Chaldean Cathedral of St. Joseph (Ankawa)

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Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Ankawa, 2009
Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Ankawa, 2018
Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Ankawa, 2018
Ziggurat of the cathedral in Ankawa, 2005

The Cathedral of St. Joseph , and Joseph Cathedral ( Arabic كاتدرائية مار يوسف), is a church in the Iraqi city ​​of Ankawa near Erbil , which was consecrated in 1981. It is the cathedral of the Erbil Archepary of the Chaldean Catholic Church .

Location

The Chaldean Cathedral of St. Joseph is located in the center of Ankawa on the east side of Kani Street and the south side of Brayati Street at 410 m above sea level.

history

The Chaldean Archeparchy Erbil was founded on March 7, 1968 from the Archdiocese of Kirkuk, founded in 1789. The background was the increasing number of Chaldean Catholic Christians in the region. Under the first arch parish , Stéphane Babaca , who held this office from 1969 to 1993, the construction of the cathedral in Ankawa began in 1978 on a 1,000 square meter site and was completed in 1981. The cathedral was consecrated on April 7, 1981. At that time, the church property still formed the southern edge of the small town of Ankawa. In the following decades, Christian Ankawa on the northern edge of Erbil grew as did the entire metropolitan area, so that the cathedral is now in the center of Ankawa. The influx of Christian refugees from other parts of Iraq from 2003 onwards continued to grow the community. After the conquest of the city of Mosul and large parts of the predominantly Christian Nineveh Plain, including its largest town, Baghdida, in 2014 by the terrorist organization Daesch (Islamic State, IS) , numerous refugees again came to Ankawa. St. Joseph's Cathedral became a focal point for refugee Christians and took them in. According to the words of Ankawa Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda in March 2019, 6,000 refugees from the Nineveh Plain were still in the care of the city's Chaldean Church, while 6,000 families had fled abroad, mostly to the USA , Canada or Australia , around However, 8,000 families had returned to their homeland in the Nineveh Plain. In 2017 the St. Josef Cathedral was modernized and expanded. This work was led by the architect Petros Khammo, who came to Erbil as an internally displaced person from Baghdad in 2010, and the architect Fadi Matloub, who specializes in churches. The cathedral was extended lengthways and a tribune at the extreme end of the church and a portico were added.

architecture

The Chaldean Cathedral of St. Joseph has a rectangular floor plan and was built in the Babylonian style, albeit in a modern design. From the center of the building rises a four-tier, 18 m high ziggurat . The outside of the church is bordered by limestone blocks. On each level there are protrusions that give the building the shape of structures in the cities of Babylon , Ur , Nineveh and Aqarquf .

Diocese and bishop

The Chaldean Cathedral of St. Joseph is the seat of the Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Erbil ( Archieparchia Arbilensis Chaldaeorum ). In 2017 it comprised around 30,000 believers in 7 parishes with 15 priests. In 2004 there were around 12,200 believers in 5 parishes with 5 priests. Archbishop Bashar Warda, who was born on June 15, 1969 in Baghdad , has been Erzeparch since May 24, 2010 .

Web links

Commons : Chaldean Cathedral of St. Joseph in Ankawa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ankawa. Ishtar Broadcasting Corporation, Jan. 23, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b Pascal Meguesyan: The Mar Youssef cathedral in Ankawa. Mesopotamia Heritage, August 2017.
  3. ↑ Zara Sarvarian: Iraq's Assyrian Christians: resurgence persecution and. World Watch Monitor, April 4, 2018.
  4. ↑ Press Release: Iraq - Additional Emergency Help of $ 146,000 Granted by Aid to the Church in Need. Aid to the Church in Need Canada, August 8, 2014.
  5. ↑ Robert Edwards (in an interview with Bashar Warda ): Archbishop of Erbil: Iraq's Christians need to thrive, not just survive. Rudaw , March 13, 2019.
  6. ↑ Cathedral of St. Joseph - Ankawa, Iraq. Gcatholic.org, May 19, 2020, accessed July 14, 2020.
  7. ↑ Entry on Archeparchy of Arbil {Erbil} (Chaldean) on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  8. ^ Archbishop Bashar Matte Warda. Gcatholic.org, May 12, 2020, accessed June 8, 2020.

Coordinates: 36 ° 13 ′ 38.6 ″  N , 43 ° 59 ′ 31.9 ″  E