The sender has written an open letter addressed to both dioceses of the Syriac Orthodox Church regarding the Aramaic language.
Every year in March, annual meetings are held for the two dioceses of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Sweden. On this occasion, I am addressing both the religious and secular leadership of the dioceses to present the following.
From a church historical perspective, the Syriac/Aramaic Church belongs to the oldest branches of Christianity. As early as the 3rd century A.D., Christianity had spread and reached all the Syriac regions of ancient Syria (the Middle East). It is also well known that the Aramaic language became the sole dominant liturgical language in this church. There is extensive documented church literature in Aramaic from as early as the 2nd century A.D. until today, covering both ecclesiastical and secular literature.
The use of Aramaic as a liturgical language has been crucial for its preservation and development and is probably one of the main reasons why the church has survived to this day. From the 14th century onwards, the Aramaic language began to weaken, and its survival has been entirely dependent on the church’s continued use of it as a liturgical language. Without this use, the language would most likely have gone extinct several hundred years ago.
Today, as the Syriac/Aramaic people are spread across the entire world and far from their ancestral homelands, the survival of the Aramaic language is in a critical state—if not outright endangered. Aramaic is currently ranked among the top 10 most endangered languages. This means that the risk of the language dying out is very high. Therefore, we as a people and as a church must act and do more than what is being done today.
Relying on sporadic teaching here and there in different areas is not enough to achieve unity and a distinctive structure for the preservation and development of the language. The Syriac people are also not sufficiently organized in secular organizations that could take responsibility for preserving and developing the language. We are far from having our own nation, and the international community has not shown any interest in helping to preserve the language.
Thus, once again, the church’s power is needed to revive, preserve, and develop the Aramaic language and ensure it is anchored among the Syriac people.
What is the current situation regarding the use of Aramaic in our churches as a liturgical language?
Unfortunately, the situation is such that our churches are using other languages more than Aramaic (Syriac), and the increase and use of Arabic, in particular, is quite concerning. The Syriac churches are serving the Arabic language more than their own, even though there are more than 300 million people who already speak and preserve Arabic.
This has nothing to do with people not understanding Aramaic or with excluding those who do not speak Aramaic from participating in services.
No, this is about the church needing to take care of its own house and actively contribute to preserving the Aramaic language so that the church’s millennia-long literary and ecclesiastical history is not buried and lost.
No other church has produced as much religious (and secular) literature as the Syriac Church during its golden age from the 3rd to the 14th centuries A.D. This entire treasure risks being forgotten and lost along with the language because no one will be able to read or speak it.
Therefore, drastic measures are needed now to stop this negative spiral in the development of the Aramaic language within the Syriac Orthodox Church.
The Syriac churches in Sweden can become the role model needed for other Syriac churches to dare and be able to follow. By using modern technology, foreign languages can be incorporated into church settings without significantly affecting the use of Aramaic as the liturgical language.
The entire liturgy is more or less translated into various languages, including Swedish, English, and Arabic. By using these translations and printing a sufficient number of liturgical books in different languages, people can follow the liturgy through these books or via screens inside the church. In this way, churchgoers listen to the Aramaic language while simultaneously following the translation.
Additionally, the sermon itself can be delivered in different languages so that the congregation understands the message shared during the service.
What is crucial in this context is to make it clear that all liturgy (what the priest and deacons say) should be conducted in Aramaic. This increases the possibility of both sparking interest in the language and keeping it alive within the church for a long time to come.
Another way to strengthen the language is for the priest to teach the congregation a new word every Sunday and explain its meaning.
A decision in this direction would be of great importance for the survival of the Aramaic language, both here in Sweden and worldwide. Such a decision would also be historic and could pave the way for coordination and an upcoming decision in the Synod, so that all our churches worldwide move in the same direction.
Based on the brief historical background and arguments presented above, I propose that the two dioceses in Sweden decide as follows:
Proposed decisions:
- That the bishops and diocesan boards formally approve making Aramaic the sole liturgical language during church services in the diocesan churches,
- That local church boards are tasked with actively working to implement the adopted decision as stated above,
- That the bishops and diocesan boards jointly present the intentions of this proposal to the upcoming Synod for a unified decision that would apply to all Syriac Orthodox churches worldwide.
Gabriel Marawgeh, former Chairman of SUA (currently WCA)
This is an opinion piece; all views are the author’s own.