A well-known conservative figure Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel who works for the Assyrian Orthodox Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley was recently stabbed, have a look at his religion and wife
The NSW police commissioner revealed that 53-year-old Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel required surgery after being stabbed. He was “lucky to be alive” after suffering cuts on his head during a church liturgy that was being streamed live.
Who is Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel as Assyrian Church Priest is stabbed in Australia, biography, age, religion, wife
53 year old Mar Mari Emmanue is an Assyrian Christian cleric who is currently the bishop of Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, New South Wales, Australia and in 2011, he was ordained a bishop in the Ancient Church of the East, but was suspended in 2014.
Emmanuel is well-known in his sect of the Assyrian Church, which is considered a conservative branch of Orthodoxy.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was born on 19 July 1970. He grew up in Baghdad before and then moved to Sydney, Australia in 1980s. Bishop graduated from Fairfield High School and later worked as bank manager before becoming a a priest in the late 1990s.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was targeted because he spoke openly about what he thinks of Islam. pic.twitter.com/45y4nmaIH0
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) April 15, 2024
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel career and controversies
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel became a well-known figure on the internet in 2020 for his vocal opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns. Bishop was raised in Baghdad and later on he moved to Australia with his family as a young kid.
In 2014, the Assyrian Orthodox Christ the Good Shepherd Church where the stabbing attack took place broke away from the main Assyrian Church of The East. This split took place because of theological differences.
As per the church website, Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was ordained as a bishop in 2011 and he became a priest in 2009. He is unmarried and single.
I awoke to news of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel's @HGBishopMariEm1 stabbing at an Assyrian church in Sydney. Thankfully, he was promptly hospitalized, though his current condition remains unknown to me.
As I scrolled through my feed, I noticed many quickly pointing fingers at… pic.twitter.com/y9Gm19DQ66
— Isaac Choua (@ChouaIsaac) April 15, 2024
His sermons are streamed live on YouTube and Facebook where his following is more than 2.4 lakh. The channel is named, Christ the Good Shepherd Church. His well-known teachings include Preaching anti-LGBTQ beliefs and characterising homosexuality as a “crime in the eyes of God.” He has also delivered sermons disparaging non-Christian faiths including Judaism and Islam.
Recently, Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was preaching on the Gaza crisis and advocated for peace. His immense popularity among his followers has led to the creation of hundreds of fan pages where his followers share all his life updates, teachings and more. He has been a participant at a number of interviews and YouTube shows where Mar Mari talked about religion, homosexuality, and pandemic.
On Christ the Good Shepherd Church’s website, he flew to Phoenix, Arizona in the United States in December last year to give a biblical sermon.
About Assyrian Church of the East
The Assyrian Church of the East has a different style of Christianity. However, the church shares a number of characteristics with other Eastern Christian religions such as Catholicism.
Assyrians are a predominantly Christian minority population which is living in modern-day Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey.