[Editor's Note:

May 29, 2016 is the 2nd enthronement anniversary of HH Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and All The East, The Supreme Head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church. To celebrate this occasion, we are publishing an article penned by Dr. Babu Paul at the time of the election of then Karim Thirumeni to Patriarch. Barekmor.]

Wannabe Stylite, Chosen Patriarch

By: Bar Eto briro Dr. Daniel Babu Paul IAS

That Archbishop Cyril of New York is the new Patriarch is a matter of great satisfaction. I remember him as a young sarvoye and monk in 1980s. Now it looks as though the Holy Spirit, through the visible personality of our beloved Moran Zakka, was grooming "Karim Thirumeni" as we Keralites know him to succeed the beloved Zakka Bawa on the Petrine Throne.

34 years ago, we had our first western educated Patriarch. And now 34 years later the person whom he had hand-picked to communicate with the American youth of the the new century is succeeding him. Praise The Lord.

Patriarch Zakka had carefully groomed Mar Aprem II, as he would be known soon and would be remembered in every Holy Quorbono all over the world after May 29, to be his worthy successor. Look at his formation. Coptic, and Roman Catholic, that too of the conservative Irish variety! The former entrenches in ancient pre Chalcedonian positions and the latter in the basic post Vatican spirit of mutual respect, and understanding the unity in the unique Christological expressions specific to the two cultures that nurtured the faith fifteen centuries ago. The late Yacoub III and the late Paul VI had declared in 1977 that they shared the same faith. And in 1984 the late Zakka I and the late Blessed John Paul II followed that up to sign a concord on economic communion. I may recall incidentally that I had the good fortune to represent Indian laity at that ecumenical summit where the east met the west fruitfully. That incidentally shows also the importance the late Patriarch gave laity, the late John Glore from the west and I from India to stand with the hierarchs at an epic historical moment.

Back to Karim. Syedna Karim served Moran Zakka as his First Secretary, just as the latter had served Patriarch Aprem, the great and legendary Patriarch who ushered in the modern age in our church through his enlightened reign of a quarter century, and later Patriarch Yacoub, the first Patriarch of Antioch who had become a "pseudo Indian" with his long years spent in this country. A famous President of the Philippines titled his autobiography, "I Walked With Heroes". That applies to Archbishop Karim as much as it applied to the late Patriarch. Both of these great men walked with heroes before being elected to the Throne.

While in Beirut for the funeral of my beloved Moran, I had a light chat with Syedna Karim. I told him that back in India we had put him in the list of the "Papabili"; but we in India would like the Throne to remain in Asia, within a stone shot of the ancient city of Antioch. His response was immediate, "The Throne shall not be shifted." And emboldened by his mood I ventured to ask, "Are you a candidate, Syedna?" Pat came the reply, all smiles hiding all seriousness, " In this election there are no candidates, Bar Eto Briro. The Holy Spirit chooses and we bow our heads in obedience".

This brief conversation speaks volumes. As most of us know, the Election Synod begins with prayers invoking the Holy Spirit, drawn from the Third Part of the prayers on the Feast of Pentecost. And there is none proposed, none seconded. When Zakka was elected it was unanimous. That there were other names that could come up 34 years later bears testimony to the great farsightedness of the late Patriarch who arrayed a whole gallery of scholarly and modern prelates to lead the church in the new millennium. I recall another conversation now. I had once ventured to ask the late Moran which of the two, Cicek or Ibrahim, would succeed him. His Holiness replied, "If I live long enough to push that election into the next century there would be another half a dozen eligible ones to choose from." That was some time in 1985. Yes, if they had more than one name to consider this time it only shows that the church is vibrant and that the Patriarch who led the church for 34 years had been a successful Patriarch who presided over a synod of "patriachables".

Aprem I was a great Patriarch by all accounts. He took part in the international dialogues between the World Wars. He was the first Oriental scholar to teach in a western university. He was a researcher par excellence as his book 'the Scattered Pearls' would testify. He cared for the core without being distracted by the frills. When the Saint of Alwaye wrote to him asking whether there was any prescribed prayer for laymen, his answer was cryptic: refer to Canon ABC and Eticon XYZ. Those statutes say that the Lord's Prayer alone is obligatory for the layman! As Aprem II ascends the Throne, I see a worthy successor to the great Aprem I.

One thing I noticed in this Patriarch-elect is his communication skills. Whenever I visited the United States in the recent past I have been fortunate to interact with him. He has clear views on all things connected with the church. And he is able to articulate those views, but with great discernment. That endears him to all, and in particular to the youth.

While the late Patriarch was very modern for his generation, Mar Aprem II is going to be the first Patriarch of Antioch who is computer savvy and who will handle his own emails. Popes were often prisoners of the Curia, and therefore when Francis began making his own phone calls and attending personally to emails the world recognized that as a step to sanitize Vatican by introducing a higher degree of transparency. All persons in high places should know that the Secretaries are potential filterers of all inputs. That Aprem II will insist on being his own filter is a matter of great relief and satisfaction.

On matters related to Malankara, he shares the same perspective that the late Patriarch held. Patriarch Zakka was not interested in appointing acolytes and sextons in Malankara parishes. No Patriarch in the past was, and no Patriarch in the future would be. Patriarchs interfere only by invitation, as history shows. Patros IV came because Mar Dionysius V needed his support to meet the challenge posed by Mar Athanasius. Patriarch Abdullah came because the Trustees here could not see eye to eye. Patriarch Elias III came to heal that breach. Patriarch Yacoub came as the Prince of Peace for the enthronement Mar Augen. Patriarch Zakka came holding the olive branch whenever he came.

Zakka believed that the problem was a problem of Malankara, (created) by Malankara, for Malankara (if one may imitate Revd. Theodore Parker whose 1850 definition of democracy was quoted by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address in 1863 and is widely, though wrongly, attributed to the President and not the original abolitionist preacher) and ought therefore to be solved there. He is on record accepting the Supreme Court verdict. It is the then Kottayam leadership that limited that verdict to what suited them. It is good to see the winds of change beginning to blow on the other side, but the burden cannot be cast on the Holy Father. Hope for the best, and pray that the earthly concerns do not inhibit heavenly objectives.

As Pope Francis reminded the Catholics, unless there is Christ around the Vicar of Christ has no relevance. The manifesto has to be the Sermon on the Mount, not the legal scripts crafted at Kottayam or Puthenkuris. With his erudition Aprem II would know that the mission of the church in India is to be the Light of the World and the Salt of the Earth. India has a long and rich spiritual tradition and philosophical pinnacles and the Christians in this country are called upon to link the mission of Christ with the vision of India. That is what brought Bede Griffiths to this land. And Zakka recognized that when he quoted "asatomasatgamaya" at Maramon in 1982.

There is a story that the late Moran cherished ever since I quoted that from Guareschi. There were a hundred people in a dark room. Each had a tiny lamp in hand, but none knew how to light it. Then somehow one person managed to light the lamp. In that light they discovered that they were a hundred people and together they had hundred lamps. Slowly all the hundred lamps were lit. And the room was bright with light. From the hazy view of the first lamp it became the total clear view. One idea, a hundred lamps. Unfortunately each man thought that the beauty of the objects he saw around him was due to the light of his small lamp. Then one person ventured outside. He could see around him, just about. Not of any great use in the totality of darkness. Some remained with others but began to worship their own small lamps, ignoring the rest. Slowly they all ventured in a hundred directions. The great light had broken up into a hundred small flames.

Guereschi's Crucifix continued: "... the hundred lamps must come together again in order to find the true light. Today men wander mistrustfully about, each one in the light of his own lamp, with an area of melancholy darkness all around him, clinging to the slightest detail of whatever object he can illuminate by himself. And so I say that ideas do not exist; there is only one Idea, one Truth with a hundred facets. Ideas are neither finite nor finished,because there is only this one and eternal Idea. But men must join their fellows again like those in the enormous room."

It is my earnest hope and sincere prayer that Aprem II would, like his illustrious predecessor, see the greatness of the unique Light and decline to be distracted by the small flames.

One last point is the shepherding of the flock in diaspora. Archbishop Karim has been part of it both as a student and as a shepherd. However an added dimension is the West Asia situation. It has nothing to do with Christians or their action or inaction. Yet the Christians are at the receiving end. Remember the Corepiscopa, Iskander, who chose to die rather than abandon his faith in Jesus ( In the Roman Catholic Church he would have been canonized). Remember Syedna Patros Silwanos who had to abandon his cathedral in Homs. Remember above all my dear friend and spiritual father Syedna Metran Ibrahim who may or may not be alive now. Plus the faithful who had to flee Iraq or continue to suffer there, like the Turkish Christians of yesteryears. Their plight would pose a major challenge to the Holy Father, Aprem II. This is where one is reminded of his illustrious predecessor Aprem I who intervened on behalf of the persecuted and the oppressed during the inter war years of the last century.

Life takes us all in different directions. On September 2, 1994 Mar Gregorios, the Archbishop of Aleppo, told William Dalrymple that he was planning to rebuild Tel Ada, the monastery that the young Symeon Stylites, Semavoon Destoone for us, joined when he left home. He had bought from its then owner, a farmer, the land with the ruins and had obtained necessary approvals from Government to rebuild. He was going to have a stylite atop the pillar in the middle of an open octagon, itself part of a church based on St. Symeon's church at Qala't Semaan. The volunteer that the Archbishop had ready to live as a stylite was finishing his doctoral thesis at Meynooth in Ireland. His name was, said the Archbishop, Fr. Ephrem Karim. "When he has a doctorate he wishes to mount a pillar", continued Mar Gregorios. Dalrymple could not believe that a young priest would choose to live as a stylite, but the Metropolitan was sure that Fr. Karim would bridge the gap of centuries and reinvent the Syriac spirituality, if necessary by introducing a relay system of stylites who take turns.

Destiny had other designs and before he could mount the pillar in Tel Ada Fr. Karim became Metropolitan Cyril Karim and had to board the plane to the United States. However as that wannabe stylite ascends the Petrine Throne I tell myself that here comes the man who will bridge centuries. Under him the church would be safe, treasuring the past, nurturing the present and preparing the future. Let us all wish him well. I, for one, have already started remembering him personally in my intercessory prayers as Aprem II, in the place of Zakka I whom I have shifted to the list of the deceased in my prayer list alongside my parents, right at the top.

May the illustrious predecessors Aprem I, who ushered in the modern age, and Zakka I, who stabilized the church and redefined its role in the new century, guide our new Patriarch. May he reign over the church, like Zakka, for many decades. Barekmor.