Parish Priest

Fr. George Sulaiman was born in Baghdad in 1973 and raised in Duhok, Iraq. He came from a very religious family with several priests on both sides. Fr. Sulaiman attended his church’s summer school since he was 10 years old, where he learned the basics of liturgy and to read the Assyrian language. In October of 1988, he was one of the first to join the seminary of the Assyrian church in Baghdad, established by His Holiness Mar Gewargis Slewaa III, the Archbishop of Iraq at the time. He continued to study the Assyrian Language, the church liturgy and theology in the seminary and went on to be one of the first Assyrian Seminarians who joined Babel College of Philosophy and Theology in Baghdad.

After the headmaster of the seminary, Fr. Shlimon Hezekial saw Fr. Sulaiman’s proficiency in reading and translating Aramaic texts, he nominated Fr. Sulaiman, along with two other students, to be ordained as Reader on Dec 10^th 0f 1989, and Subdeacon on April 8^th of 1990 while he was still a student in the seminary. On November 10^th, 1991 he was ordained Deacon. As a deacon in the seminary, Fr. Sulaiman was very active in the community at Mar Odisho Church in Baghdad. He taught in the church’s summer school and the church choir, established the church’s first youth group after many years without an active youth, and opened a book shop in the church. One winter, with the blessing of his Beatitude Mar Gewargis Sliwa, he set up a seven month seminar for all of the summer school teacher’s from the five Assyrian churches in Baghdad to continue to improve on their teachings together.

Fr. Gewargis was ordained priest on March 7^th, 1999 in Al-Hasakah, Syria by His Beatitude Mar Narsai DeBaz. He served faithfully and passionately as priest in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Syria for four years before His Holiness, Mar Dinkha IV called on him to move to Yonkers, New York. He served as the parish priest at Mar Mari Church in Yonkers for nine years. While in Yonkers, Fr. Sulaiman attended graduate school at Alliance Theological Seminary at Nyack College where he received his Master’s degree in Pastoral Counseling in 2011. In 2012, he was moved to Chicago, Illinois by His Grace Mar Paulus Benjamin, to serve at St. George Cathedral, where he is currently still a parish priest.

Along with his many priestly duties, Fr. Sulaiman has held many wedding preparation seminars for engaged couples since coming to Chicago, and has translated and arranged a book of Assyrian Church Rites for clergy which is currently in print.

As for his personal life, Fr. Sulaiman married his wife, Shamiram Sulaiman, in October 1998, and was blessed with three children, Valentina, Yourtana, and Joseph in the years to come. They now happily reside in Skokie, Illinois.