Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Syrian civilians evacuated from the embattled city of Homs under a UN-negotiated cease-fire are being aided by International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) as they flee to safety. IOCC and its church partner in Syria, The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East (GOPA), are in Homs assisting in the evacuation that began this weekend and are providing emergency relief to the Syrian people fleeing the city. Among the evacuees were ten youths who were immediately taken to the nearest medical facility for needed vaccines and medical attention. IOCC/GOPA also assisted…
Browsing: Syria
Source: ALMONITOR Author: Gracia BitarPosted Translator: Steffi Chakti The Russians are elevating their rhetoric in Lebanon, exactly like a czar. A Russian parliamentary delegation visited Syria and then stopped in Lebanon upon the invitation of the Orthodox Gathering. The slogans used by members of the delegation are inspired by the sayings of Jesus: “Truth is on our side, and we will be victorious.” Maybe this is where the elevated tone is coming from. They are seeking to form a unified front so that the Christian Orthodox voice will be also unified during international events. The delegation met with Syrian President…
Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Joumana will never forget the day she, her husband and two children abandoned their home in the war-torn Syrian city of Homs. “The situation was getting worse and worse each day, but we didn’t want to leave our neighborhood,” Joumana recalled. The need to flee came suddenly when they witnessed her mother-in-law killed right before them. After a hasty burial, they left for Damascus with few possessions. The horrifying memories of war and personal loss continue to haunt Joumana and her family more than a year after they were uprooted from their…
Source: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America December 7, 2013 The President and Mrs. Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. President and Mrs. Obama, Greetings and best wishes to you and to your two precious daughters in the spirit of this Holy Christmas season. I was honored to receive your invitation to attend a White House holiday reception on Friday, December 6th, 2013. I remember fondly my attendance at the White House reception two years ago. The photograph which we took together on that auspicious occasion continues to adorn my office. Unfortunately…
Source: The American Conservative By ROD DREHER NCR’s John Allen reports on the kidnapping of the Syrian Orthodox nuns by rebel forces: The monastery’s mother superior, Sr. Pelagia Sayyaf, and 11 other Orthodox nuns were taken away to the nearby rebel stronghold of Yabrud. Though some rebel sources insisted that the sisters had been evacuated for their own safety, most observers regard it as a kidnapping, something that’s become a sad fact of life for the country’s Christian minority. Last February, the website Ora pro Siria [1], operated by Italian missionaries in Syria, launched an emergency fundraising appeal it called “Ransom a Christian.”…
Source: The Daily Star BEIRUT: A senior Orthodox Church official has urged Christians to take up arms to defend themselves and their holy places in the wake of the seizure of a group of nuns from the ancient village of Maaloula. Speaking to the Iraqi newspaper Az-Zaman, Bishop Luca al-Khoury said “we have many young men who are asking us [to take action], and there are those demanding that we take immediate action.” “I call on every young man who can take up arms to come forward,” Khoury said, adding that the initiative was meant to allow the community’s members to engage…
Source: Pravoslavie.ru Moscow – Militants in Syria have destroyed over 60 Christian churches and monasteries, and more than 70 thousand Orthodox residents of Homs, and more than a half the Christians of Aleppo have left their homes, reports Interfax. These statistics was given by the ambassador of Syria to Russia Riad Haddad at the meeting of the inter-factional deputy group in defense of Christian values, held by the State Duma in Moscow. According to R. Haddad, in recent days the Damascus quarters of Kasaa and Bab Touma, both inhabited mainly, by Christians, have been subjected to regular bombardments by the terrorists:…
Christians feel they’re targets of extremists By Dusan Stojanovic Associated Press Source: The Augusta Chronicle DAMASCUS, Syria — Sami Amir is used to the deep, echoing rumble of Syr-ian army artillery pounding rebel positions on the outskirts of Damascus. It’s the thump of mortars launched from an Islamist-controlled neighborhood that scares him to death. Mortars have hit repeatedly in his mainly Christian district of Damascus, al-Qassaa, reportedly killing at least 32 people and injuring dozens of others the past two weeks. “You don’t know when and you don’t know where they hit,” says Amir, a 55-year-old Christian merchant. “Life here…
Source: Catholic Online By Deacon Keith Fournier Sadad is a small town of 15,000 people, mostly Syriac Orthodox Christians, located 160 km north of Damascus. It has 14 churches and a monastery with four priests. We have shouted to the world but no one has listened to us. Where is the Christian conscience? Where is human consciousness? Where are my brothers? I think of all those who are suffering today in mourning and discomfort: We ask everyone to pray for us. (Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh) SADAD, Syria (Catholic Online) – We have regularly covered the plight of Christians in Syria and…
Source: Huffington Post DIAA HADID BEIRUT (AP) — In the midst of a conflict rife with sectarianism, a giant bronze statue of Jesus has gone up on a Syrian mountain, apparently under cover of a truce among three factions in the country’s civil war. Jesus stands, arms outstretched, on the Cherubim mountain, overlooking a route pilgrims took from Constantinople to Jerusalem in ancient times. The statue is 12.3 meters (40 feet) tall and stands on a base that brings its height to 32 meters (105 feet), organizers of the project estimate. That the statue made it to Syria and went…
Source: National Review Online By Nina Shea The Vatican news agency Fides reports today that two new mass graves containing a total of 30 bodies were found in Sadad, an ancient Christian town of some 15,000 people between Damascus and Homs, bringing to 45 the number of residents killed there by Islamist militias since October 21. Surviving relatives and friends uncovered the graves after government forces recently recaptured the town from rebels. Those killed were reported by the local Syriac Orthodox metropolitan, who presided over 30 of their funerals this week, to be Christian civilians, including women and children. A list of their…
Source: The Moscow Times A bronze statue of Jesus Christ, taller than the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, has appeared in war-torn Syria. The statue, titled “I Have Come to Save the World” was apparently the brainchild of Yury Gavrilov, a 49-year-old Muscovite who runs an organization in London called the St. Paul and St. George Foundation. The project was backed by both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government, which takes an active interest in Syria, as seen in recent events. Russia also has a navy base on Syria’s Mediterranean sea coast. Despite the statue’s Russian connection, it was cast in Armenia and made by an Armenian…