Going to Church
Chaldean Catholics in Tel Keppe.
Photo courtesy Mar Sharb via flickr
Changing traditions of worship from Tel Keppe to Detroit
By Cal Abbo
The traditions, values, interpretations, and actions of Christians change drastically throughout history. As Chaldeans were likely among the religion’s first converts, our community has followed those changes and is still experiencing them today.
Early Christianity
In its earliest form, Christianity resembled very closely the Jewish practices and customs that immediately preceded it. This meant that it was easy for Jewish people to convert to Christianity and it was also relatively familiar for non-Jews.
Churches in the Middle East, like the one that would become the Chaldean Church, used Aramaic as a liturgical language, which was the language spoken by Jesus himself and his disciples, who went on to Christianize large parts of the world.
Early Christianity also featured a vast array of beliefs that were as diverse as the churches spread around the globe. Some areas of the world focused heavily on individual spirituality rather than the global Church and its unity as a cohesive religion. Theology was heavily debated in the first few centuries as Christians decided what to believe and what was unacceptable, eventually deemed heretical.
Even more varied were the ways that Christians gathered to practice and celebrate their religion. In its most early days, when it was relatively unknown and stayed mostly within Jewish cultures, the Christian Church could use the old Jewish infrastructure to practice.
As time passed, however, the Church began to experience persecution and even developed an identity of martyrdom. It was honorable to die for your religion, declaring your beliefs to the world. While this was an option that happened to many different people, it also inspired a more secret practice of the world’s newest religion. People would often practice in private or gather in the homes of friends and family to continue their customs undisturbed.
Village-Style
Some hundreds of years later, the beliefs and customs of Christians became solidified, and when Christianity was made the official religion of Rome, its followers became powerful and more confident.
While Aramaic was still spoken and used, especially in the Middle East, the Roman Catholic Church began to develop and reify traditional beliefs into a more cohesive religion and regulate the customs that went along with the Church.
In addition, the villages Chaldeans know today formed their own churches. In these places, the Christian religion was ubiquitous. People in the village community regarded the Church highly, its clergy were considered social leaders, and the physical church was considered a community gathering place, often the center of village life.
Over the years, villages were attacked and persecuted in ways different than before. Now, these places were openly and proudly Christian. If some group, empire, or army wanted to persecute Christians in the area, they might sack an entire village, force the people to go somewhere else, or simply kill them for their beliefs.
This type of existence for village Christians induced centuries-long periods of isolation and hermitage that still inspires some of the most religious people today. Among Chaldeans, it’s considered special to come from a village that has a long Christian history and one that stood on its feet in the face of attacks and persecution.
Modernity
Village-style Christianity continued in the Chaldean community until it was faced with modernity. Some of the towns in which Chaldeans lived, like in modern-day Eastern Türkiye, became larger cities. In addition, plenty of Chaldeans moved to already-established large cities, like Mosul and Baghdad in Iraq.
The experience of Christianity in these places was fundamentally different; instead of being widespread and accepted, Chaldeans were thrust into a minority status in their daily lives. This led to more frequent but less harsh forms of persecution, like second-class citizenship and daily discrimination. Church became an important place to retain your identity and prove that you couldn’t be swayed by persecution to abandon your Christian heritage.
The final stage of this story is the transplanting of the community to the Western world. In this move, Chaldeans tried to bring their deep, spiritual, and historical church life into the materialistic and individualistic society that is the United States. Churches here are often regarded as secondary to one’s individual identity and unity is far less common. There are plenty of options to choose from when picking a church, and some Chaldeans in Michigan have chosen to leave the Chaldean Church entirely and join another with American roots.
Melony Mikhail leads a youth group composed of high school teens at Mother of God Church, and she also started a bible study for adult women. She thinks the change in behavior of Chaldeans and their church habits is exacerbated by attacks on the family and children.
“We are living in one of the most incredible times in history,” Mikhail said. “We have a 24-hour eucharistic adoration available at every church here.”
Mikhail sees the increased availability of this adoration as an opportunity for Chaldeans to use the church more than they did in the past. “Before, it was very difficult to go to Mass,” she said. “I’d imagine there were only certain times when the church was available.”
The Chaldean Church in the United States has also taken on many qualities that you would expect to see from its American counterparts. For example, some Chaldeans maintain their identity as Christians but consider their religion a smaller part of their lives with each passing generation. It’s common now for some families to avoid going to weekly Mass and instead participate in and attend church only on special holidays.
Beshar Shukri is a Chaldean from metro Detroit who works as an accountant with the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce. He was a life-long participant in the Chaldean Catholic Church but has since left and moved to a non-denominational church called Lord of the Harvest.
Shukri noted the culture of shame throughout the Middle East as well as the tighter-knit relations in the Chaldean community back home. As a result of the fractionalization in the United States, he said, we can’t monitor our community as tightly and keep one another in check.
“In America, with all of its freedoms and diversity, we have the ability to remove ourselves from the community and cling to other identities,” he said.
Shukri took advantage of those freedoms and began to explore and understand the history of church expressions. “I looked at Protestantism and saw the validity in their arguments and what they believe,” he said. Eventually, he left the Chaldean Church and joined another one, an option that would not be available to him if he still lived in his traditional village.
In village life, Shukri sees a community connected and unified by Christ. “We’re identified collectively back home with our religion,” he said. “In America, it seems like we identify with status and wealth.”
In Mikhail’s mind, people leave the Church for plenty of reasons. “It’s a denial of God and not a denial of yourself,” she said. “A lot of people are uncomfortable with the Church’s teachings.”
“It’s all because people used to be a community and a family,” Mikhail said. “We have so much more freedom. Back home, things were tougher, and they had to rely on each other and God.”
Paradoxically, it can appear from the inside that the Church is growing because of increased participation from youth. The clergy itself has seen a resurgence of youth and participation over the last few decades.
In the old country, there were a few dozen people per priest, which meant nearly everyone was connected to a priest in some way. In metro Detroit, the number is closer to 10,000 people to one priest.
“It’s difficult for a priest to serve thousands of people. He’s only human,” Shukri said. “Because there’s so much more opportunity in America, fewer people want to become priests.”
In addition, Shukri thinks that the biggest hindrance is the celibacy of the priestly order. He suggests that allowing priests to marry would ease this tension.
In the United States, Mikhail recognizes that living a Catholic life is not easy. She thinks the personal relationships with the clergy are extremely valuable and suggests people fall back on them to stay in the faith.
“There was a point when we were so strong, and I think we will get that strong again,” Mikhail said. “We will be even stronger than back home.”
