← The Assyrian Church of the East: the dossier
Born David Royel in Chicago, 1975 — the 122nd holder of the office and the first Western-born head in the church's history . Doctorate from the Pontifical Oriental Institute; founded the church's only active monastery , in California; now governs from Erbil . Reigning · verified 07-27
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsThe field file →
The church's number two , and shepherd of what may be its strongest diaspora anywhere . Bishop in Australia since 1985 , metropolitan since 2008; built the schools and the Nisibis theological college. Awarded the Order of Australia (AM) in 2007. Forty years in one see.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsHolds the hardest see in the church — the Syrian communities through civil war, jihadist advance, and the Khabur river abductions. A metropolitan whose diocese has been a war zone for most of his tenure.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsGoverns the Chaldean Syrian Church of Thrissur in Kerala — the surviving Indian limb of the old Saint Thomas connection, and the last living piece of the church's ancient eastern reach. The only metropolitan whose flock never lived under the Ottomans.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsThe church's ecumenical face . In February 2026 he met Patriarch Bartholomew in Constantinople; in March 2026 he visited Sebastian Brock at Oxford. A church of 400,000 conducts the diplomacy of a much larger one, and he is the man doing it. Active 2026 · verified 07-27
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsKeeper of the synod's record and process — the office Mar Awa III himself held before his election. In a hierarchy of eleven, the man who writes the minutes is not a clerk.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsThe frontline see. His diocese is the ancient heartland — the Nineveh Plains , emptied by ISIS in 2014, now under militia pressure with property restitution unresolved. Whether this church survives in the land of its birth is decided in his territory, not in Erbil.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsHolds the capital — and the see that sits closest to the Ancient Church of the East , whose strength is in Baghdad and Kirkuk. The 1968 breach is a local, parish-by-parish fact in his diocese. ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-08: The Holy Synod list of May 2024 names Elia Tamras as Bishop of Baghdad, Ukraine and Georgia, not Mar Elia Isaac. Confirm with the church before the card is re-dealt.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · CHANGEDShepherd of the Chicago communities — for eighty years the de facto capital of this church , where the patriarchate sat in exile and where the present patriarch was born and ordained deacon.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsHolds the Urmia inheritance — the Iranian plain that was one of the church's great centres until 1915, and a diocese now maintained under the Islamic Republic. The smallest and most exposed flock in the synod. ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-08: Listed as Bishop of Iran (Narsai Benyamin); Georgia now sits with the Baghdad see (Elia Tamras: Baghdad, Ukraine and Georgia). The card's 'Iran, Armenia & Georgia' title needs checking.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · CHANGEDShepherd of the European refugee generation — the Sweden and Germany communities built by those who left Iraq after 1991, 2003 and 2014. The newest of the church's homelands, and the one growing fastest.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsBorn Amel Shamoon Nona, 1 Nov 1967 . Archbishop of Mosul 2010–2015 — the bishop who evacuated the city ahead of ISIS — then Archbishop of Sydney, and now head of the larger, Rome-attached half of this same people . Elected 12 April 2026 , installed 29 May 2026 . Like Mar Awa III, sent home from the diaspora. New in 2026 · verified 07-27
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsThe rival throne . Formerly Metropolitan of Australia and New Zealand for the Ancient Church; elected patriarch in 2022 — immediately after reunification talks in Chicago failed , an election that put the brakes on reunion by filling the seat a merger would have had to vacate. Identical doctrine; divided over the calendar since 1968. ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-08: He does not hold the throne. Elected June 2022, he abdicated in August 2022; the synod elected Mar Gewargis Younan on 12 November 2022. The card should be re-dealt to the sitting patriarch.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · CHANGEDHead of the main Assyrian political party (founded 1979, Baghdad) and its militia wing, the Nineveh Plain Protection Units . The ADM currently holds zero seats in Iraq's 329-seat parliament and one in the Kurdistan Region's — the measure of how far this people's political weight has fallen.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsBorn 24 February 1938 ; the foremost Syriacist of the age and Fellow of the British Academy. Taught at Oxford 1974–2003, emeritus since. Verified still working and still receiving visitors at 88 — Mar Awraham Youkhanis called on him on 16 March 2026 to discuss the Syriac inheritance. More of this church's own tradition has been made legible by this one Englishman than by any institution it possesses. Verified alive 03-2026
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Dossier XVI · The Assyrian Church of the East · dealt 2026-07-27 · every card checked online the same day.