Lebanese-Syrian Orthodox community in Montreal, this ethno-religious group's largest and founding community in Canada.

According to the directives of Lgr11, learning about Christianity should be an important part of religious education in secondary school (7th-9th grade) in Sweden. A school teacher must therefore have good knowledge of the field and of different aspects of the beliefs of the various Christian traditions. This essay is about how salvation is conceived of by two members of the laity in each of three different Christian traditions: the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Sweden (which is Lutheran). As a theoretical perspective for my analysis, I have chosen the official views of salvation of these three churches. That is to say, views of the members of the laity have been compared with the official views of the respective churches. It is thus a very limited qualitative study aiming at finding out how the views of the laity conform to the official creed concerning salvation and whether there are any differences here between the churches. The result of this essay is that there were few differences and a lot of similarities between the laity belief in the relation to the official doctrines of salvation. Only among the protestant laity differences were prominent.

Mitt syfte med denna uppsats var att undersöka Katolska och Syrisk-Ortodoxa kyrkans förståelse av bikten. Det var på grund utav mitt intresse för båda kyrkorna samt att jag inte funnit något liknande material på svenska som jag valde just detta syfte med min uppsats. Jag har i bästa möjliga mån försökt presentera och analysera bikten utifrån katolsk och syrisk-ortodox tradition. Jag har genom att granska de båda traditionernas katekeser samt bibeln och andra källor, försökt söka deras förståelse av bikten samt hur de tänker kring de olika delarna som bikten omfattas av. Jag valde ut de texter som jag kände passade bäst och var mest representativa för traditionerna samt de texter som har en koppling till kyrkans auktoriteter, det vill säga påvar och patriarker. Genom att använda mig av primärkällor som är skrivna ur ett inifrån perspektiv har jag kunnat få ta del av den korrekta förståelsen om av vad traditionerna egentligen tycker om och förstår av bikten.

Religious education in Swedish schools aims to be as objective and non-confessional as possible. This sort of education can lead to that the different religions are presented in a way which is unfamiliar to the followers of the different religions. This problem is what I have focused on in this essay since I myself was a victim of a similar situation. As a syriac-orthodox youth I felt that my Christianity was not the same as the one presented in school. I felt that it had nothing in common with what I learned in my church, therefore I asked myself the question: Whose Christianity is being represented? Therefore I have focused on the syriac-orthodox church in this research. The purpose of my essay was to enlighten the differences between religious education in syriac-orthodox churches and Swedish community schools. I choose In addition to that I also wanted to enlighten how religious syriac-orthodox youths are affected by the difference in the religious education in both the churches and schools. To gain the necessary information for the research I used qualitative studies in form of semi-structured interviews and observations. My informants were made up by five girls and three boys, all of them being eighteen years old and living in areas close to Stockholm. The conclusion of my research was that there are several differences between the religious education within churches and schools. One of the differences is the approach towards religion, and the churches have a more positive and personal approach towards religion while the schools have a more negative and distant approach towards religion. Another one is that the churches seem to have more knowledge about Christianity than the schools and therefore the churches can provide a more in depth study of different topics regarding Christianity than the schools. Regarding how the students were affected by the differences the result was that the aspect of knowledge had made the religious youths to lose their trust in the education given to them by the school. This was an effect of how they experienced that the teachers taught the pupils wrong facts about Christianity and therefore they felt that they could no longer trust the teachers in school, because if they taught wrong thing about Christianity they could also teach wrong things about the other religions as well.

The Purpose of this essay is to seek an answer to whether or not a conflict exists between priests of the Assyrian Church, the Syrian Orthodox Church and the Coptic Church in contemporary Swedish society, as well as to examine the environment between the three. The theological dissimilarities will be studied (from a historical standpoint), along with the interviewed participants views on the division in Christianity which will be presented also. I choose to interview six priests/chorbishops who live and work in Sweden, and the result was analyzed according to the senior professor of peace- and conflict, Peter Wallensteen’s theories on conflict and conflict resolution, where important issues are laid out to identify the core problem, and theological differences are discussed and compared from a union perspective. The result of the interviews illustrate a clear response that the participants experience a lack of functioning collaborations (from the Assyrians Church view, a collaboration is absent from the Syrian Orthodox Church and the Coptic Church, and vice versa) and most of the participants experience negative consequences from the divide in churches, as they strive for unity in Christianity as a whole. The theological differences between the churches proves not to be as significant as expected, the actual predicament lies partly in language-and phrase division along with a general rejection of each other’s interpretations. In many instances all the churches mean to express the same things, but it is the explanation of expressions that vary and cause misunderstandings. Consequently it is imperative for these churches to develop functional communication to (amongst other issues) solve their interpretations. If not to unify, then to develop an acceptance for each other and the different understandings.

This thesis discusses the historical development of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Anti- och based upon its origins in the Tur 'Abdin region up to the time of its believers' emig- ration to Europe. The difficulties with which the Church was confronted are discussed, duly referencing instances of conflict, division and political upheaval. The topic of the persecution of Christians is depicted by way of an excursus. The positive develo- pments, the golden ages through history and the current (continued) subsistence of old traditions and culture in European nations are also addressed. Concomitantly, a picture is presented of the situation of those believers who live in a diaspora and may be affec- ted by discrimination and difficulties in terms of integration. The current situation in the Near East is prompting the westward migration of persecuted peoples of the most diverse ethnicities and faiths. This thesis may serve as the basis for a comparative retro- spective, since it portrays the manner in which integration in Europe was once achieved.

Hymns can and have functioned as powerful strategic tools to change social and religious landscapes, and to inform and transform people’s notions about ‘doing church’. A few words about Ephrem the Syrian, which emphasised liturgical singing and accentuated the force of truth, the power of persuasion and socio-religious transformation was the starting point and connecting thread, which formed the backbone of this dissertation throughout—a research project that was also guided by some principles of new historicism to view Ephrem as a textual construct, living in a particular context and dealing with specific religious issues in a particular way. His trump card was the female choirs he founded, which became a distinct feature of orthodox Syrian Christianity. Through their singing performances, he ‘silenced’ the unorthodox voices of—especially Bardaisan—and created a community of believers where each person had a part to fulfil, where women and men would become ‘two harps’, ‘singing one praise’.
M. Th. (New Testament)