Nestorians?

[allisonP]

I was referred to a website so that I could read the Didiche and it turned out that the website was ran by a group called the Nestorians. (the person who sent me to the site was simply trying to provide me a link to the Didiche not to this church)
Anyway, curious me decided to check out the home page.
These people claim to have a “holy see” and claim apostolic tradition. I do not take this guy seriously at all but,it got me wondering. How many people do claim a holy see?
I thought only the CC did.
Here is the link to their site.nasrani.org/bhc/didiche.php

 

[stillsmallvoice]

Hi all!

See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestorianism. There is a tiny Nestorian community here in Israel (see tinyurl.com/2rs8q).

Be well!

ssv

 

[twf]

Yes, the Nestorian Church, or more properly the Assyrian Church of the East has apostolic succession (valid bishops, valid priests, and valid sacraments…including the real presence of Christ). I prefer not to refer to this church as the “Nestorian Church” as this phrase often carries (from a Catholic perspective) an implication of heresy. A common declaration on the nature of Christ (the point of contention between us—in the past) was signed by Pope John Paul II and Mar Dinkha IV, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of the East, in 1994, which can be found at cired.org/cat/declaration.html. This was a major step in healing the rift between us. The Assyrian Church of the East fell out of communion with Rome and the rest of the Church in the 5th century, as they rejected the Council of Ephesus.

Only the Catholic Church claims to have ‘the apostolic see’ in the sense of a see that exercises universal primacy over the Church. Any church, however, that was founded by an Apostle may be called ‘apostolic’ in that sense. This is what the Assyrians mean when they referred to their chief see as apostolic, as according to Tradition, the see of Babylon (to which they trace their roots) was founded by the Apostle Thomas.
The official site of this church is: cired.org/

A very informative article on the Assyrian Church of the East, from a Catholic source, can be found here:
cnewa.org/ecc-bodypg.aspx?eccpageID=1&IndexView=toc

God bless,
In Christ,

Tyler

 

[Joe_Monahan]

allisonP:

I was referred to a website so that I could read the Didiche and it turned out that the website was ran by a group called the Nestorians. (the person who sent me to the site was simply trying to provide me a link to the Didiche not to this church)
Anyway, curious me decided to check out the home page.
These people claim to have a “holy see” and claim apostolic tradition. I do not take this guy seriously at all but,it got me wondering. How many people do claim a holy see?
I thought only the CC did.
Here is the link to their site.nasrani.org/bhc/didiche.php

Allison,

A caution before you get too confused by what you read at that site and the absolutely accurate info that Tyler has posted above.

The Church about which Tyler wrote has, as you’ll find in readng about them, extremely close relations with the Catholic Church (the Chaldean Catholic Church is the counterpart to the Assyrian Church - which is “sort of like”, but isn’t technically one of the Orthodox Churches).

The site to which you linked is NOT related to the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East (more commonly called the Assyrian Church) nor to its schismatic counterpart, the Ancient Church of the East (or Catholicosate of the East, as its otherwise known). The link you posted is to an “independent” church, one which is not in any way connected to the Assyrians, to any of the Patriarchates of Jerusalem (Eastern or Oriental Orthodox or Catholic), or to Catholicism or Orthodoxy.

Irish Melkite, one of my regular posters at the Eastern Christianity forum, is somewhat of an expert on these types of Churches and wrote extensively on this particular body in
posts #10 through #12 of "Thomasine Catholics’? (Nasrani Patriarchate of Jerusalem)? .

Joe

 

[allisonP]

I didn’t think that the guy on that web site could be “right”.
I am confused though about all these Rites!

 

[Joe_Monahan]

allisonP:

I am confused though about all these Rites!

Allison,

I’d recommend a visit to our Eastern Christianity forum. Someone there can undoubtedly point you to a series of posts in a thread sometime back in which Irish Melkite provided a detailed explanation of the various Rites and the Churches that use each of them.

Joe