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"With the conclusion of Patriarch Sako’s tenure, the Chaldean Church now enters a decisive moment. The election of his successor will not only determine leadership, but also signal the direction of the Church on questions of identity, liturgy, and its relationship to political authorities in Iraq and beyond. According to the Canons of the Eastern Churches, the Synod of Bishops must gather to elect a new Patriarch in a period of one month from the vacancy of the Patriarchate, with an allowance for delays to allow the Synod to gather within two months of the vacancy. This means that the Synod must convene between the period of April 10th-May 10th with no exceptions, a task made difficult by the ongoing conflict in Iran, something that even the Chaldean Catholic Church has not remained unscathed from.13 The Bishops must gather at either the Patriarchal Complex in Baghdad or at a different pre-agreed upon location, a logistical difficulty considering the presence of Chaldean Catholic Bishops across the globe. Yet despite this, the Synod is set to gather on April 9th in Rome."
In a collaboration between Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and the University of Baghdad, an ancient Babylonian hymn dating back over two millennia has been rediscovered and fully deciphered.
The new AI tool “Palaeographicum” is revolutionizing research into the cultures of the Ancient Near East: It identifies individual variations of cuneiform signs—a huge step forward for academia.
The Shamash Gate in ancient Nineveh has revealed rare evidence of two violent chapters separated by more than 2,500 years: the fall of the Assyrian capital in 612 B.C. and the battle to free Mosul from ISIS in 2017.
Swiss-Assyrian artist Shamiran Istifan is receiving widespread acclaim for her latest exhibition at the Aargauer Kunsthaus, where her installations explore themes of beauty, migration, identity and censorship through striking visual symbolism.
In a major policy announcement, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi declared that facilitating the return of Assyrians who fled the country during two decades of conflict is now a "national and government priority."
A new academic study offers one of the most extensive multidisciplinary examinations to date of the historical relationship between the designations Assyria, Syria, and Syriac–a question that has occupied historians for centuries.
Pithyou Mazarnaya
