Editorial

Dear Surfer, We have created this space to propagate somewhat of the culture, language, history and news from our syriac/assyrian community. We thus hope to create here a reference to researches and acquisition of information related to our culture. Still this will be a channel of contact with our local and world community. it is not our intention to act like your hosts because this space belongs to everyone and we count upon the precious collaboration of all so as to make here an agreable harbour for your stay. We will navigate in this site with the same spirit that our forefathers came to the New World, sailing through unkown seas and setting foot on unknown land full of mistery and inormation! What made our fathers and forefathers abandon their homeland in search of something unknown was first the search for a place that would bring a better future for their children, but they were also moved by the instinctive impulse of search for new challenges. And they came to a continent until then unknown, with language, habits and traditions different form those they masterd. They fought like the assyrian warriors and created in this New World a place to preserve this wealthy culture established on the other side of the hemisphere. Thus, they did not bring with them only the dust on their shoes from their homeland but also the spirit of conquering! It was not only dreams and ideals that came together in their minds but also the will-power and the power of accomplishment. They built in this distant land the ties with our syriac culture. And so we do not have only the memories from the past but the perpetuation of this wealthy and millenar culture that lives until our days. We, their descendants, feel proud for receiving this cultural inheritance and grateful for these brave people that overcame all difficulties and misfortunes to guarantee the preservation of our culture. And acknowledge the determination, competence and bravery of our assyrian people that brought to Brazil the first visit of the Patriarch of Antioche to America, to establish here four churches in less than a decade. We take this opportunity to tell that our language, the aramaic/syriac language was used by Our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles. In this way, reading the Lord´s Prayer during our celebrations preserve in all details of form and expression the teachings of Jesus. Thus also, the principles faithfully followed by our Churches until our days, are those set by Saint James liturgy. Our cultural heritage should be a reason of pride for all humanity because there, in a semi-arid region, crossed by two rivers, more than 5,000 years ago, came to happen the most important fact of human history: the birth of civilization and of writing! " In this region crossed by the Tigris and Euphrates that ran towards the south and cut a plain, 9 thousand years ago was a region that looked like a useless desert. Notsoever, sometime about 3,000 b.C., a different marvelous panorama emerged in that plain. Arround them, cereal plantations were spreading like an ocean of fertility all over the former barren land. Woods of datetrees shaking in the wind gave good fruit and shade ". >From this passage extracted from the Time-Life encyclopaedia, we can verify the emergence of irrigated agriculture by the assyrian people. We are saying that 4.5 thousand years ago assyrians did supply their plantations with water they obtained artificially through irrigation systems including the use of waterwheels. Today, in this modern world, in the 21st. century, one billion (one thousand million) people have no access to drinking water and millions of children die every year because of problems related to famine. International organizations have been pressing to fight against misery and as a solution they see the need of irrigated agriculture. Such solution was identified as the solution by the assyrians more than 4 thousand years ago. " Within thick walls that surrounded the cities, imponent temples dominated streets and neighbouring fields. There were palaces and mansions made from bricks and uncountable streets with comfortable houses. People pressed in avenues and markets, in hundreds of shops craftsmen produced all sorts of goods, from ceramic objects to sparkling jewels. On holy days, processions of believers roamed hrough the streets towards the temples ". In those days we verified the appearance of census, the use of decorated wall tiles, sculptures and palaces that composed an unrivalled scenery of architectonic beauty. We can also point out the assyrian libraries that presereved clay tablets with musics and historical records. When surfing in this site we shall see that assyrians invented music instruments like the flute, horn and harp. We shall also understand something of our habits, like reading horoscopes in the newspapers. Assyrians scaned heaven and created instruments for their studies. An assyrian clay astrolab with more than 2,600 years can be seen at the British Museum in London. And what should we say about the Holy places like our Saint Mark`s Monastery, under the direction of our beloved brother, H.E. Msgr.Severios Murad (who sereved at the Church of Saint Mary in Sao Paulo), where Jesus had The Last Supper! There also do we keep the painting of the Virgin Mary, drawn by the apostle Luke. In Jerusalem, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Syriac Church has a part dedicated to Sunday mass, celebrated by our priests. And in Israel, in the city of Bethlehem, at the Church of Nativity, on an altar beside the Holy place where Christ was born, there also do we preserve the tradition of the Primitive Church, celebrating mass in our aramaic/syriac idiom. Our Church has the privilege of being present in the most Holy places of Christian world. As a curiosity we will see in this site that at the Holy Land, the Dead Sea Scrolls passed through our hands. And also the visit of H.H. Mor Ignatius Peter IV to England at Queen Victoria`s request! As important christian relics we have at Homs in Syria, at the church of Saint Mary, the belt of the Very Holy Virgin Mary. Assyrian people revolutionized the world with their great inventions and their accomplishments are still today studied as solutions in many different fields. The sphinx is another example of assyrian contribution, used to explain he relation between expression of communication and its psychologic correspondance, in the book " The Body Speaks ". Assyrian citations are frequent in: books, magazines and newspapers. And what about that beer at weekends! Believe me, our forefathers invented it 5,000 years ago! So let us have a toast and surf in search of interactivity, approach and participation in this fascinating culture, the Assyrian Culture!