Syriac Orthodox Church

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Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East

Founder	Peter the Apostle
Independence	Apostolic Era
Recognition	Orthodox
Primate	Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I Iwas
Headquarters	Historically Antioch, Present time Damascus
Territory	Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, the Gulf States and India
Possessions	Middle East, United States, Canada, Great Britain, Western Europe, South Americaand Australia
Language	Syriac, Malayalam, Greek, Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, Farsi, English, French, German and Swedish
Population	~500,000 in Syria, 100,000 in Lebanon and the Middle East, about 100,000 in Western Europe, 200,000 in Sweden, 150,000 in North American, 100,000 in South America and ~ 1,200,000 in India
Website	Margonitho: Syriac Orthodox Resources

The Syriac Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Middle East with members spread throughout the world. It is one of the five ecclesiastical bodies that comprised the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church before the schism that resulted during the Council of Chalcedon. It is a major inheritor of Syriac Christianity and has Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, as its official language. The church is led by the Syrian Patriarch of Antioch.

The church is often referred to as Jacobite (after Jacob Baradaeus) or Monophysite, but these terms are misleading, and not appreciated by the some of the church today. In 2000, a Holy Synod ruled that the name of the church in English should be the Syriac Orthodox Church. Before this, it was, and often still is, known as the Syrian Orthodox Church. The name was changed to disassociate the church from the polity of Syria. The official name of the church in Syriac is ʿIdto Suryoyto Triṣuṯ Šuḇḥo, this name has not changed, nor has the name changed in any other language.

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The Syriac Orthodox Church is one of the first particular churches of Christianity, established in Antioch by the Apostle St. Peter in 34 AD. The current head of the Syriac Orthodox Church is the Patriarch His Holiness Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, who resides in Damascus, the capital of Syria. The Church has about 26 archdioceses and 11 patriarchal vicarates. Some estimate that the church has about 2,250,000 members globally.(1,200,000 in İndia) Patriarch Zakka was enthroned head of the church on 14 September 1980, on the feast of the Cross. Syriac Orthodox faithful around the world took part in silver jubilee celebrations of his patriarchate in 2005.

The church in Malankara, Malankara Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church is an integral part of the Syriac Orthodox Church with the Patriarch of Antioch as its supreme head. The local head of the church in Malankara is the Catholicos of India, currently His Beatitude Baselios Thomas I, ordained by and accountable to the Patriarch of Antioch in 2002.

The Syrian orthodox divine liturgy is performed in Syriac. The Malayalam language is used in the archdiocese in India.

Both it and the Chalcedonian Antiochian Orthodox Church claim to be the sole legitimate church of Antioch and successor of the Apostle St. Peter. There are also three uniate churches headed by Patriarchs of Antioch — the Syriac Catholic Church, the Maronite Church and the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. There is also a related (Nestorian) Assyrian Church of the East.

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Image:Cristo Velázquez lou2.jpg	Syriac Christianity ܣܘܪܝܝܐ
Self-appellations Aramaeans \| Assyrians \| Chaldeans \| Syriacs \| Maronites \| Melkites Aramaic languages - Syriac Assyrian Neo-Aramaic \| Bohtan Neo-Aramaic \| Chaldean Neo-Aramaic \| Hértevin \| Koy Sanjaq Surat \| Garshuni \| Mlahsö \| Senaya \| Turoyo Churches Ancient Church of the East \| Antiochian Orthodox Church \| Assyrian Church of the East \| Chaldean Catholic Church \| Maronite Catholic Church \| Melkite Greek Catholic Church \| Syriac Catholic Church \| Syriac Orthodox Church