Christine Chaillot Knihy

The Church of the East originated in Mesopotamia, establishing its first center at Seleucia-Ctesiphon, now an archaeological site near Baghdad. From the inception of Christianity until the fourteenth century, this Church expanded significantly across Asia, with missionaries spreading the Gospel from Persia to India and even reaching China by the seventh century through Central Asia and the Silk Road. However, the late fourteenth century saw a decline due to the invasions of Timur Lang (Tamerlane). The situation worsened after the genocide of Christians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and subsequent massacres in Persia, bringing the Church to the brink of extinction. In 1940, the patriarchal seat moved to Chicago, and by September 2015, it relocated to Erbil in northern Iraq. Many faithful have since left the Middle East, forming diaspora communities worldwide. The history of Christianity in the Middle East and beyond, particularly in Central and Eastern Asia, remains largely unknown. This book invites readers to explore the rich and ancient history of the Church of the East, a vital chapter in the broader narrative of the universal Church.

The history of Orthodox Christians in Australia is that of immigrant communities which, mostly for political and economic reasons, left their countries of origin in Eastern Europe and the Middle East from the nineteenth century. Since the mid-twentieth century large numbers of Eastern Orthodox have settled in Australia, chiefly Greeks, Russians, Serbs, Antiochians (from Syria and Lebanon), Romanians, Bulgarians, Ukrainians, Macedonians and Byelorussians. This book presents five Orthodox Churches in Australia: the Greek, the Russian, the Serbian, the Antiochian and the Romanian.