Liturgy of Nestorians

The Sources and Structure of the liturgy of the Nestorian[1] Church

The Nestorian Church known by some as the Holy and Apostolic Church of the East is a Church which started with the roots in East Syrian orthodoxy grew and developed in the realm of the Persian Empire and Eastward, even from the river Euphrates to China and the Far East. The language of this Church is Aramaic and it has its own distinct liturgy claiming to go back to two second generation Apostles Addai and Mari. For much of the history of the Nestorian Church it was hidden from the west due to political, religious and geographical factors. The political reason being due to the political division between the Roman and Byzantine empires on the one side and the Parthian and Persian Empires on the other. These empires ruled distinct areas and were often hostile to one another from the first through the seventh century. This made it difficult, especially for the Christians in the Persian Empire to foster relation with those in the West with out being considered traitors by the Persian. The religious factor stemmed from the fact that Nestorius was condemned as heretic by the council of Ephesus a judgment which the Church of the East of the Persian Empire never accepted. Indeed Nestorius is regarded with great reverence in this area. This meant a religious barrier stood between the East Syrian Church and it daughter the Nestorian and Western Christendom including Byzantine orthodoxy. Thirdly the Church developed it jurisdiction in seat in Persian such as Nisibus and Selucia Ctesiphon and eastward so they were thousands of miles away from the west and with the rise of Islam a very large barrier was created which lasted at least from the 7th to the 15th century with the movements Eastward of the Portuguese.

A Short Bibliography on the History of the Liturgy
As a result of the division the church developed it liturgy in Aramaic and independently of the Church in the four Western Patriarchates, Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem and Alexandria. Literature on its development is scarce so I will include short bibliography on sources on the liturgy. Around AD 595 Ishu’yabh of Arzon wrote Question on the Mysteries. George of Arbela’s Exposition of all the ecclesiastical offices and his Questions on the ministry of the altar gives us a perspective from the end of the tenth century. Yaballah II from the early 13th century wrote Questions on betrothals and marriages on the sacred liturgy. In the early 14th century Abdhishu of Nisibus wrote The Pearl,[2]. We can read some of The Pearl in English translation in Badger’s The Nestorians and their rituals ii London 1852, pg 380-422. Timothy II again in the early 14th century wrote On the causes of the seven mysteries of the Church, this like George of Arbela is abstracted in B.O iii p572-80.
The Nestorian law book is called Ashiatha Sunhadus has section on liturgical history in The Book of the Father’s or The heavenly Intelligences, it is attributed to Shimon bar Sabbae of the 4th century but is considered much later.[3]
Finally one modern author who may be helpful is Neale History of the Holy Eastern Church p 319-323 where he discusses the originality of the Persian rite.



The liturgy of the Nestorian church is called the Persian rite because of it’s development and usage in the Persian Empire. It is contrasted with the other Eastern Liturgies which include: the Syrian rite, the Egyptian rite and the Byzantine rite.
More specifically the Nestorian liturgies are distinguished from those Churches which sprung divided from it to join other Churches. These being the two Chaldean Uniates who arose firstly in the 17th century that is the western Uniate whose center is in Mosul in Iraq, the second is the Christians of S. Thomas from Malabar India who are in union with the Roman communion.

The Books of the Liturgy
The books needed to celebrate the Nestorian liturgy are four
(i) The Tachos: This book contains the liturgy and includes the manual of the deacons Shamashutha (this is sometimes found separately)
(ii) The Davidha: The contains the Psalms and the litanies
(iii) The Lectionary: This has 3 volumes, the Old Testament and Acts, The Apostles that is the Epistles of Paul and the Gospels
(iv) The Hudrah: This contains the hymns[4]

The Text
We will be looking at the translation of the editions published by Urmi the archbishop od Canterburry’s Mission in 1889. Lections, Apostles and Gospel. They form the principle edition of the Nestorian rite and were published in three volumes.
Volume 1 Ordo Communis and the three anaphoras of the Apostles, Theodore and Nestorius from an Alkos manuscript.
Volume 2: The Prothesis and Prayers
Volume 3: The Tables of Lections for the whole year
The Hymns in our volume come from an unpublished manuscript from used by Maclean in Kurdistan.






[1] Historically this term is a misnomer for Nestorius never ruled in this Church whose centers were generally to the East of the river Euphrates and which is called the Catholicos of the East. The name Nestorius became associated with this Church because they never condemned him as the council of Ephesus did he is a saint in their Church. We will use the term for convenience sake.
[2] This is the official history of the Nestorian Church according to Aziz Attiyah History of Eastern Christianity and Mar Uzziyah Bar Evyon a metropolitan of the present day Church of the East in Jerusale.m
[3] See Maclean and Brown p183 and Wright Syriac Literaturep 30 This whole Bibliography comes from Brightman and Hammond see note 4, p lxxx. The evidence of the
[4] See Brightman, F. and Hammond, C., Liturgies Eastern and Western Vol I OUP, 1965 and they refer us to Badger., The Nestorians and their rituals ii, 19-25 and Maclean and Browne The Catholicos of the East and his people