Aprem Mooken, with his two bishops, Yohannan Yoseph (left) and Awgin Kuriakose (right).
George Mooken was born on 13 June 1940 in Thrissur, Kingdom of Cochin, British India. Educated in India, England, and America, he specialized in Church History. He served as President of the Church History Association of India between 1976 and 1982. He studied at Leonard Theological College, Jabalpur for B.D.
George Mooken gained master's degrees in Church History from both the United Theological College, Bangalore (1966) and the Union Theological Seminary, New York (1967). He was ordained a deacon on 25 June 1961, and a priest four years later on 13 June 1965. He was consecrated Bishop on 21 September 1968, by Mar Thoma Darmo, Catholicos Patriarch of the Ancient Church of the East, taking the name Mar Aprem Mooken, and promoted as a Metropolitan of the Ancient Church of the East eight days later in Baghdad.[1] Then later, in 1999, Mooken rejoined the Assyrian Church of the East. He was instrumental in healing the rift that had developed in the church over the question of hereditary appointments since the 1960s.
Publications
Mar Aprem is the author of 65 books on topics which include church history, theology, social issues, and humour.
