Perspectief 2019-44

2019-44 Mor Polycarpus Augin Aydin PhD 13 of her children but may also gain some of their cultural identity as well. This is because some of the cultural elements in Orthodoxy are “baptized” and have become part of the tradition. Again, here one has to be very careful as to what constitutes one’s spiritual iden- tity. One should be very cautious since many traditions that have no relevance whatsoever to the Orthodox faith today have been considered or seen as part of the essential Tradi- tion. It is very important not to fall into this trap. 6. Preserving the Syriac Language and Aramaic Heritage It is a challenge for the Syriac community here to preserve her Syriac language and Ara- maic heritage in the Diaspora and keep continuity with the past, maintaining a degree of relationship and affiliation with brothers and sisters overseas. On the one hand, one may argue that it is good and rather necessary to preserve the language at any cost since this is part of the identity and a strong link with the past. But on the other hand, this is going to be very costly to do, and so far experience has shown that the Church has not succeeded in accomplishing this task. The example of Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The AOP and SAOP. Furthermore, stressing the importance of the linguistic element over the faith may hinder the mission and role of the cChurch, thus putting a barrier between the community and outsiders who would like to share the faith of the Church, but do not know the Syriac language. However, it should be stressed that since there is a wealth of biblical, theologi- cal, patristic, spiritual and monastic literature in Syriac, it is important always to have some people in the community and beyond who are competent in this language and are able to translate it into the language of the host country and put it in a contemporary context for the sake of the new generation and make it available to share with other Christian traditions for the enrichment and benefit of all. This is one of the sacred duties of the Church, namely, to offer and share her treasures with others. 7. Adaptation of the Liturgy into modern language and Setting Much of what has to be said under this subheading has already been said above. But one has to say a few more words about this. Since Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic, not much