Subdcn. Daniel Kakish returns to the Philosophy of Art and Science (technically he was on my channel before it was POAAS; and I did a guest spot on his show last year this time) to talk about the beauty of the Syriac Orthodox Church, which is the rightful heir of the See of Antioch in communion with the Coptic Orthodox Church which is the rightful heir of the See of Alexandria. A See is an apostolic throne, an area of apostolic activity in a major metropolis. In the Early Church, there were three Sees: Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria.
Some splits occurred, for us the major one was in 451 A.D. (The notorious and infamous Council of Chalcedon), and after, our part-and-parcel of Christendom retained two of the original three Sees. The so-called pentarchy which included Jerusalem and Constantinople are an after-thought and really an extension of Rome that occurred a century later under the auspices and reign of Justinian I.
“But for the grace of God go I”, says the Anglo-Saxon. I love this phrase. Through the grace of God these two Sees shared the apostolic trust, that they were entrusted with by the Lord, with Armenia and Aksum, the two first Christian kingdoms of the world. And more than a millenium later, picked up the scattered children of Kerala, India who were first preached to by the Apostle Thomas and the Church of the East and thus already shared a Syriac Rite liturgical tradition.
It is my prayer that we Afroasiatic Orthodox Christians talk to one another more and more, as the Lord’s day approaches, and get are structures more standardized (retaining whatever oddities we must). Especially, in North America.
Glory to God for all things.
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