THRISSUR: The holy synod for electing the 121st Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East (ACOE) will be held on June 2, 2015 at Erbil, Northern Iraq, where the ancient headquarters of the Church was situated, said the Assyrian (Chaldean Syrian) Church officials here on Friday.
Head of the Assyrian Church of the East in India and senior most metropolitan, Aprem was elected as Patriarchal Vicar (Locum Tenens) in an emergency synod held at Minnesota (USA) following the demise of the 120th Catholicos Patriarch Maran Mar Knanaya Dinkha IV in the last week of March.Speaking to reporters, Metropolitan Mar Apem said that 14 prelates will be participating in the election for the new head of the Church, of which three would be metropolitans including him.Mar Yohannan Joseph and Mar Augin Kuriakose besides Mar Aprem from Kerala would be attending the synod to elect the new patriarch, he said.
Normally Assyrians (Syrians) are elected to the chief post of the Church, and except a Chinese prelate, all 120 patriarchs elected before were Assyrians, Mar Aprem said.
However, he did not rule out the possibility of electing an Indian as the global head of the ACOE.