DECEMBER 2009
CN1209_0152
CN1209_0152
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georgia on their minds<br />
Former Soviet republic gets its first Chaldean church<br />
The new Mar Shemmon Bar Sabbae<br />
Assyrian-Chaldean Religious<br />
Cultural Center.<br />
BY JOYCE WISWELL<br />
Chaldeans from around the<br />
world, including Patriarch<br />
Archbishop Emmanuel III<br />
Delly, gathered in Georgia for the October<br />
17 consecration of the nation’s<br />
first Chaldean-Assyrian church.<br />
Fr. Manuel Boji, pastor of Mother<br />
of God Chaldean Catholic Church<br />
in Southfield, made the trip along<br />
with Deacon Yousif Bashi and several<br />
clergy members from California.<br />
The men also visited Russia.<br />
The church, called the Mar Shemmon<br />
Bar Sabbae Assyrian-Chaldean<br />
Religious Cultural Center, is<br />
located in the capital city of Tbilisi.<br />
Construction began in 2002.<br />
Archbishop Delly baptizes a baby.<br />
Children celebrated their First Communion at a mass the day after the grand opening.<br />
Archbishop Delly elevates Fr. Benny<br />
Bethyadgar to Monsignor.<br />
Fr. Boji poses with a man named Israel,<br />
who years ago was exiled to Siberia for his<br />
Catholic faith. He worked in a labor camp<br />
and sustained on just a loaf of bread a day.<br />
The opening festivities included<br />
the dedication mass, baptism and<br />
first communion ceremonies, a performance<br />
by the choir and the ordination<br />
of Fr. Benny Bethyadgar to<br />
Monsignor by Archbishop Delly.<br />
“In 1994, Fr. Benny was like a<br />
missionary, starting with three or<br />
four people talking about Christ,”<br />
said Fr. Boji. During the former<br />
USSR’s reign of communism, religion<br />
was forbidden and most people<br />
were non-believers. While Georgia<br />
has 5,000 Chaldean-speaking residents,<br />
the new church has only 250<br />
members, Fr. Boji said. There is still<br />
much confusion about Christianity,<br />
he said, including the misconception<br />
that Mary was Jesus’ wife.<br />
The Diocese of St. Thomas the<br />
Apostle in the United States funded half<br />
the construction costs, Fr. Boji said.<br />
Patriarch Delly (in red) flanked by (from left), a relative of Fr. Benny; Fr. Benny Bethyadgar; Bishop of Urmia, Iran Mar Thomas<br />
Meram; Mother of God Deacon Yousif Bashi; Patriarch Assistant Fr. Shlaimon Wardoni; Fr. Noel Gorgis of California; an uncle of Fr.<br />
Benny; and Fr. Manuel Boji. The men are standing in front of the building entrance.<br />
30 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>DECEMBER</strong> <strong>2009</strong><br />
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