Draft:Mari Emmanuel

Mari Emmanuel (born 19 July 1970), known as Mar Mari Emmanuel, is an Iraqi-born Assyrian Australian bishop, originally of the Ancient Assyrian Church of the East, who serves as pastor of Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, Sydney.

Tenure
Emmanuel was ordained a priest in 2009 and then a Bishop in 2011. In August 2011, Mar Yacoub Daniel and Mar Zaia Khoshaba consecrated Mar Mari Emmanuel as a suffragan bishop for the archdiocese of Australia and New Zealand, assisting the Metropolitan of Australia and New Zealand. Previously known as reverend Emmanuel Shlimon, he adopted the episcopal name of 'Mari Emmanuel' (after Saint Mari) at the time of becoming a bishop.

In July 2013, while on a visit to Australia, Mar Addai II suspended Mari Emmanuel in July 2014, on the grounds of disobeying canons promulgated by the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325. The suspension was briefly withdrawn in December 2014 when the bishop declared his acceptance of the patriarchal decrees, but renewed when he expressed his disagreement a second time. In January 2015, Mari Emmanuel established an independent church in Wakeley which is currently known as Christ The Good Shepherd Church.

Media attention
On 19 July 20, 2021, amid the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant outbreaks and the lockdown in Sydney, the bishop presented an online sermon that reprimanded the COVID-19 vaccinations and lockdowns, stating that the coronavirus is "just another type of the flu, no more, no less". In his video, he implored the Australian prime minister Scott Morrison and NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian to do more and aid those with financial and emotional adversity. Though the Australian government discouraged the video's information, with NSW health minister Brad Hazzard responding, "anti-vaxxers obviously live in another universe".