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132-571: The mission station Hoogekraal was named Pacaltsdorp after the death of the German-speaking missionary of Czech origin, the Reverend Charles Pacalt in 1818. He was invited by Kaptein Dikkop , leader of a Khoikhoi tribe living in the area. He built up a congregation of about 300 Khoekhoen , slaves and free labourers. A number of historic buildings are preserved - The Stone Church -

264-402: A Norman-style church, originally built from stone, yellowwood , glass and clay. Rev Pacalt's second mission cottage was constructed in approximately 1813. Consisting of sod walls, a thatch roof and cow-dung floor, it was declared a national monument in 1976. William Anderson built the first manse , a two-storied building with thick stone walls and abundant yellowwood, it was also declared

396-534: A bishop and made up of several individual parish communities overseen by priests. Dioceses were organised into provinces under the authority of a metropolitan bishop . The office of metropolitan bishop was an important one, coming with additional duties and powers; canonically, only metropolitans could consecrate a patriarch. The Patriarch also has the charge of the Province of the Patriarch . For most of its history

528-602: A breach of ecumenical good manners". Apart from its religious meaning, the word "Nestorian" has also been used in an ethnic sense, as shown by the phrase "Catholic Nestorians". In his 1996 article, "The 'Nestorian' Church: a lamentable misnomer", published in the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library , Sebastian Brock , a Fellow of the British Academy , lamented the fact that "the term 'Nestorian Church' has become

660-670: A coffin, aware that 80% of them would die within two years. Missionary activity in China was undertaken by the Protestant churches, as well as the French Catholic Church. According to John K. Fairbank : The opening of the country in the 1860s facilitated the great effort to Christianize China. Building on old foundations, the Roman Catholic establishment totaled by 1894 some 750 European missionaries, 400 native priests, and over half

792-558: A delegations of Carmelites headed by two Italians, one Fleming and one German priests to reconcile the Saint Thomas Christians to Catholic fold. These priests had two advantages – they were not Portuguese and they were not Jesuits. By the next year, 84 of the 116 Saint Thomas Christian churches had returned, forming the Syrian Catholic Church (modern day Syro-Malabar Catholic Church ). The rest, which became known as

924-517: A few different kinds of mission trips: short-term, long-term, relational and those that simply help people in need. Some people choose to dedicate their whole lives to mission. Missionaries preach the Christian faith and sometimes administer the sacraments , and provide humanitarian aid or services. Christian doctrines (such as the "Doctrine of Love" professed by many missions) permit the provision of aid without requiring religious conversion. Nonetheless,

1056-565: A free hand, and they increased missionary efforts farther afield. Missionaries established dioceses in India (the Saint Thomas Christians ). They made some advances in Egypt , despite the strong Monophysite presence there, and they entered Central Asia , where they had significant success converting local Tartars . Nestorian missionaries were firmly established in China during the early part of

1188-606: A great amount of secular power. The metropolitan see was probably in Cranganore , or (perhaps nominally) in Mylapore , where the Shrine of Thomas was located. In the 12th century Indian Nestorianism engaged the Western imagination in the figure of Prester John , supposedly a Nestorian ruler of India who held the offices of both king and priest. The geographically remote Malabar Church survived

1320-717: A late-6th-century church in Seleucia-Ctesiphon , beneath which were found the remains of an earlier church, also shows that the Church of the East used figurative representations. Although the East Syriac Christian community traced their history to the 1st century AD, the Church of the East first achieved official state recognition from the Sasanian Empire in the 4th century with the accession of Yazdegerd I (reigned 399–420) to

1452-489: A leader of a key missionary agency focused on Muslims claimed that the world is living in a "day of salvation for Muslims everywhere." Theologically conservative evangelical, Pentecostal, Adventist and Mormon missionaries typically avoid cultural imperialism , and focus on spreading the gospel and translating the Bible. In the process of translating local languages, missionaries have often been vital in preserving and documenting

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1584-657: A major role in the history of Christianity in Asia . Between the 9th and 14th centuries, it represented the world's largest Christian denomination in terms of geographical extent, and in the Middle Ages was one of the three major Christian powerhouses of Eurasia alongside Latin Catholicism and Greek Orthodoxy . It established dioceses and communities stretching from the Mediterranean Sea and today's Iraq and Iran , to India ,

1716-683: A major trading language in which most native leaders are likely to be fluent. In some cases, the materials can be adapted for oral use. Nestorian Church The Church of the East ( Classical Syriac : ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā ) or the East Syriac Church , also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon , the Persian Church , the Assyrian Church , the Babylonian Church or

1848-457: A million communicants. By 1894 the newer Protestant mission effort supported over 1300 missionaries, mainly British and American, and maintained some 500 stations-each with a church, residences, street chapels, and usually a small school and possibly a hospital or dispensary-in about 350 different cities and towns. Yet they had made fewer than 60,000 Chinese Christian converts. There was limited success in terms of converts and establishing schools in

1980-577: A mission trip to India, but his legacy among Methodists – his passion for missions – continues. Missionary organizations favored the development of the Baptist movement on all continents. In England , there was the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792 at Kettering, England . William Carey write a pamphlet in 1792, "An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to use Means for

2112-946: A mission under a Persian cleric named Alopen in 635, in the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang during the Tang dynasty . The inscription on the Nestorian Stele, whose dating formula mentions the patriarch [[Hnanisho II|Hnanisho[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 1) ( help ) II (773–80)]], gives the names of several prominent Christians in China, including Metropolitan Adam, Bishop Yohannan, 'country-bishops' Yazdbuzid and Sargis and Archdeacons Gigoi of Khumdan ( Chang'an ) and Gabriel of Sarag ( Luoyang ). The names of around seventy monks are also listed. Nestorian Christianity thrived in China for approximately 200 years, but then faced persecution from Emperor Wuzong of Tang (reigned 840–846). He suppressed all foreign religions, including Buddhism and Christianity, causing

2244-473: A nation of about 400 million people , but there was escalating anger at the threat of cultural imperialism. The main result was the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901), in which missions were attacked and thousands of Chinese Christians were massacred in order to destroy Western influences. Some Europeans were killed and many others threatened, Britain joined the other powers in a military invasion that suppressed

2376-610: A national monument in 1976. "The Tree Of Meeting" is a 300-year-old tree, to be found opposite the Pacaltsdorp Post Office, in Missionstreet. The stone building nearby was originally home to some of the first missionaries. There was no church building yet and church services were conducted under this big Essenwood tree. Prior to 1994 much of Pacaltsdorp was Common land that bordered the Gwaing River and stretched down to

2508-654: A particularly keen interest in the missionary expansion of the Church of the East. He is known to have consecrated metropolitans for Damascus, for Armenia , for Dailam and Gilan in Azerbaijan, for Rai in Tabaristan, for Sarbaz in Segestan, for the Turks of Central Asia, for China, and possibly also for Tibet . He also detached India from the metropolitan province of Fars and made it a separate metropolitan province, known as India . By

2640-401: A preexisting translation of the Bible and higher pastoral education are already available, perhaps left over from earlier, less effective missions. One strategy is to let indigenous cultural groups decide to adopt Christian doctrines and benefits, when (as in most cultures) such major decisions are normally made by groups. In this way, opinion leaders in the groups can persuade much or most of

2772-426: A public role, especially in promoting sanitation and public health. Many were trained as physicians, or took special courses in public health and tropical medicine at Livingstone College, London. By the 1870s, Protestant missions around the world generally acknowledged the long-term material goal was the formation of independent, self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating churches. The rise of nationalism in

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2904-515: Is also considered to be an indication of a strong Nestorian Christian presence in Sri Lanka between the 3rd and 10th century in the then capitol of Anuradhapura of Sri Lanka. Christianity reached China by 635, and its relics can still be seen in Chinese cities such as Xi'an . The Nestorian Stele , set up on 7 January 781 at the then-capital of Chang'an , attributes the introduction of Christianity to

3036-531: Is designed "to form a viable indigenous church -planting and world changing movement." This definition is motivated by a theologically imperative theme of the Bible to make God known, as outlined in the Great Commission . The definition is claimed to summarize the acts of Jesus ' ministry, which is taken as a model motivation for all ministries. This Christian missionary movement seeks to implement churches after

3168-470: Is selection and training of leadership. Classically, leadership training required an expensive stay at a seminary, a Bible college. Modern church planters deprecate this because it substantially slows the growth of the church without much immediate benefit. Modern mission doctrines replace the seminary with programmed curricula or (even less expensive) books of discussion questions, and access to real theological books. The materials are usually made available in

3300-504: Is the famous "three-self" formula formulated by Henry Venn of the London Church Missionary Society in the 19th century. Cross-cultural missionaries are persons who accept church-planting duties to evangelize people outside their culture, as Christ commanded in the Great Commission ( Matthew 28:18–20 , Mark 16:15–18 ). The objective of these missionaries is to give an understandable presentation of their beliefs with

3432-647: The American Methodists , was "the Father of Methodist Missions". After spending time in the newly formed United States of America strengthening the infant Methodist Church alongside Episcopal colleague Francis Asbury , the British-born Coke left for mission work. During his time in America, Coke worked vigorously to increase Methodist support of Christian missions and of raising up mission workers. Coke died while on

3564-545: The American War of Independence , colonial officials decided to enhance the power and wealth of the Church of England in all British colonies, including British North America . Missionary societies funded their own operations that were not supervised or directed by the Colonial Office. Tensions emerged between the missionaries and the colonial officials. The latter feared that missionaries might stir up trouble or encourage

3696-678: The Arabian Peninsula , with minor presence in the Horn of Africa , Socotra , Mesopotamia , Media , Bactria , Hyrcania , and India ; and possibly also to places called Calliana, Male, and Sielediva (Ceylon). Beneath the Patriarch in the hierarchy were nine metropolitans , and clergy were recorded among the Huns , in Persarmenia , Media, and the island of Dioscoris in the Indian Ocean . The Church of

3828-843: The Council of Markabta of the Arabs and declare the Catholicate independent from "the western Fathers". Meanwhile, in the Roman Empire, the Nestorian Schism had led many of Nestorius' supporters to relocate to the Sasanian Empire, mainly around the theological School of Nisibis . The Persian Church increasingly aligned itself with the Dyophisites, a measure encouraged by the Zoroastrian ruling class. The church became increasingly Dyophisite in doctrine over

3960-796: The Guarani Reductions , a theocratic semi-independent region established by the Jesuits in the region of the future Paraguay between the early 17th century and 1767. From 1732 onwards the Moravian Church began sending out missionaries. In the United States, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was chartered in 1812. Protestant missionaries from the Anglican, Lutheran and Presbyterian traditions starting arriving in what

4092-536: The Indian subcontinent . The Church faced a major schism in 1552 following the consecration of monk Yohannan Sulaqa by Pope Julius III in opposition to the reigning Catholicos-Patriarch Shimun VII , leading to the formation of the Chaldean Catholic Church . Divisions occurred within the two factions, but by 1830 two unified patriarchates and distinct churches remained: the traditionalist Assyrian Church of

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4224-797: The Malankara Church , soon entered into communion with the Syriac Orthodox Church . The Malankara Church also produced the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church . Nestorian Christianity is said to have thrived in Sri Lanka with the patronage of King Dathusena during the 5th century. There are mentions of involvement of Persian Christians with the Sri Lankan royal family during the Sigiriya Period. Over seventy-five ships carrying Murundi soldiers from Mangalore are said to have arrived in

4356-667: The Mongol kingdoms and Turkic tribes in Central Asia, and China during the Tang dynasty (7th–9th centuries). In the 13th and 14th centuries, the church experienced a final period of expansion under the Mongol Empire , where influential Church of the East clergy sat in the Mongol court. Even before the Church of the East underwent a rapid decline in its field of expansion in Central Asia in

4488-733: The Nestorian Church , is one of three major branches of Nicene Eastern Christianity that arose from the Christological controversies in the 5th century and the 6th century , alongside that of Miaphysitism (which came to be known as the Oriental Orthodox Churches ) and the Chalcedonian Church (from which Catholicism , Eastern Orthodoxy , and Protestantism would arise). Having its origins in Mesopotamia during

4620-704: The Parthian Empire . In 266, the area was annexed by the Sasanian Empire (becoming the province of Asōristān ), and there were significant Christian communities in Upper Mesopotamia , Elam , and Fars . The Church of the East traced its origins ultimately to the evangelical activity of Thaddeus of Edessa , Mari and Thomas the Apostle . Leadership and structure remained disorganised until 315 when Papa bar Aggai (310–329), bishop of Seleucia - Ctesiphon , imposed

4752-403: The Sasanian Empire through the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon . In 424, it declared itself independent of the state church of the Roman Empire , which it calls the 'Church of the West'. The Church of the East was headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch of the East seated originally in Seleucia-Ctesiphon , continuing a line that, according to its tradition, stretched back to Thomas the Apostle in

4884-403: The School of Nisibis , leading to a wave of Nestorian immigration into the Sasanian Empire. The Patriarch of the East Mar Babai I (497–502) reiterated and expanded upon his predecessors' esteem for Theodore, solidifying the church's adoption of Dyophisitism. Now firmly established in the Persian Empire, with centres in Nisibis, Ctesiphon , and Gundeshapur , and several metropolitan sees ,

5016-606: The State Library of Berlin , proves that in the 13th century the Church of the East was not yet aniconic . The Nestorian Evangelion preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France contains an illustration depicting Jesus Christ in the circle of a ringed cross surrounded by four angels. Three Syriac manuscripts from early 19th century or earlier—they were published in a compilation titled The Book of Protection by Hermann Gollancz in 1912—contain some illustrations of no great artistic worth that show that use of images continued. A life-size male stucco figure discovered in

5148-402: The Synod of Diamper in 1599, they installed Padroado Portuguese bishops over the local sees and made liturgical changes to accord with the Latin practice and this led to a revolt among the Saint Thomas Christians. The majority of them broke with the Catholic Church and vowed never to submit to the Portuguese in the Coonan Cross Oath of 1653. In 1661, Pope Alexander VII responded by sending

5280-422: The Tang dynasty (618–907); the Chinese source known as the Nestorian Stele describes a mission under a proselyte named Alopen as introducing Nestorian Christianity to China in 635. In the 7th century, the church had grown to have two Nestorian archbishops , and over 20 bishops east of the Iranian border of the Oxus River . Patriarch Timothy I (780–823), a contemporary of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid , took

5412-436: The Third World provoked challenges from critics who complained that the missionaries were teaching Western ways, and ignoring the indigenous culture. The Boxer Rebellion in China in 1899–1901 involved bloody attacks on Christian missions and especially their converts. The First World War diverted resources, and pulled most Germans out of missionary work when that country lost its empire. The worldwide Great Depression of

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5544-739: The Timeline of Christian missions . Major nations not only send and fund missionaries abroad, but also receive them from other countries. In 2010, the United States sent out 127,000 missionaries, while 32,400 came to the United States. Brazil was second, sending out 34,000, and receiving 20,000. France sent out 21,000 and received 10,000. Britain sent out 15,000 and received 10,000. India sent out 10,000 and received 8000. Other major exporters included Spain at 21,000 sent out, Italy at 20,000, South Korea at 20,000, Germany at 14,000, and Canada at 8,500. Large recipient nations included Russia, receiving 20,000; Congo receiving 15,000; South Africa, 12,000; Argentina, 10,000; and Chile, 8,500. The largest sending agency in

5676-441: The Treaty of Tordesillas , the two powers divided the world between them into exclusive spheres of influence, trade and colonization. The proselytization of Asia became linked to Portuguese colonial policy . From 1499 onward, Portuguese trade with Asia rapidly proved profitable. As Jesuits arrived in India around 1540 the colonial government in Goa supported the mission with incentives for baptized Christians. Beginning in 1552,

5808-417: The " Western Church ". Accordingly, the leaders of the Church of the East did not feel bound by any decisions of what came to be regarded as Roman Imperial Councils. Despite this, the Creed and Canons of the First Council of Nicaea of 325, affirming the full divinity of Christ, were formally accepted at the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 410. The church's understanding of the term hypostasis differs from

5940-410: The "two qnome in Christ" formula, a final christological distinction was created between the Church of the East and the "western" Chalcedonian churches . The justice of imputing Nestorianism to Nestorius , whom the Church of the East venerated as a saint, is disputed. David Wilmshurst states that for centuries "the word 'Nestorian' was used both as a term of abuse by those who disapproved of

6072-572: The 10th century the Church of the East had a number of dioceses stretching from across the Caliphate's territories to India and China. Nestorian Christians made substantial contributions to the Islamic Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates , particularly in translating the works of the ancient Greek philosophers to Syriac and Arabic . Nestorians made their own contributions to philosophy , science (such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq , Qusta ibn Luqa , Masawaiyh , Patriarch Eutychius , Jabril ibn Bukhtishu ) and theology (such as Tatian , Bar Daisan , Babai

6204-418: The 13th century, during the Mongol Empire, the church added two new metropolitan provinces in North China , one being Tangut, the other Katai and Ong. The Peshitta , in some cases lightly revised and with missing books added, is the standard Syriac Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition: the Syriac Orthodox Church , the Syrian Catholic Church , the Assyrian Church of the East , the Ancient Church of

6336-429: The 14th century, it had already lost ground in its home territory. The decline is indicated by the shrinking list of active dioceses from over sixty in the early 11th century to only seven in the 14th century. In the aftermath of the division of the Mongol Empire , the rising Buddhist and Islamic Mongol leaderships pushed out the Church of the East and its followers in Central Asia. The Chinese Ming dynasty overthrew

6468-559: The 1930s was a major blow to funding mission activities. In 1910, the Edinburgh Missionary Conference was presided over by active SVM and YMCA leader John R. Mott , an American Methodist layperson, the conference reviewed the state of evangelism, Bible translation, mobilization of church support, and the training of indigenous leadership. Looking to the future, conferees worked on strategies for worldwide evangelism and cooperation. The conference not only established greater ecumenical cooperation in missions, but also essentially launched

6600-432: The 21st century there were more Anglicans in Nigeria than in England. Christian missions in Australia played a part in both indoctrinating Aboriginal Australians into Christianity, and in controlling their movements and removing children from families, leading to the Stolen Generations . German missionaries ran Lutheran and other mission stations and schools, from the earliest days of colonisation of Australia . One of

6732-401: The Assyrian Church of the East, granting its members his protection, and executing the pro-Roman Catholicos Babowai in 484, replacing him with the Nestorian Bishop of Nisibis , Barsauma . The Catholicos-Patriarch Babai (497–503) confirmed the association of the Assyrian Church with Nestorianism. Christians were already forming communities in Mesopotamia as early as the 1st century under

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6864-479: The Bible into native languages. McGavran concentrated on finding bridges to cross the class and cultural barriers in places like India, which has upwards of 4,600 peoples, separated by a combination of language, culture, and caste . Despite democratic reforms, caste and class differences are still fundamental in many cultures. An equally important dimension of missions strategy is the indigenous method of nationals reaching their own people. In Asia this wave of missions

6996-495: The Boxers. In the 18th century, and even more so in the 19th century, missionaries based in Britain saw the British Empire as a fertile field for proselytizing for Christianity. All the main denominations were involved, including the Church of England , Scottish Presbyterian, and Nonconformists. Much of the enthusiasm emerged from the Evangelical revival. Within the Church of England, the Church Mission Society (CMS) originated in 1799 and went on to undertake activity all around

7128-408: The Church of the East adopted the dyophysite doctrine of Theodore of Mopsuestia that emphasised the "distinctiveness" of the divine and the human natures of Jesus ; this doctrine was misleadingly labelled as 'Nestorian' by its theological opponents. Continuing as a dhimmi community under the Rashidun Caliphate after the Muslim conquest of Persia (633–654), the Church of the East played

7260-402: The Church of the East began to branch out beyond the Sasanian Empire. However, through the 6th century the church was frequently beset with internal strife and persecution from the Zoroastrians. The infighting led to a schism, which lasted from 521 until around 539, when the issues were resolved. However, immediately afterward Byzantine-Persian conflict led to a renewed persecution of the church by

7392-470: The Church of the East extended well beyond its heartland in present-day northern Iraq , north eastern Syria and south eastern Turkey . Communities sprang up throughout Central Asia , and missionaries from Assyria and Mesopotamia took the Christian faith as far as China , with a primary indicator of their missionary work being the Nestorian Stele , a Christian tablet written in Chinese found in China dating to 781 AD. Their most important conversion, however,

7524-447: The Church of the East until the end of the medieval period. The Saint Thomas Christian community of Kerala , India, who according to tradition trace their origins to the evangelizing efforts of Thomas the Apostle , had a long association with the Church of the East. The earliest known organised Christian presence in Kerala dates to 295/300 when Christian settlers and missionaries from Persia headed by Bishop David of Basra settled in

7656-557: The Church of the East was declared to have at its head the bishop of the Persian capital Seleucia-Ctesiphon, who in the acts of the council was referred to as the Grand or Major Metropolitan, and who soon afterward was called the Catholicos of the East. Later, the title of Patriarch was used. The Church of the East had, like other churches, an ordained clergy in the three traditional orders of bishop , priest (or presbyter ), and deacon . Also like other churches, it had an episcopal polity : organisation by dioceses , each headed by

7788-424: The Church sent Jesuits to China and to other countries in Asia. During the time of the Holland (Batavia) Mission (1592–1853), when the Roman Catholic church in the country was suppressed, there were neither parishes nor dioceses, and the country effectively became a mission area in which congregations were called "stations" ( staties ) . Statie , usually called a clandestine church in English, refers to both

7920-423: The Conversion of Heathen" and was the first missionary of the Baptist Missionary Society . He went to Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1793. Far from a dry book of theology, Carey's work used the best available geographic and ethnographic data to map and count the number of people who had never heard the Gospel. He has been referred to as the "father of modern missions", and as "India's first cultural anthropologist." In

8052-408: The East and the Ancient Church of the East , which continue to follow the traditional theology and liturgy of the mother church. The Chaldean Catholic Church based in Iraq and the Syro-Malabar Church in India are two Eastern Catholic churches which also claim the heritage of the Church of the East. The Church of the East organized itself initially in the year 410 as the national church of

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8184-401: The East and the Chaldean Catholic Church. The Ancient Church of the East split from the traditionalist patriarchate in 1968. In 2017, the Chaldean Catholic Church had approximately 628,405 members and the Assyrian Church of the East had 323,300 to 380,000, while the Ancient Church of the East had 100,000. Nestorianism is a Christological doctrine that emphasises the distinction between

8316-476: The East , the Chaldean Catholic Church , the Maronites , the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church , the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church . The Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated from Hebrew , although the date and circumstances of this are not entirely clear. The translators may have been Syriac-speaking Jews or early Jewish converts to Christianity. The translation may have been done separately for different texts, and

8448-477: The East Syrians in Khanbaliq says that they had 'very beautiful and orderly churches with crosses and images in honour of God and of the saints'. Apart from the references, a painting of a Christian figure discovered by Aurel Stein at the Library Cave of the Mogao Caves in 1908 is probably a representation of Jesus Christ. An illustrated 13th-century Nestorian Peshitta Gospel book written in Estrangela from northern Mesopotamia or Tur Abdin , currently in

8580-452: The East also flourished in the kingdom of the Lakhmids until the Islamic conquest, particularly after the ruler al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir officially converted in c. 592. After the Sasanian Empire was conquered by Muslim Arabs in 644, the newly established Rashidun Caliphate designated the Church of the East as an official dhimmi minority group headed by the Patriarch of the East. As with all other Christian and Jewish groups given

8712-410: The Great , Nestorius , Toma bar Yacoub ). The personal physicians of the Abbasid Caliphs were often Assyrian Christians such as the long serving Bukhtishu dynasty. After the split with the Western World and synthesis with Nestorianism, the Church of the East expanded rapidly due to missionary works during the medieval period. During the period between 500 and 1400 the geographical horizon of

8844-408: The Greek terms φύσις ( physis ) and ὐπόστασις ( hypostasis ), these Syriac words were sometimes taken to mean something other than what was intended; in particular "two qnome " was interpreted as "two individuals". Previously, the Church of the East accepted a certain fluidity of expressions, always within a dyophysite theology, but with Babai's assembly of 612, which canonically sanctioned

8976-405: The Mongols (1368) and ejected Christians and other foreign influences from China, and many Mongols in Central Asia converted to Islam . The Muslim Turco-Mongol leader Timur (1336–1405) nearly eradicated the remaining Christians in the Middle East. Nestorian Christianity remained largely confined to communities in Upper Mesopotamia and the Saint Thomas Syrian Christians of the Malabar Coast in

9108-511: The Near and Far East. Their travels took them as far as China in an attempt to convert the advancing Mongols , especially the Great Khans of the Mongol Empire (related to Medieval Roman Catholic Missions in China). In the later part of the fifteenth century, Portuguese missionaries had success in spreading Christianity to the Kingdom of Kongo in West Africa. In 1491, King João I of Kongo converted to Christianity and his nobility and peasants followed suit. The Kongo kingdom remained Christian for

9240-434: The Roman Imperial church. More recently, the "Nestorian" appellation has been called "a lamentable misnomer", and theologically incorrect by scholars. The Church of the East's declaration in 424 of the independence of its head, the Patriarch of the East , preceded by seven years the 431 Council of Ephesus, which condemned Nestorius and declared that Mary, mother of Jesus , can be described as Mother of God . Two of

9372-401: The Sasanian Empire and soon also beyond the empire's borders. By the 10th century, the church had between 20 and 30 metropolitan provinces. According to John Foster, in the 9th century there were 25 metropolitans including those in China and India. The Chinese provinces were lost in the 11th century, and in the subsequent centuries other exterior provinces went into decline as well. However, in

9504-514: The Sasanian emperor Khosrau I ; this ended in 545. The church survived these trials under the guidance of Patriarch Aba I , who had converted to Christianity from Zoroastrianism . By the end of the 5th century and the middle of the 6th, the area occupied by the Church of the East included "all the countries to the east and those immediately to the west of the Euphrates", including the Sasanian Empire,

9636-532: The Southern Baptist foreign missionary operation (the International Mission Board) has operated at a deficit, and it is cutting operations by 15 percent. It is encouraging older missionaries to retire and return to the United States. The Lausanne Congress of 1974, birthed a movement that supports evangelical mission among non-Christians and nominal Christians. It regards "mission" as that which

9768-517: The Sri Lankan town of Chilaw most of whom were Christians. King Dathusena's daughter was married to his nephew Migara who is also said to have been a Nestorian Christian, and a commander of the Sinhalese army. Maga Brahmana, a Christian priest of Persian origin is said to have provided advice to King Dathusena on establishing his palace on the Sigiriya Rock . The Anuradhapura Cross discovered in 1912

9900-433: The United States is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who, at this date 2019, has 67,000 full time proselytizing young missionaries all over the world with many more elder missionaries serving in similar circumstances. The Southern Baptist Convention, has 4,800 missionaries, plus 450 support staff working inside the United States. The annual budget is about $ 50,000 per year per missionary. In recent years, however,

10032-595: The United States, " Hard Shell Baptists ", " Anti-Mission Baptists ", or " Old School Baptists " adhering to strict Calvinism rejected all mission boards, Bible tract societies, and temperance societies as nonbiblical. This faction was strongest in the American South. The mainstream of the Baptist denomination, however, supported missionary work, by the founding of International Ministries in 1814 and International Mission Board in 1845. A wave of missions, starting in

10164-528: The bishops of the Sasanian Empire met in council under the leadership of Catholicos Dadishoʿ (421–456) and determined that they would not, henceforth, refer disciplinary or theological problems to any external power, and especially not to any bishop or church council in the Roman Empire . Thus, the Mesopotamian churches did not send representatives to the various church councils attended by representatives of

10296-531: The boundaries of the old Roman Empire. In the seventh century Gregory the Great sent missionaries, including Augustine of Canterbury , into England, and in the eight century English Christians, notably Saint Boniface , spread Christianity into Germany. The Hiberno-Scottish mission began in 563. In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, Franciscans such as William of Rubruck , John of Montecorvino , and Giovanni ed' Magnolia were sent as missionaries to

10428-442: The church had six or so Interior Provinces. In 410, these were listed in the hierarchical order of: Seleucia-Ctesiphon (central Iraq), Beth Lapat (western Iran), Nisibis (on the border between Turkey and Iraq), Prat de Maishan (Basra, southern Iraq), Arbela (Erbil, Kurdistan region of Iraq), and Karka de Beth Slokh (Kirkuk, northeastern Iraq). In addition it had an increasing number of Exterior Provinces further afield within

10560-631: The church's jurisdiction in India. In the 8th century Patriarch Timothy I organised the community as the Ecclesiastical Province of India , one of the church's Provinces of the Exterior. After this point the Province of India was headed by a metropolitan bishop , provided from Persia, who oversaw a varying number of bishops as well as a native Archdeacon , who had authority over the clergy and also wielded

10692-704: The church's leading bishops to elect a formal Catholicos (leader). Catholicos Isaac was required both to lead the Assyrian Christian community and to answer on its behalf to the Sasanian emperor . Under pressure from the Sasanian Emperor, the Church of the East sought to increasingly distance itself from the Pentarchy (at the time being known as the church of the Eastern Roman Empire ). Therefore, in 424,

10824-593: The community. Mission station A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism or other activities, such as educational or hospital work, in the name of the Christian faith . Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and are called missionaries , and historically may have been based in mission stations . When groups are sent, they are often called mission teams and they undertake mission trips. There are

10956-515: The congregation's church and its seat or location. The Reformation unfolded in Europe in the early 16th century. For over a hundred years, occupied by their struggle with the Catholic Church, the early Protestant churches as a body were not strongly focused on missions to "heathen" lands. Instead, the focus was initially more on Christian lands in the hope to spread the Protestant faith, identifying

11088-446: The culture of the peoples among whom they live. The word "mission" was historically often applied to the building, the " mission station " in which the missionary lives or works. In some colonies, these mission stations became a focus of settlement of displaced or formerly nomadic people. Particularly in rural Australia, mission stations (known as missions) became home to many Indigenous Australians . Additional events can be found at

11220-629: The decay of the Nestorian hierarchy elsewhere, enduring until the 16th century when the Portuguese arrived in India. With the establishment of Portuguese power in parts of India, the clergy of that empire, in particular members of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), determined to actively bring the Saint Thomas Christians into full communion with Rome under the Latin Church and its Latin liturgical rites . After

11352-683: The definition of the term offered at the Council of Chalcedon of 451. For this reason, the Assyrian Church has never approved the Chalcedonian definition . The theological controversy that followed the Council of Ephesus in 431 proved a turning point in the Christian Church's history. The Council condemned as heretical the Christology of Nestorius , whose reluctance to accord the Virgin Mary

11484-418: The early 1850s, targeted inland areas, led by a Briton Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) with his China Inland Mission (1865– ). Taylor was later supported by Henry Grattan Guinness (1835–1910) who founded (1883) Cliff College , which continues as of 2014 to train and equip for local and global mission. The missions inspired by Taylor and Guinness have collectively been called " faith missions " and owe much to

11616-524: The eastern Roman Empire . However, the Persian Church faced several severe persecutions, notably during the reign of Shapur II (339–79), from the Zoroastrian majority who accused it of Roman leanings. Shapur II attempted to dismantle the catholicate's structure and put to death some of the clergy including the catholicoi Simeon bar Sabba'e (341), Shahdost (342), and Barba'shmin (346). Afterward,

11748-448: The expansion of the Christian mission beyond Judaism to those who were not Jewish became a contested issue, notably at the Council of Jerusalem . The Apostle Paul was an early proponent of this expansion, and contextualized the Christian message for the Greek and Roman cultures, allowing it to reach beyond its Hebrew and Jewish roots. From Late Antiquity onward, much missionary activity

11880-576: The first century. Its liturgical rite is the East Syrian rite that employs the Divine Liturgy of Saints Addai and Mari . The Church of the East, which was part of the Great Church , shared communion with those in the Roman Empire until the Council of Ephesus condemned Nestorius in 431. The Church of the East refused to condemn Nestorius and was therefore called the "Nestorian Church" by those of

12012-573: The generally accepted ecumenical councils were held earlier: the First Council of Nicaea , in which a Persian bishop took part, in 325, and the First Council of Constantinople in 381. The Church of the East accepted the teaching of these two councils, but ignored the 431 Council and those that followed, seeing them as concerning only the patriarchates of the Roman Empire ( Rome , Constantinople , Alexandria , Antioch , Jerusalem ), all of which were for it " Western Christianity". Theologically ,

12144-554: The groups to convert. When combined with training in discipleship, church planting and other modern missionary doctrine , the result is an accelerating, self-propelled conversion of large portions of the culture. A typical modern mission is a co-operative effort by many different ministries, often including several coordinating ministries, such as the Faith2Share network, often with separate funding sources. One typical effort proceeded as follows: The most crucial part of church planting

12276-400: The hope that people will choose to following the teaching of Jesus Christ and live their lives as His disciples. As a matter of strategy, many evangelical Christians around the world now focus on what they call the "10/40 window", a band of countries between 10 and 40 degrees north latitude and reaching from western Africa through Asia. Christian missions strategist Luis Bush pinpointed

12408-518: The human and divine natures of Jesus . It was attributed to Nestorius , Patriarch of Constantinople from 428 to 431, whose doctrine represented the culmination of a philosophical current developed by scholars at the School of Antioch , most notably Nestorius's mentor Theodore of Mopsuestia , and stirred controversy when Nestorius publicly challenged the use of the title Theotokos (literally, "Bearer of God ") for Mary, mother of Jesus , suggesting that

12540-637: The ideas and example of Anthony Norris Groves (1795–1853). Taylor, a thorough-going nativist , offended the missionaries of his era by wearing Chinese clothing and speaking Chinese at home. His books, speaking, and examples led to the formation of numerous inland missions and of the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM, founded in 1886), which from 1850 to about 1950 sent nearly 10,000 missionaries to inland areas, often at great personal sacrifice. Many early SVM missionaries traveling to areas with endemic tropical diseases left with their belongings packed in

12672-558: The largest organisations was the United Aborigines Mission , which ran dozens of missionaries and stations in Western Australia , New South Wales and South Australia in the 1900s. Missionaries increasingly came to focus on education, medical help, and long-term modernization of the native personality to inculcate European middle-class values. They established schools and medical clinics. Christian missionaries played

12804-418: The modern ecumenical movement . The next wave of missions was started by two missionaries, Cameron Townsend and Donald McGavran , around 1935. These men realized that although earlier missionaries had reached geographic areas, there were numerous ethnographic groups that were isolated by language, or class from the groups that missionaries had reached. Cameron formed Wycliffe Bible Translators to translate

12936-527: The most well-known missions in history. While some of these missions were associated with imperialism and oppression, others (notably Matteo Ricci 's Jesuit mission to China) were relatively peaceful and focused on inculturation rather than cultural imperialism . In both Portugal and Spain, religion was an integral part of the state and evangelization was seen as having both secular and spiritual benefits. Wherever these powers attempted to expand their territories or influence, missionaries would soon follow. By

13068-618: The native population, including the royalty. In the course of the Spanish colonization of the Americas , the Catholic missionaries learned the languages of the Amerindians and devised writing systems for them. Then they preached to indigenous people in those languages ( Quechua , Guarani , Nahuatl ) instead of Spanish, to keep Indians away from "sinful" whites. An extreme case of segregation occurred in

13200-416: The natives to challenge colonial authority. In general, colonial officials were much more comfortable with working with the established local leadership, including the native religions, rather than introducing the divisive force of Christianity. This proved especially troublesome in India, were very few local elites were attracted to Christianity. In Africa, especially, the missionaries made many converts. As of

13332-644: The need for a major focus of evangelism in the " 10/40 Window ", a phrase he coined in his presentation at the missionary conference Lausanne 1989 in Manila. Sometimes referred to as the "Resistant Belt", it is an area that includes 35% of the world's land mass, 90% of the world's poorest peoples and 95% of those who have yet to hear anything about Christianity. Modern mission techniques are sufficiently refined that within ten to fifteen years, most indigenous churches are locally pastored, managed, taught, self-supporting and evangelizing. The process can be substantially faster if

13464-553: The next decades, furthering the divide between Roman and Persian Christianity. In 484 the Metropolitan of Nisibis, Barsauma , convened the Synod of Beth Lapat where he publicly accepted Nestorius' mentor, Theodore of Mopsuestia , as a spiritual authority. In 489, when the School of Edessa in Mesopotamia was closed by Byzantine Emperor Zeno for its Nestorian teachings, the school relocated to its original home of Nisibis, becoming again

13596-524: The next two centuries. One of the main goals of the Christopher Columbus expedition financed by Queen Isabella of Spain was to spread Christianity. During the Age of Discovery , Spain and Portugal established many missions in their American and Asian colonies. The most active orders were the Jesuits , Augustinians , Franciscans and Dominicans . The Portuguese sent missions into Africa. These are some of

13728-620: The office of Catholicos lay vacant nearly 20 years (346–363). In 363, under the terms of a peace treaty, Nisibis was ceded to the Persians, causing Ephrem the Syrian , accompanied by a number of teachers, to leave the School of Nisibis for Edessa still in Roman territory. The church grew considerably during the Sasanian period, but the pressure of persecution led the Catholicos, Dadisho I, in 424 to convene

13860-593: The papacy with the Antichrist . In the centuries that followed, Protestant churches began sending out missionaries in increasing numbers, spreading the proclamation of the Christian message to previously unreached people . In North America, missionaries to the Native Americans included Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), the well-known preacher of the Great Awakening (c. 1731–1755), who in his later years retired from

13992-463: The pattern of the first century Apostles. The process of forming disciples is necessarily social. "Church" should be understood in the widest sense, as a body of believers of Christ rather than simply a building. In this view, even those who are already culturally Christian must be "evangelized". Church planting by cross-cultural missionaries leads to the establishment of self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating communities of believers. This

14124-520: The primacy of his see over the other Mesopotamian and Persian bishoprics which were grouped together under the Catholicate of Seleucia-Ctesiphon; Papa took the title of Catholicos , or universal leader. This position received an additional title in 410, becoming Catholicos and Patriarch of the East . These early Christian communities in Mesopotamia, Elam, and Fars were reinforced in the 4th and 5th centuries by large-scale deportations of Christians from

14256-525: The provision of help has always been closely tied to evangelization efforts. The earliest Christian mission, the Great Commission and Dispersion of the Apostles , was active within Second Temple Judaism . Whether a Jewish proselytism existed or not that would have served as a model for the early Christians is unclear; see Circumcision controversy in early Christianity#Background for details. Soon,

14388-559: The region, which forbade any type of depictions of Saints and biblical prophets . As such, the Church was forced to get rid of icons. There is both literary and archaeological evidence for the presence of images in the church. Writing in 1248 from Samarkand , an Armenian official records visiting a local church and seeing an image of Christ and the Magi. John of Cora ( Giovanni di Cori ), Latin bishop of Sultaniya in Persia, writing about 1330 of

14520-508: The region. The Saint Thomas Christians traditionally credit the mission of Thomas of Cana , a Nestorian from the Middle East, with the further expansion of their community. From at least the early 4th century, the Patriarch of the Church of the East provided the Saint Thomas Christians with clergy, holy texts, and ecclesiastical infrastructure. And around 650 Patriarch Ishoyahb III solidified

14652-467: The same status, the church was restricted within the Caliphate, but also given a degree of protection. In order to resist the growing competition from Muslim courts, patriarchs and bishops of the Church of the East developed canon law and adapted the procedures used in the episcopal courts. Nestorians were not permitted to proselytise or attempt to convert Muslims, but their missionaries were otherwise given

14784-546: The sea, was used for farming. However, in 2005 two large developments, the Oubaai Golf Estate and Le Grande Golf Estate have taken the best of this Common land and all the sea frontage for upmarket development. Pacaltsdorp community mostly follow the Christian faith; which coincide with its missionary history. Sports activities such as rugby (Pacaltsdorp Evergreens – est. 1932), cricket (Pacaltsdorp Cricket Club), netball (Pacaltsdorp Netball Club) and others are popular within

14916-532: The standard by the early 5th century. It was often said in the 19th century that the Church of the East was opposed to religious images of any kind. The cult of the image was never as strong in the Syriac Churches as it was in the Byzantine Church , but they were indeed present in the tradition of the Church of the East. Opposition to religious images eventually became the norm due to the rise of Islam in

15048-402: The standard designation for the ancient oriental church which in the past called itself 'The Church of the East', but which today prefers a fuller title 'The Assyrian Church of the East'. Such a designation is not only discourteous to modern members of this venerable church, but also − as this paper aims to show − both inappropriate and misleading". At the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 410,

15180-433: The state authorities in the Roman Empire suppressed Nestorianism, a reason for Christians under Persian rule to favour it and so allay suspicion that their loyalty lay with the hostile Christian-ruled empire. It was in the aftermath of the slightly later Council of Chalcedon (451), that the Church of the East formulated a distinctive theology. The first such formulation was adopted at the Synod of Beth Lapat in 484. This

15312-410: The throne of the Sasanian Empire . The policies of the Sasanian Empire, which encouraged syncretic forms of Christianity, greatly influenced the Church of the East. The early Church had branches that took inspiration from Neo-Platonism, other Near Eastern religions like Judaism , and other forms of Christianity. In 410, the Synod of Seleucia-Ctesiphon , held at the Sasanian capital, allowed

15444-416: The time of the Parthian Empire , the Church of the East developed its own unique form of Christian theology and liturgy . During the early modern period , a series of schisms gave rise to rival patriarchates , sometimes two, sometimes three. In the latter half of the 20th century, the traditionalist patriarchate of the church underwent a split into two rival patriarchates, namely the Assyrian Church of

15576-515: The title Theotokos "God-bearer, Mother of God" was taken as evidence that he believed two separate persons (as opposed to two united natures) to be present within Christ. The Sasanian Emperor, hostile to the Byzantines, saw the opportunity to ensure the loyalty of his Christian subjects and lent support to the Nestorian Schism . The Emperor took steps to cement the primacy of the Nestorian party within

15708-495: The title denied Christ's full humanity. He argued that Jesus had two loosely joined natures, the divine Logos and the human Jesus, and proposed Christotokos (literally, "Bearer of the Christ") as a more suitable alternative title. His statements drew criticism from other prominent churchmen, particularly from Cyril , Patriarch of Alexandria , who had a leading part in the Council of Ephesus of 431, which condemned Nestorius for heresy and deposed him as Patriarch. After 431,

15840-491: The traditional East Syrian theology, as a term of pride by many of its defenders [...] and as a neutral and convenient descriptive term by others. Nowadays it is generally felt that the term carries a stigma". Sebastian P. Brock says: "The association between the Church of the East and Nestorius is of a very tenuous nature, and to continue to call that church 'Nestorian' is, from a historical point of view, totally misleading and incorrect – quite apart from being highly offensive and

15972-715: The very public life of his early career. He became a missionary to the Housatonic Native Americans (1751) and a staunch advocate for them against cultural imperialism . As European culture has been established in the midst of indigenous peoples, the cultural distance between Christians of differing cultures has been difficult to overcome. One early solution was the creation of segregated "praying towns" of Christian natives. This pattern of grudging acceptance of converts played out again later in Hawaii when Congregational missionaries from New England went there and converted

16104-771: The whole work was probably done by the second century. Most of the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament are found in the Syriac, and the Wisdom of Sirach is held to have been translated from the Hebrew and not from the Septuagint . The New Testament of the Peshitta, which originally excluded certain disputed books ( Second Epistle of Peter , Second Epistle of John , Third Epistle of John , Epistle of Jude , Book of Revelation ), had become

16236-690: The world, including in what became known as "the Middle East". Before the American Revolution , British Anglican and Methodist missionaries were active in the Thirteen Colonies . The Methodists, led by George Whitefield , were the most successful and after the Revolution an entirely distinct American Methodist denomination emerged that became the largest Protestant denomination in the United States . A major problem for British colonial officials

16368-575: Was a member of the Church of East, but later joined the miaphysite church of Antioch. Drawing inspiration from Theodore of Mopsuestia , Babai the Great (551−628) expounded, especially in his Book of Union , what became the normative Christology of the Church of the East. He affirmed that the two qnome (a Syriac term, plural of qnoma , not corresponding precisely to Greek φύσις or οὐσία or ὑπόστασις) of Christ are unmixed but eternally united in his single parsopa (from Greek πρόσωπον prosopon "mask, character, person"). As happened also with

16500-616: Was active in Wales. During the Middle Ages , Ramon Llull advanced the concept of preaching to Muslims and converting them to Christianity by means of non-violent argument. A vision for large-scale mission to Muslims would die with him, not to be revived until the 19th century. Additional events can be found at the timeline of Christian missions . During the Middle Ages, Christian monasteries and missionaries such as Saint Patrick , and Adalbert of Prague propagated learning and religion beyond

16632-641: Was carried out by members of religious orders . Monasteries followed disciplines and supported missions, libraries, and practical research, all of which were perceived as works to reduce human misery and suffering and glorify the Christian God. For example, Nestorian communities evangelized parts of Central Asia, as well as Tibet, China, and India. Cistercians evangelized much of Northern Europe , as well as developing most of European agriculture's classic techniques. St Patrick evangelized many in Ireland. St David

16764-650: Was developed further in the early seventh century, when in an at first successful war against the Byzantine Empire the Sasanid Persian Empire incorporated broad territories populated by West Syrians, many of whom were supporters of the Miaphysite theology of Oriental Orthodoxy which its opponents term "Monophysitism" ( Eutychianism ), the theological view most opposed to Nestorianism. They received support from Khosrow II , influenced by his wife Shirin . Shirin

16896-654: Was of the Saint Thomas Christians of the Malabar Coast in India , who alone escaped the destruction of the church by Timur at the end of the 14th century, and the majority of whom today constitute the largest group who now use the liturgy of the Church of the East , with around 4 million followers in their homeland, in spite of the 17th-century defection to the West Syriac Rite of the Syriac Orthodox Church . The St Thomas Christians were believed by tradition to have been converted by St Thomas, and were in communion with

17028-446: Was pioneered by men like Dr G. D. James of Singapore , Rev Theodore Williams of India and Dr David Cho of Korea . The "two thirds missions movement" as it is referred to, is today a major force in missions. Often, missionaries provide welfare and health services, as a good deed or to make friends with the locals. Thousands of schools, orphanages, and hospitals have been established by missions. One service provided by missionaries

17160-539: Was the Each one, teach one literacy program begun by Dr. Frank Laubach in the Philippines in 1935. The program has since spread around the world and brought literacy to the least enabled members of many societies. During this period missionaries, especially evangelical and Pentecostal missionaries, witnessed a substantial increase in the number of conversions of Muslims to Christianity. In an interview published in 2013

17292-460: Was the demand of the Church of England to set up an American bishop; this was strongly opposed by most of the Americans colonists, as it had never happened before. Colonial officials increasingly took a neutral position on religious matters, even in those colonies such as Virginia where the Church of England was officially established, but in practice controlled by laymen in the local vestries. After

17424-751: Was then the Ottoman Empire in the first half of the 19th Century. This eventually let to the creation of what are today the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and the see of the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem . Furthermore, it was during this time that the Christian and Missionary Alliance started their missionary activity in Jerusalem. Thomas Coke (1747–1814), the first bishop of

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