Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel is a prominent conservative leader of the Assyrian Orthodox Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley in Western Sydney.

The 53-year-old sustained lacerations to his head after being lunged at during a mass service at the church that was being broadcast online, with the NSW police commissioner saying he underwent surgery and was "lucky to be alive".

A charismatic and controversial figure, he gained a significant online following during 2020 as an outspoken opponent of COVID-19 lockdowns, referring to the outbreak as a "pandemic".

Bishop Emmanuel grew up in Baghdad before moving to Australia as a child with his family.

In 2014, the church where the stabbing attack took place broke away from the main Assyrian Church of The East, after the bishop was ex-communicated over theological differences.

His church's website says he became a priest in 2009 and was ordained as a bishop in 2011.

His sermons are broadcast on Christ the Good Shepherd Church's Facebook and YouTube channels, which have a combined following of 240,000.

Bishop Emmanuel is also known for preaching anti-LGBTQ views, describing homosexuality as a "crime in the eyes of God".

He has also given sermons criticising non-Christian religions, including Judaism and Islam.

In another he said that "Islam flourished and expanded with the sword".

He recently delivered sermons on the conflict in Gaza, calling for peace.

The bishop's popularity has generated online fan pages with thousands of followers and he has taken part in a series of conservative YouTube programs and interviews, where he has spoken about religion, homosexuality and the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Christ the Good Shepherd Church website, he travelled to Phoenix Arizona, in the United States, to deliver a bible preaching in December last year.

The Assyrian Church of the East is its own distinct brand of Christianity, although it shares many features with other Eastern Christian churches, like the Greek Orthodox church as well as Catholicism.

Christ The Good Shepherd Church draws many of its parishioners from the large Assyrian communities in Liverpool and Fairfield.

Assyrians are an almost entirely Christian minority group who are native to historic Mesopotamia, which sits across current day Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey.

Sermons are delivered in both English and Assyrian language at the Wakeley church, which also offers Sunday school classes for young children and a youth ministry.