Ephrem's Children

Ephrem's children (Iradi: Ephremdin baldary) is the popular name for the children whom Mar Ephrem, Metropolitan Archbishop of Iyık Janyl, has baptized at the annual mass baptism of the Feast of St. Janyl. Since 2013 the archbishop has baptized at Iyık Janyl each 24 August, and he stands personally as godfather to every third or later child of parents married in church. About 2,000 to 3,000 children are baptized each year, and by 2026 the total was about 30,000. Each family receives a silver salyba and a letter written in the archbishop's hand.^[1]

The archbishop presents the custom as encouragement to large Christian families. Because pilgrims from the Autonomous Tribal Regions may cross the Qara-Chik Demarcation Line unarmed for the feast, most of the children come from tribal families, and demographers in the Irad Special Economic Zone have noted the custom in debates over the census and the weight of each side in any unification formula. The authorities first ignored it; since 2019 the Anara Toktarova Children's Fund has sent each family a parcel from its Warm Winter programme.^[2]

References

1. ^ Archbishopric of Iyık Janyl (2025). Tartip: The Church Calendar and Directory. Iyık Janyl.
2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'Counting Irad: The 2018 Census and the Politics of Population.' Vol. 31, Iss. 1, pp. 44–63.