Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist (Ankawa)
The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist ( Arabic كاتدرائية مار يوحنا المعمدان), also Johanneskirche or Mar Yohanna al Ma'amadan ( Arabic كنيسة مار يوحنا المعمدان), is a church in the Iraqi city of Ankawa that was consecrated in 2008. It is the cathedral of the diocese of Erbil of the Assyrian Church of the East and since the enthronement of Gewargis III. as Catholicos Patriarch 2015 also the seat of the patriarchate of the entire Assyrian Church of the East.
Location
The Assyrian Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is in the northern part of Ankawa, which in turn is on the northern edge of Erbil , on the east side of Yazdandokht Street and north of Siryani Street, at 410 m above sea level.
history
Since 1940 the Patriarchs of the Assyrian Church of the East resided in the United States with a brief interruption, the longest time in Chicago . This changed with the construction of the Assyrian Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Ankawa, which began in 2004. In October 2008, the Ankawa Cathedral was consecrated by the Chicago-based Catholicos Patriarch Dinkha IV . In the years following the US invasion of 2003 , numerous Christian refugees from other parts of Iraq came to the Christian city of Ankawa on the northern edge of the capital of the Kurdish Autonomous Region , Erbil . On March 26, 2015, Dinkha IV died in the United States at the age of 79, and from September 16 to 18, 2015, the Council of Prelates of the Assyrian Church of the East met in a Holy Synod in the new St. John's Cathedral in Ankawa. On September 18, 2015 Warda Daniel Sliwa was elected 121st Catholicos Patriarch of Seleukia-Ctesiphon by the Holy Synod to become Mar Gewargis III. Khanania to succeed the late Mar Dinkha IV, and on September 27, 2015 in the St. John's Cathedral, now the seat of the Patriarchate of the Assyrian Church of the East, as Catholicos Patriarch with the spiritual name Mar Gewargis III. enthroned.
architecture
The oriented to the East Assyrian John cathedral is made of concrete and concrete hollow blocks built with natural stone veneered and decorated with Assyrian crosses and patterns. On the east side of the building above the high altar is the apse with a dome with a shiny bronze trefoil cross . On the west side, opposite to the altar, there is an entrance with a portal in the form of a large A. The middle part of the building with its partially protruding roof has an elongated hexagonal floor plan and is said to be modeled on the Assyrian tree of life. On the south side of the two-storey building with a balcony (the church hall occupies both storeys) is the main entrance door through which both men and women enter and exit the church. This is where St. John's Cathedral differs from old Assyrian churches, which had separate entrances for men and women.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Pascal Meguesyan: Mar Yohanna al Ma'amadan Cathedral in Ankawa. Mesopotamia Heritage, April 2017.
- ↑ Mar Awa Royel: Biography of His Holiness Mar Gewargis III. ( Memento of October 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Holy Catholic Apostolic Assyrian Church of the East, Official News Website, September 29, 2015.
Coordinates: 36 ° 13 ′ 55.5 ″ N , 43 ° 59 ′ 36.6 ″ E