Rewriting Global Orthodoxy: Oriental Christians in Europe, 1970-2020

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 834441 GlobalOrthodoxy). It was housed at Radboud University, Faculty of Philosphy, Theology and Religious Studies (2019-2024). Project members: Elise Aghazarian, Habtom Yohannes, Matija Miličić, Jan Gehm, Gaétan du Roy, Christopher Sheklian, Wessel Stoop, Emmanuel Chamilakis

Over the last fifty years, Oriental Orthodox Christians (Armenians, Copts, Syriacs/Arameans, Ethiopian and Eritrean Tewahdo Christians) from the Middle East and Africa have settled in Europe, fleeing war-related violence and societal pressures. One of the prominent aspects of religious practice of these transnational Oriental communities is their strong emphasis on writing and publishing texts. These include traditional religious texts (from liturgy to history), re-translated and re-contextualised versions of these texts, and completely new texts.

From simple leaflets and books, to sophisticated internet productions including sound and image, these textual practices aim to transmit the religious heritage to a new generation in an increasingly globalised context. Scholarship has largely ignored these texts, because they are too popular or too modern for scholars of the written religious traditions, and too textual for social scientists working on these transnational communities. However, they make up a crucial source for the study of these communities’ European integration, especially as to the hybrid character of many of these traditions. The project took these textual practices as its main source to understand how Oriental Christians inscribe themselves in European societies and so contribute to the transformation of their own transnational churches as well as to that of Orthodoxy worldwide. 

Over the past five years, the team (consisting of three PhD students, two postdoctoral researchers, a project manager, two ICT specialists and the PI) have worked at mapping & analyzing this corpus, linking it on the one hand with earlier historic analyses of these churches, and on the other with anthropological and sociological studies into their current transnational migratory experience. This approach was further guided by the observation that these churches share and actively cherish a common history, and thus deserve to be analyzed together, as ‘Oriental Churches’, rather than separately. For this, the ERC Advanced grant provided excellent opportunities. 

The project team therefore worked in a combination of individual case studies (for each of the individual churches in various parts of Europe) and crosscutting projects. Of these, our common FourCornersoftheWorld database was fundamental to our research. We collected a substantial sample of these publications, providing a sold starting point for comparison and analysis. In addition, we organized a series of conferences in addition to our regular team meetings, that allowed us to explore a variety of comparative questions, as to the type of literature, similar and variant responses to the European context, and, overall, what this type of literature ‘does’ in the building of these churches, that is, ‘teaching the tradition transnationally’, as we formulated it in one of our publications.

Publications of project members (see also under Publications)

A number of essays in Martin Tamcke (Ed.), Europe and the Migration of Christian Communities from the Middle East (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2022, Series:Gottinger Orientforschungen, I. Reihe: Syriaca , #65; ISBN: 9783447119184).

• Jan Gehm: “Microhistory of a Syriac Orthodox Community in Germany: The example of the Syriac Orthodox congregation in Herne from 1961 to 2021.”
• Matija Milicic: “The Coptic Orthodox Church in the Netherlands: Shedding light on overlooked European Coptic diasporas.”
• Habtom Yohannes: “Some Reflections on the “aba-nefs” WhatsApp of an Eritrean Priest Queshi-Afwerki.”
• Gaétan Du Roy, “Coptic traditions’ digitization in Francophone Europe.”
• Christopher N. Sheklian, ““Their compatriot St. Servatius”: Armenian emplacement in Maastricht.” 

 Dissertation: Matija Miličić, Boundary making, belonging, and continuity: The rewriting of Coptic Orthodox communities in Europe” (Radboud Dissertation Series, 2025).

• Jan Gehm, “Von marginalisierten Dorfgemeinschaften in der Südosttürkei zur etablierten Kirchengemeinde, Das Beispiel der syrisch-orthodoxen Kirchengemeinde in Herne 1961-2021“, 253-266. Migrationskirchen Internationalisierung und Pluralisierung des Christentums vor Ort (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt 2021).
• Jan Gehm, with Alena Höfer: “Schmerzhafte Migration. Grenzüberschreitung zwischen Leben und Tod. Syrisch-orthodoxe und eritreisch-orthodoxe Perspektiven“, 323-338. In Katharina Greschat, Claudia Jahnel (eds), Dem Schmerz begegnen. Theologische Deutungen (Bielefeld: transcript Verlag 2021).
• Matija Miličić, “Rooting the Coptic Diaspora: Mediating Familiarity and Adapting Churches in the Netherlands”, Etnofoor (Vol. 35, No. 2), 67-83.
• Christopher Sheklian, “Hagiographic Emplacement: St. Servatius, the Armenian Community of Maastricht, and Oriental Orthodox Christians in Europe”. In Anthropologies of Orthodox Christianity (Fordham University Press, 2024), Candace Lukasik and Sarah Riccardi-Swartz (eds.)

A (selection of) relevant publications of individual team members – popular & professional

• Habtom Yohannes, “Eritreeërs: natievorming op de vlucht.” In Ineke van Kessel; Nina Tellegen; Erik van den Bergh; Angèle Etound Essamba (Ed.), Afrikanen in Nederland (Amsterdam: Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, 2020), 101-116.
• Matija Miličić, “Coptic Orthodox Communities in Europe: An Overlooked Diaspora.” In Egypt Migrations (online article, OA, July 2021).
• Idem, “The Coptic Orthodox Church in the Netherlands.” In Egypt Migrations, online article, OA, July 2021).
• Habtom Yohannes, “The Tigray Crisis and the Possibility of an Autocephalous Tigray Orthodox Tewahdo Church.” Public Orthodoxy (Fordham University, July 2021).
• Matija Miličić, “Preserving, adapting and self-inscribing: The case of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Italy” (two parts). In Egypt Migrations (online article, OA, March 2022).
• Habtom Yohannes, “Ethnicity Tears the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church Apart” Public Orthodoxy (Fordham University, Febr 2023).
• Christopher Sheklian, “Het einde van de Armeense aanwezigheid in Artsach” [The End of the Armenian Presence in Artsakh]: Platform Oosters Christendom, Oct 2023.