He gained his elementary education under the tutorship of his grandfather, Benyamin Soro. In 1947—at the age of eleven—he was entrusted to the care of Mar Yousip Khnanisho, Metropolitan and the Patriarchal representative for all Iraq, the second-highest ranking ecclesiastic of the Assyrian Church of the East. After two years of study, he was ordained deacon in the church of Mar Youkhana in Harir by Mar Yousip on 12 September 1949. On 15 August 1957, he was ordained to the priesthood, and appointed to minister Urmia, Iran. Dinkha's priesthood as Metropolitan of Iran and Teheren reestablished a line of succession which ceased to exist after the 1915 killing of his predecessor. In 1962, Dinkha moved from northern Iraq to Tehran. During his tenure in Iran, he established a seminary and advocat