Mar Gewargis Sliwa Chants the Assyrian Prayer in China

The first official Assyrian who visited China in our age is His Beatitude Mar Gewargis Sliwa, the Metropolitan of Iraq and Russia of the Assyrian Church of the East (ACOE). He went to China in 1996 in search of the remains of the beloved ACOE.

H.B. Mar Gewargis is standing next to the church's building called Daqin Pagoda built in 640 by the members of the Assyrian Church of the East. Mar Gwargis emotionally chants the Holy church ritual in Assyrian language to bring to life the memories of sacrifice and devotion of those Assyrian missionaries who spread Christ's message of love all the way from Bet-Nahrain (Mesopotamia) to China.

Christianity is thought to have been introduced into China during the Tang Dynasty (618907), but it has also been suggested that the Assyrian Patriarch of Seleucia-Ctesiphon created a metropolitan see in China in 411. It came through representatives of the Assyrian Church of the East. In China, the religion was known as Jingjiao (景教), or the Luminous Religion. They initially entered China more as traders than as professional missionaries. Eventually, the Assyrian Christians spread their faith throughout Turkestan, Mongolia, China and Japan. A stone stele commonly (incorrectly) called the Nestorian Stele, erected at the Tang capital of Chang'an in 781 and rediscovered in February 1625 describes flourishing communities of Christians throughout China, but beyond this and few other fragmentary records relatively little more was known of their history until the late 1900s.

The Assyrian Church of the East sent missionaries east from its base in Mesopotamia into India, Tibet, Mongolia, and China, and then from China into Korea and Japan. Earliest records indicate this may have been as early as the first century to India, and the second or third centuries to Tibet, Mongolia and China, and the eighth to ninth centuries into Korea and Japan.

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Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• ACOE
• COE
• Nestorian
• Daqin Pagoda
• Mar Gewargis Sliwa
• Chang'an
• Shaanxi
• Bet-Nahrain
• Beth Nahrian
• Mesopotamia

[mariam3mansour]

God bless the greatest Mar Gewargis x

[SAFIR27]

Alaha naterokh aziza Mar Gewargis

[THEKINGS001]

good for them they know the truth of the lord almighty khayet ator.

[KingAshurbanipal]

Great historic moment

[SyphonFilter5]

Nice video. Jesus bless his holiness Mar Dinkha IV.