CathNews New Zealand

A leader from New Zealand’s Assyrian Christian community is calling for New Zealand to help the hundreds of thousands of their kind displaced by Islamic State militants in Northern Iraq.

Assyrian priest Father Aprem Pithyou, of the Ancient Church of the East in Strathmore, Wellington, says his people need more humanitarian aid and wants Immigration NZ to accept more Assyrian refugees currently in Turkey and Jordan.

Aprem came to New Zealand from Iraq with his family in 1989 to escape persecution under Saddam Hussein’s regime and is one of about 5000 to 6000 Assyrian Christians in New Zealand.

While some are from Syria most are from the Plain of Nineveh in Iraq, which has been home to the Assyrians for thousands of years.

In June the region’s major city Mosul and surrounding, predominantly Christian towns fell to Isis militants.

“It’s a very, very bad situation we haven’t faced before. They want to establish an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria and go back to what we call the dark centuries.” says Aprem

Since then hundreds of thousands of Assyrian Christians on the Plain of Nineveh have been displaced from their homes by force.

The Assyrian Church of the East is the modern continuation of the ancient church of the Persian empire which fell out of communion with the rest of the Christian world in the 5th century when, for political as well as theological reasons, it officially adopted Nestorian Christology.

In the 16th century a split occurred in the Church of the East.

A part of the church which became known as the Chaldean Catholic Church joined the Roman Catholic Church.

Another, smaller group separated in the second half of the 20th century and took the name Ancient Church of the East, under its own patriarch who resides in Baghdad.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Cenew
• Image: layman.org

Additional reading

News category: New Zealand.