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Syro-Iradi Council of Hierarchs

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The Council of Hierarchs of the Syro-Iradi Church (Iradi: Iradi Yepiskopter Kengeshi; Latin: Consilium Hierarcharum Ecclesiae Syro-Iradiensis), commonly called the Synod (Sinod), is the assembly of the bishops of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church. It is presided over by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Iyık Janyl, currently Mar Ephrem, and meets twice a year in the chapter house beside the Church of St. Janyl. The council proposes candidates for bishop to the Pope, approves liturgical texts, oversees the training of clergy and issues joint pastoral letters, which are among the church's main statements on public affairs in Irad.[1][2]

Canonical status

The Syro-Iradi Church is an Eastern Catholic church sui iuris in communion with Rome and is governed by the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. In the code's terms it is a metropolitan church, headed by a metropolitan archbishop, whose bishops form a council of hierarchs rather than the synod of a patriarchal or major archiepiscopal church. Its official name has been the Council of Hierarchs since the code took effect in 1991; earlier documents call it the Episcopal Synod, and clergy and faithful still call it "the Synod", after the synods of the Church of the East. Like other councils of hierarchs, it can make laws for the church, which must be communicated to the Holy See before they take effect. It does not elect bishops itself but proposes lists of at least three candidates (terna), from which the Pope appoints.[1]

History

Church historians trace the council's tradition to the medieval assemblies of the East Syriac clergy of the region, such as the Nestorian Synod of Navekat (1180). Its modern form dates from the union with Rome in 1931 under the bull Orientalis Stella, negotiated by Bishop Mar Timotheos Alimbekov.[2] Soviet authorities closed the churches of Iyık Janyl, and senior clergy were arrested and executed in the purges of 1937. For the rest of the Soviet period the bishops could not meet openly, and according to church accounts the surviving clergy consulted in secret.[2]

The synod met openly in 1993, after the territorial administration guaranteed freedom of religion and the protection of church property under the Alimbekov-Baker Treaty. In its first decade it approved vernacular liturgical texts in Latin-script Iradi, following Father Luka Ayyubov's 1994 translation of the New Testament. It also pressed the territorial government for the return of church buildings confiscated in the Soviet period, and supported the US nomination of the Church of St. Janyl, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.[2]

In April 2007, during the Second Iradi Civil War, the synod issued a pastoral letter calling for a ceasefire and for the return of communal pastures that had been privatized. Since then the church has taken part in civic mediation between the communities.[3] Mar Ephrem became archbishop in 2012.

Membership and procedure

The voting members are the archbishop of the Archeparchy of Iyık Janyl and the bishops of the suffragan eparchies of Talas, Nurzhan and the highland parishes of the Chatkal basin, together with any auxiliary bishops. The rector of the St. Ephrem Major Seminary and the superior of the Order of St. Janyl the Hermit attend as advisers without a vote.[1] The spring session is held after Easter, and the autumn session in September, after the pilgrimage season of the Feast of St. Janyl on 24 August. Each session ends with a published communiqué.

The Chatkal eparchy includes parishes on both sides of the Qara-Chik Demarcation Line, so the council is one of the few bodies whose members work regularly in both the Irad Special Economic Zone and the Autonomous Tribal Regions.

Functions

  • Appointment of bishops. The synod draws up the terna for vacant sees and sends it to the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches in Rome.
  • Liturgy. It regulates the celebration of the East Syriac Liturgy of Addai and Mari in Iradi and Classical Syriac (see East Syriac Rites of Iyık Janyl), and approves translations and liturgical books.
  • Clergy training. It sets the curriculum of the St. Ephrem Major Seminary in Iyık Janyl.
  • Pastoral letters. Its joint letters have addressed communal pasture rights, the environmental effects of mining, emigration, and marriage and family life, including the 2014 letter On the Free Consent of Spouses, which condemned bride kidnapping (see Marriage in Irad).[2]

Relations with the state

Relations with the Democratic Party of Irad administration have been strained at times over school curricula and the taxation of church property. In these disputes the council has cited the guarantees of religious freedom dating from the territorial period.[3] In October 2023 it appealed for restraint by both the police and protesters during the student protests in Talas.[4] Its autumn communiqué of 2024, issued after Governor Erlan Toktarov withdrew from public view, called for "constitutional order and truthful public information". DPI officials did not comment publicly.[5]

A 2021 survey by the Department of Sociology at Talas State University found the church to be the most trusted public institution among respondents in the ISEZ.[6]

References

  1. ^ Libreria Editrice Vaticana (2023). Annuario Pontificio. Vatican City, pp. 1042–1045.
  2. ^ Iyık Janyl Diocesan Archives. Synodal Decrees and Pastoral Letters, 1993–2023. Iyık Janyl.
  3. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2016). 'Altar and Line: The Syro-Iradi Church since the Bishkek Ceasefire.' Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 44–67.
  4. ^ Talas Herald (14 October 2023). 'Church appeals for restraint on Central Square.' Talas.
  5. ^ Talas Herald (22 September 2024). 'Bishops call for "truthful public information".' Talas.
  6. ^ Department of Sociology, Talas State University (2021). Trust in Public Institutions in the Irad Special Economic Zone: Survey Report. Talas.
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