Syriac Today

Syriac today is the liturgical language of a few Christian communities, belonging to various churches. The churches of the Syriac tradition are: The Syriac Orthodox Church, The Assyrian Church of the East, The Maronite Syriac Church, The Chaldean Catholic Church, The Syriac Catholic Church, and the various churches of the St. Thomas Christians in India. (See a chronological timeline of these churches.)

Syriac is witnessing an expansion in western universities. In the late 1980s, Oxford University began to offer a Master Degree in Syriac studies. The University of Birmingham is following suit. In most of the major universities, Syriac is taught either in Semitic departments, religious studies, or both. Mhatma Ghandi University in Kerala has recently started a Ph.D. program in Syriac.

During the past few decades, four periodic international conferences dedicated to the Syriac tradition emerged. The international Symposium Syriacum has been convening every four years since 1972. The North America-based Syriac Symposium also meets every four years. In India, SEERI holds an international conference every four years, so do the Maronite institutions in Lebanon.

At the community level, Syriac is being taught to children in a few private community schools in the Middle East, and sometimes in the Diaspora. Magazines are being published in Syriac and Neo-Aramaic, and a few publishing houses have emerged. In 2001, Beth Mardutho established the Beth Mardutho ePress.

As we enter the Third Millennium, we feel that there is a need for a center dedicated entirely to the study of the Syriac heritage, one that would serve all the communities of the Syriac heritage in an ecumenical spirit. Beth Mardutho's ultimate goal is to fulfill this need.

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