Monday, November 3, 2025

It is the 3rd of November 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A very Happy Monday- it’s November- the clocks are finally where they should be, and perhaps it is cooling down in my part of the world- and maybe yours.

I got a great email from Tyler in Vacaville this week- Vacaville is a city outside Sacramento out here on the Best Coast- interesting tidbit I just learned, and apropos to the question: Vacaville was the home of Jermaine Dye who went to Will C. Wood High School in Vacaville and went on to play for the Chicago White Sox and won the MVP of the 2005 World Series- back when that team was still relevant.  

So, the email was sent with a picture that has been making the rounds- the Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Awa III, met with the Pope, Leo XIV, and as the meeting between the two groups ended at the Vatican, it was Mar Awa who presented Leo with a blue Chicago Cubs Jersey- #14 for Leo. In the picture, the Patriarch has a wide grin, and Pope Leo a bemused grin.

 The New York Times- and other outlets- shamed the Patriarch for not knowing that Leo- born Robert Prevost in Chicago is a huge White Sox fan; a picture exists of him at that 2005 World Series. Except that Mar Awa III knew what he was doing. He was born David Royel in Chicago, attended Loyola University in Chicago, and is a lifelong Cubs fan. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a trolling as much as this one.

Tyler wondered about the history here- more than Chicago sports… so, here goes. Mar Awa III is the Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East. It is part of the so-called “Church of the East” or “Nestorian” Church that officially split in 424. They don’t recognize the Councils after Constantinople in 381, so just two of what we might call the “7 Ecumenical Councils”. They break off before the Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox. In the 16th century, a number of churches in this “Church of the East” reunited with Rome to create the Chaldean Catholic Church.

So, the Assyrian Church of the East is headquartered in modern-day Iraq, and worships in Classical Syriac, an Aramaic dialect. There are around 400,000 in that church body today.

The dialogue that preceded the photograph was significant, but not as earth-shattering as some have suggested. The dialogue between the Assyrian Patriarch and the Pope began recently, with Pope John Paul II and Mar Dinkha IV in 1994. It was there that they affirmed that they confess the faith in the Son of God.

They met again, in 1997 (ironically, in Illinois, the home of David Royel and Robert Prevost), and continued to press for a path to eventual unity.

In 2024, they met for the 16th time for the 30th anniversary of the first meeting. It was then that Pope Francis announced the Catholic Church was adding Isaac of Ninevah (or, the Syrian) to the Roman Martyrology. He is one of the most venerated in that church body.

This meeting, the 17th between the church bodies, and during the 1700th anniversary of the agreed-upon Council of Nicaea, continued the friendly dialogue but didn’t establish full communion. Mar Awa noted that “we are greatly encouraged…in the shared faith which we already enjoy, namely, our profession of the Creed of the Council of Nicaea…. This profession of faith already unites us in the essential doctrines concerning the Holy Trinity and the dual natures of the divinity and humanity of the one Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God.” Pope Leo noted that the unity they are trying to work towards needed to be done in the spirit of Love but also with theological fidelity. The model, he proposed, was one of synodality, working together as church bodies- not by dominion or by Rome absorbing the smaller body.

I’m a fan of church unity based on the basics, and hope- even if they aren’t my churches- that theological unity, especially based on the early church councils, prevails. May they continue to meet- it seems they have plans- and may the Pope come up with as good a troll against the Patriarch. If Cubs fans and White Sox fans can get along…

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Psalm 50 (from an old favorite translation in the RSV):

The Mighty One, God the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth

    from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,

    God shines forth.

Our God comes, he does not keep silence,

    before him is a devouring fire,

    round about him a mighty tempest.

He calls to the heavens above

    and to the earth, that he may judge his people:

“Gather to me my faithful ones,

    who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”

The heavens declare his righteousness,

    for God himself is judge!

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 3rd of November 2025 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man trying to find Assyria on the map… it’s not North of Jordan? He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man just happy the baseball season is over-   Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.