What is Ancient Church of the East?
The '''Ancient Church of the East''' is an [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] church. The church separated from the [[Assyrian Church of the East]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East|url=https://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/holy-apostolic-catholic-assyrian-church-of-the-east|publisher=World Council of Churches|access-date=30 September 2016}}</ref> This happened because Mar Shimun XXIII, the [[patriarch]] of Assyrian Church of the East introduced reforms which were not supported. These reforms included changes such as those of using the new [[Roman calendar]] rather than the old calendar. The people who did not support the changes thought they were opposed to the sanctity of being one of the oldest [[Christian]] churches in the world. For this reason, the followers of the Ancient Church of the East resisted the changes made to the church. Mar Thoma Darmo, a native of [[Mesopotamia]], who was Metropolitan of the Assyrian Church of the East in [[India]] from 1952 to 1968, based at Trichur separated from the Assyrian Church of the East. He became the head of the Ancient Church of the East in October 1968 and moved to [[Baghdad]]. He died the following year. After his death, [[Mar Addai II]] was elected to replace him. Since January 2011 the synod of the Ancient Church of the East has split between those accepting the Patriarchate of Mar Addai II and those [[Old Calendarists]] rejecting it. ==References== {{Reflist}} {{religion-stub}} [[Category:Eastern Christian denominations]]