Worship in the East Syrian Churches: Nestorian, Chaldean, and Malabar

The East Syrian Christians engaged in widespread missionary activity across the Asian continent, but the rise of Islam reduced their communities to small remnants. The liturgy of these churches is doxological in character, filled with expressions of praise and emphasizing the fulfillment of Christian hope in the kingdom of heaven.

Antioch was the original center of Syrian Christianity, with a second center developing by the end of the second century in Edessa. Edessa itself became divided by early Christological disputes between Monophysites (one person, one nature in Christ) and Nestorians (two persons, two natures in Christ), and soon political pressure drove the Nestorians further east into the Persian Empire.

The Churches

The Nestorian church was centered at Nisibis and organized as a distinct church in the fourth century by the bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. Because it developed outside of the Roman Empire, it did so with a large measure of independence from what it called “the churches of the West” (i.e., everything to the west of itself). The Nestorian church preserves a very primitive layer of liturgical evolution.

These East Syrian Christians adhered to the decrees of Nicea, but not to those of Ephesus or Chalcedon, and eventually they adopted Theodore of Mopsuestia (d. a.d. 428), who was condemned by the Chalcedonian churches, as their champion theologian. From the fourth to the seventh centuries they engaged in great missionary activity throughout the East. The rise of Islam, however, put a stop to their missionary expansion, cut the mission territories (such as the Malabar church) off from the mother church, and left the Nestorian church but a remnant community living peaceably, if under severe restrictions, among the Muslims. Since the sixteenth century, some have been united to the church of Rome, these being the Catholic Chaldeans, while others remain non-Chalcedonian Nestorians.

The Malabar church, also called St. Thomas Christians because they claim Thomas the apostle as their link to the apostolic church, came under the missionary influence of the Persian Nestorians until they were cut off from them by the advance of Islam. The St. Thomas Christians were rediscovered in the sixteenth century by Portuguese missionaries, who tried unsuccessfully to impose the Latin liturgy upon them. These missionaries did succeed, however, in heavily Latinizing the Malabar liturgy, a deed which has only recently been undone. Liturgical revisions begun in 1962 have restored the Malabar Eucharist to its Syro-Chaldean form and translated it from Syriac into modern Malayalam.

The liturgy of the Nestorian, Chaldean, and Malabar churches is essentially the same. The primary anaphora (eucharistic prayer) is that of Sts. Addai and Mari, which is unique in that no words of institution are to be found in it. These words are inserted in the text by the Catholic Chaldeans and Malabarese. Two other prayers are also found in the tradition, one attributed to Nestorius and one to Theodore of Mopsuestia, though these are used only occasionally by the Nestorians and Chaldeans, and not at all by the Malabar church. These prayers do contain the institution narrative in its proper place, which makes its absence from the Addai-Mari text, in spite of great efforts to prove otherwise, most probably a simple omission rather than a reasoned deletion.

The text cited to examine the East Syrian liturgical tradition as it lives today is in the revised text of the Syro-Malabar church (Biblical, Catechetical and Liturgical Centre, Bangalore, Celebration of the Eucharist According to the Syro-Malabar Rite [1973]). Differences between this and the Chaldean liturgy are noted. The major differences between the Chaldean and Nestorian liturgies are the saints who are called upon in the prayers and, of course, the insertion of the institution narrative in the Addai-Mari text.

The Liturgy

Introductory Rites. The introductory rites of the liturgy are remnants of a monastic office. They consist of an abbreviated doxology (“Glory to God in the highest and to all on earth, peace and hope forever”), the Lord’s Prayer, a variable psalm, and a prayer of incense, which concludes with the lakhoumara, a fourth-century prayer of praise to Christ the Lord. The gifts are prepared in the Chaldean rite simply, and before the liturgy begins; in the Malabar rite the offerings are prepared during the pre-anaphora after the celebrants have come to the altar. In an earlier version of both rites, the gifts were prepared more formally between the lakhoumara and the trisagion.

Liturgy of the Word. The liturgy of the Word begins with the trisagion (“Holy God, holy strong one, holy and immortal, have mercy on us”) and consists of two (Malabar) or four (Chaldean) readings. A homily, prayer of the faithful (Malabar), and creed conclude this part of the liturgy. An earlier version of both rites concluded with an imposition of hands and blessing of the people, and probably the dismissal of catechumens as well.

Pre-anaphora. The pre-anaphora includes the “access to the altar” by the celebrant(s), transfer of the gifts (if prepared elsewhere) or their presentation and preparation.

Anaphora. The anaphora or Qurbana of the Apostles (Addai and Mari) follows. The anaphora includes more than the eucharistic prayer alone. It begins with a prayer of gratitude on the part of the ministers (“ … through the multitude of your mercies, you have made us worthy to be ministers of the sacred mysteries of the body and blood of your Christ … ”), the greeting of peace, the unveiling of the gifts (the veil is folded and placed around the gifts to represent the sepulcher of Christ), and the incensing of the gifts. After the customary dialogue, the eucharistic prayer gives thanks to God for creation, leads into the “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and continues in thanksgiving for the incarnation and redemption. At this point the narrative of institution is inserted.

There follows the prayer of remembrance (anamnēsis), prayers of intercession (it is characteristic of the East Syrian tradition to locate the intercessions here), the invocation of the Spirit (epiklēsis), and the concluding doxology.

Post-anaphora. At the conclusion of the anaphora, priest and people proclaim faith in the living and life-giving bread of heaven. The bread is broken and signed with the precious blood. The people are invited to “approach the mysteries of the precious body and blood of our Savior” with an invitation as well to “turn away from our faults.” A litany prayer for forgiveness and the Lord’s Prayer (a second time) lead into the distribution of Communion to all. This is followed by a brief thanksgiving prayer, blessing, and dismissal.

Theology and Spirit

The overall tone of the Syro-Chaldean liturgy is one of glory and praise to God. This doxological note is set at the very beginning with the “Glory to God” and the Lord’s Prayer. It continues in the prayer that concludes the psalm (“For all the helps and graces you have given us, for which we cannot thank you enough, we will praise and glorify you unceasingly in your triumphant church forever”) and in the lakhoumara (“You, Jesus Christ, we glorify; you are the one who raise our bodies, and you are the savior of our souls”). After the trisagion, and before the first reading, the presiding priest prays, “that love and hope may grow in us, that we may find salvation, and praise you forever.” Before the gospel: “O Christ, light of the world and life of all, glory forever to the eternal Mercy that sent you to us.” In coming to the altar, the priests pray: “We give you thanks, our Father, Lord of heaven and earth, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for though we are sinners, you have made us worthy by your grace to offer you these holy, glorious, life-giving and divine mysteries … ” A prayer of praise introduces the greeting of peace (“We offer you praise and honor, worship and thanksgiving now and always and forever”) and again the fraction rite (“Glory be to your name, O Lord Jesus Christ, and worship to your Majesty forever”). Finally, the concluding prayers and blessing continue this theme to the end: “It is our duty, O Lord, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to offer always to your most blessed Trinity praise and honor, worship and perpetual thanksgiving … ” and “Let us sing the praises of Christ who has nourished us with his body and blood.”

The liturgy is heavily Christocentric. While many of the prayers are addressed to the triune God or simply to the Father, many more are addressed directly to Christ himself. Even within the anaphora, a prayer most often addressed exclusively to the Father, the section on redemption is addressed to Christ.

The East Syrian liturgy is a remembrance that looks forward to the eschaton rather than to the past (the Lord’s Supper) or present (this eucharistic offering or the heavenly mysteries as they are now being enacted). This is captured most forcefully in the epiklēsis of the Addai-Mari anaphora; “let your Holy Spirit come and rest upon this oblation of your servants; may he bless it and sanctify it that it may be unto the pardon of our offenses and forgiveness of our sins, and for the hope of resurrection and for the new life with the just in the kingdom of heaven.”

Finally, the East Syrian liturgy exhibits a theological note derived from Theodore of Mopsuestia who considered the bread and wine, once placed upon the altar and before the invocation of the Spirit, to represent Christ in the tomb, with the epiklēsis itself signifying the Resurrection. Once the gifts are prepared, the veil is folded around them “as a sepulcher” and is not removed until after the epiklēsis.

The Addai-Mari anaphora has several distinctive marks. In addition to being in part addressed to Christ, the intercessions are placed between the anamnēsis and epiklēsis, and therefore form part of the offering itself. The anamnēsis is untypical in that, while it does commemorate the “passion, death, burial and resurrection” (no mention is made in the anamnēsis of the future coming of Christ), it does not lead into the offering of the gifts, but only to the more general offering of “praise and honor, worship and thanksgiving.” Finally, the institution narrative, where it is inserted by the Catholic Chaldeans and Malabarese, is in fact a somewhat awkward fit; most probably the original text served as a perfectly adequate eucharistic prayer without it. If so, it bears witness to a primitive strain of eucharistic understanding that was lost to other liturgical traditions.