Assyrian Democratic Organization ADO
Translated by Cristina Chamoun
Germany – ESNA — By a decision taken by the Patriarch Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwaz, the Archbishop Mor Julius Hanna Aydin was stopped from his office in the end of May 2007. The Archbishop was stopped from practising his official duties as Archbishop because he has advocated unity and tried to mediate a peace between opponents in a church in a German city.
After ESNA paid attention to the Patriarch’s actions, the Patriarch has invited the Archbishop to the patriarchate in Damascus, Syria. On July 2, 2007, the patriarchy announced that the earlier decision has been revoked and that the Archbishop again was in the post of an archbishop.
The meaning of the new decision July 2, 2007.
ESNA has taken part of the decision made on July 2, 2007, and come to the conclusion that it does not cancel the earlier decision. On the contrary, it confirms the significance of the decision taken in May, 2007. According to the new decision on July 2, 2007, the Archbishop has been convicted to a voluntary house arrest in the convent in Warburg, Germany.
According to the patriarchy’s new decision, the Archbishop is not in any circumstances allowed to represent the church outside his convent in Warburg. The Archbishop is not allowed to practise the ordinary duties of an archbishop. He is not allowed to ordain deacons and priests, and he is not allowed to conduct a service outside the convent in Warburg. Furthermore, he is not allowed to make decisions regarding his own archdiocese.
The new decision is a humiliation of the Archbishop and the archdiocese in Germany. According to several sources that ESNA has contacts with, the new decision has been forced forth by bishops who are connected to the Syrian intelligence agency (Mukhabarat). The new decision has also cost more than an insignificant amount of money.
The purpose of partly reinstating the Archbishop, but at the same time forbidding him from practising his duties as a bishop, is to portray the Archbishop as incompetent of practising his official duties. This is done in order to blacken the Archbishop’s character, and to easier motivate a decision that says that it is necessary to have several bishops installed in Germany.
The gang of bishops, with roots in Mukhabarat, surrounding the Patriarch, are doing everything they can to divide the Syriac Orthodox Church in Germany. When the partition is a fact, the gang of bishops will be able to freely appoint bishops who are close to the Syrian regime, and place them in Germany. All this is done to make the Syriac Orthodox Church more arabic, and to control her.
