Cathedral of the Queen of Peace

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The Cathedral of the Queen of Peace ( Arabic كاتدرائية سلطانة السلام) is a church in the Iraqi city ​​of Ankawa near Erbil , which was consecrated in 2019. It is the cathedral of the Eparchy Adiabene of the Syrian Catholic Church, also formed in 2019 .

Location

The Syrian Catholic Cathedral of the Queen of Peace is located in a new development in northern Ankawa about 1 km west of Baharka Street (شارع بحركة), about 1.5 km north of the 120-meter road (شارع 120 متري), about 400 m north of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Cross Church (Surb Chatsch), which opened on April 6, 2019 , about 2.5 km north-northeast of the Assyrian St. John's Cathedral , about 3 km north-northeast of the Chaldean Cathedral of St. Joseph and about 4 km northeast of Erbil Airport .

history

Ankawa was a traditionally Assyrian city , increasingly due to conversions since the 18th century and later predominantly a Chaldean Catholic city. With the invasion of the USA from 2003 and the subsequent persecution, Christian refugees of various denominations came to the city. 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 once again came to Ankawa, including many Syrian Catholics . Around 15,000 people were housed in the Mart Shmoni refugee camp, where the new Syrian Catholic Church Mart Schmoni was consecrated in 2014 , and around 4,000 in the Ankawa shopping center. Many of them did not return even after the Islamists were driven out between October 2016 and July 2017 because of the unsafe situation; By April 2018, around 5000 of the previously 9000 Christian families had returned to Baghdida. In the entire Autonomous Region of Kurdistan , the Christian population grew to 120,000 people by 2019. In the whole of Iraq at the end of 2019, around 1.5 million were only 250,000 or - according to In Defense of Christians - only 225,000 Christians were living before 2003 .

Thanks to the newcomers, Ankawa now has, unlike before, significant shares of Syrian-Catholic, but also Syrian-Orthodox and Armenian-Apostolic Christians. New districts and several new churches were built. The small Mart Schmoni church from 2014 was no longer enough for the Syrian Catholic community. So the construction of the new Church of the Queen of Peace began. On June 22, 2019, the Syrian Catholic Synod of Bishops decided to create the new Adiabene eparchy , whose cathedral would become the new Syrian Catholic Church of the Queen of Peace in Ankawa , by ceding territories from the Syrian Catholic Archepark Mosul . The Syrian Catholic Patriarch of Antioch , Ignatius Joseph III. Younan , decreed this on June 28, 2019, and on August 30, 2019, it was confirmed by Pope Francis . The Adiabene eparchy is linked to a historical diocese that died out in the 17th century. The first bishop was Nizar Semaan, born in Baghdida in 1965 . The opening mass was held by Nizar Semaan on August 24, 2019 in the Cathedral of the Queen of Peace.

architecture

Current pictures of the church show a church building built in a modern style.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Syriac Cathedral of the Queen of Peace - Erbil, Iraq. Gcatholic.org, May 19, 2020, accessed August 18, 2020.
  2. ^ A b First Armenian Apostolic Church Opens in Kurdistan Region Capital Erbil. Masis Post, April 7, 2020.
  3. ↑ Pascal Meguesyan: Mar Yohanna al Ma'amadan Cathedral in Ankawa. Mesopotamia Heritage, April 2017.
  4. ↑ Pascal Meguesyan: Mart Shmoni Church in Ankawa. Mesopotamia Heritage, July 2017.
  5. ↑ Zara Sarvarian: Iraq's Assyrian Christians: resurgence persecution and. World Watch Monitor, April 4, 2018.
  6. ^ A b Iraq: The Church Wants to Stop the Exodus of Eastern Christians. Catholic Herald , September 5, 2019.
  7. ^ Courtney Mares: Cathedral in Iraq's largest Christian town to be rebuilt in 2020. Catholic News Agency , December 19, 2019.
  8. ↑ erezione dell'Eparchia di Adiabene (Hadiab) e nomina del nuovo Vescovo. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , August 30, 2019, accessed August 31, 2019 (Italian).
  9. ↑ Mosul: Syrian Catholic eparchy helps care for corona sufferers. Eastern Church Info Portal, May 12, 2020.
  10. ^ Syriac Diocese of Adiabene, Iraq - Archbishop Nathanael Nizar Wadih Semaan. Gcatholic.org, May 19, 2020, accessed August 18, 2020.
  11. ^ Church of the Queen of Peace . Google Maps, accessed on August 19, 2020.

Coordinates: 36 ° 15 ′ 21.9 ″  N , 44 ° 0 ′ 12 ″  E