THE
P RTAL
December 2016
Page 6
Syro-Malabar Church
Fr Mark Woodruff is Chairman of the
Society of St John Chrysostom
W
hat can the Syro-Malabar Church offer for the Catholic Church of Britain
in the future, of which the Ordinariate is also part? It holds an enrichment to
proclaiming and living the Good News no less apostolic than Rome’s. It is the daughter of the Church of the
East, which once extended across Iraq and Persia, deep into Tibet and China, arising from the proclamation
of St Addai, or Thaddaeus, one of The Seventy (Luke 10). Its core is the faith of the Apostle Thomas formed
by physically touching the Risen Lord.
For centuries, it was regarded as “Nestorian”, for
emphasising Christ’s humanity as well as His divinity,
so profound was this impression of His resurrection
in the flesh. It was accused of believing there are two
separate entities in Christ, rather two natures in one
Person. Yet their belief is close to the way the Catholic
West expresses it.
the Sacrifice. The vestment of priesthood, over the
alb and stole, resembles a lighter version of the Latin
cope. Vestments are usually white, with red bands of
decoration.
In 2015, the Catholic patriarch of Babylon proposed
the three Churches’ reunification – for surviving
Islamism together. Sadly, more historical healing of
memories is needed. In India and likewise across the
globe, there are four million Syro-Malabar Catholics
and a small number of non-Catholics belonging to
the Assyrian Church, the Nasrani - Nazarenes. Again,
historical memories of forced Latinisation under the
Portuguese mean reconciliation lies some way ahead.
There are three ancient Eucharistic prayers. The
oldest, of Saints Addai (Thaddaeus) and Mari, is older
than the Roman canon. In its Syriac form, it rehearses
the divine acts of salvation, consecrates the gifts being
offered, but does not contain Our Lord’s institution of
the Eucharist. For centuries, Rome assumed this made
it invalid, and so the Chaldeans and the Syro-Malabar
borrowed it from the Roman mass.
Here are some other differences from the Latinrite mass. The priestly greeting before each prayer is
“Peace be with us”. There are two or three readings
Thus, the Assyrians of Iraq and Thomas Christians from the Old Testament: one from the books of
of India have mostly aligned the future of their once Moses and another from the prophets. Because of the
vast Church, since it was devastated in the fourteenth illumination of Christ, both New Testament readings
century by the Golden Horde’s Islamic conquests, with are preceded by Alleluias and accompanied by lights
the Catholic Church, in direct communion with the (one for the epistle and two for the gospel).
see of Rome.
This first part of the Qurbana is offered outside the
The Church of the East exists in two families, with sanctuary, on the “bema”, a dais among the people and,
Catholic and non-Catholic branches. The Assyrian since Vatican II, facing them. There is no penitential
family has its heartland in Iraq’s northern mountains rite, but the priest washes his hands and invites the
and plains, having also a worldwide diaspora: the people likewise to purify their hearts, before the gifts
Chaldean Catholic Church numbers 640,000; there are transferred to the altar. There is no iconostasis, but
are two non-Catholic Assyrian Churches, numbering in some churches there is a sanctuary Veil, as in the
Jerusalem Temple, which is drawn aside.
450,000 and 100,000 respectively.
The liturgy conserves chants in Syriac descending
from the early communities of Aramaic-speaking Jews
who followed Christ’s disciples, and elements from a
lost second-century Persian rite. From the 1950s to the
late 1980s, the Syro-Malabar version was progressively
restored at Rome’s insistence: elements imposed by
Latin Catholics were removed, and its proper shape
and content recovered. The Eucharist is called the
Holy Qurbana – the same as Corban (Mark 7.11) –
Yet the Roman canon lacks an invocation of the Holy
Spirit, which the East considers essential. St John Paul
realised that prayers so ancient could not be doubted
and now both traditions recognise each other’s integrity
sacramentally and ecumenically. Two Latinisations
have been embraced as spiritual gifts: the veneration of
images and the use of unleavened wafer-bread.
The first impression at a Syro-Malabar Qurbana is
... continued at the foot of page 9 Ø