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Metropolitan Philip Urges Faithful to Contact Congress on Syria Vote

By Webmaster on September 3, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America His Eminence Metropolitan Philip writes: Beloved Hierarchs, Clergy and Faithful of our God-Protected Archdiocese: Greetings to you and your families as we begin a new ecclesiastical year. I pray you had a pleasant summer. I write to you today as our president and United States Congress contemplate military action against Syria. As those of us with deep roots in that land already know, more bombs and destabilization of the country will only lead to further bloodshed and devastation. In my opinion, based on a lifetime of knowledge in that area of the…

Syrian rebels admit to being behind chemical weapons attack

By Webmaster on August 30, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Examiner.com Members of the Syrian rebel movement have admitted that they were behind the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus, Minnesota’s Mint Press News reported on Thursday. According to the report, the chemicals were provided by Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who “has been at the very heart of the push for war by the U.S. against Assad.” The group Doctors Without Borders went to the town of Ghouta, where more than 350 people were killed as a result of the chemical attack. After interviewing “numerous…doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families,” the group obtained testimony that the attack was…

Worries Grow About Fate Of Kidnapped Syrian Bishops

By Webmaster on August 6, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: ALMONITOR By: Jean Aziz for Al-Monitor Lebanon Pulse Summary: The fate of the two bishops kidnapped in Syria on April 22 is still unknown, but they are feared to have been abducted and killed by Chechen jihadists, according to a Lebanese official. A multitude of grim indications have surfaced about the tragic kidnapping of two bishops at the hands of armed factions in Syria. This most heinous of kidnappings in the ongoing Syrian conflict began on April 22, when news spread that gunmen near Aleppo had abducted the city’s Syriac Orthodox Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yazigi, Aleppo’s Greek Orthodox bishop, who…

Suicide bomb kills 4 in Syrian capital’s Old City

By Webmaster on June 28, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: San Francisco Chronicle By ALBERT AJI, Associated Press DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up near the headquarters of Syria’s Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus’ Old City, killing at least four people Thursday, minutes after the patriarch had entered the cathedral, state-run TV and a church official said. The blast in the ancient quarter of narrow streets and historic buildings was the first reported suicide attack of the Syrian civil war inside the Old City, although other such bombs have struck the capital of Damascus during the conflict. The blast struck in the vicinity of the Virgin Mary Cathedral in the…

Christians caught in middle of Syrian conflict

By Webmaster on June 4, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories, Uncategorized

Source: Deseret News Compiled by Matthew Brown, Deseret News The uprising in Syria began as a peaceful protest for diversity and democracy during the Arab Spring of 2011. But it has turned into a holy war between Shiite and Sunni sects of Islam — with Christians and other minorities caught in the middle. The highest profile Christian victims of the civil war are two Orthodox bishops kidnapped in late April, and there is still no official word as to the whereabouts or fate of the two clerics, who were abducted as they returned from a humanitarian mission in Turkey. “We…

Syria opposition says kidnapped bishops ‘in good health’

By Webmaster on May 25, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: The Daily Star – Lebanon ISTANBUL: Two Orthodox bishops kidnapped in Syria last month are “in good health,” though there is no news on their whereabouts, an opposition official told reporters Saturday in Istanbul. “Two or three days ago, a doctor visited the two bishops. They are in good health,” said Abdul Ahad Steipho, member of the main opposition’s National Coalition and of its committee established to follow up on the kidnappings. Steipho added that his committee’s attempts to enter into direct telephone contact with the kidnappers or the bishops have so far failed. “We are receiving a lot…

How the Iraq War Became a War on Christians

By Webmaster on May 9, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

And why supporting Syria’s rebels may extinguish Christianity in its oldest environs. By Andrew Doran The recent dedication of George W. Bush’s presidential library in Texas briefly rekindled debate about the defining event of his presidency, the Iraq War. The visceral hatred of many for the war and the man having substantially diminished, a more sober assessment of both seemed to prevail in the coverage. In the same news cycle there appeared a seemingly unrelated event, the abduction of two Orthodox bishops in Syria. In fact, the conflict in Syria and the American invasion of Iraq are linked by a…

The Politics of Human Rights: Orthodox Christianity Gets the Short End

By Webmaster on May 8, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Order of St. Andrew the Apostle – Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate by Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou [Washington, D.C. – 5/5/2013] Today is Easter for the world’s 350 million Orthodox Christians, who just completed their Holy Week of prayer and fasting which culminated in today’s message of transcendent hope. But all last week and today, Orthodox Christians the world over have been reminded that politics trumps human rights. There’s a cruel irony in the fact that Orthodox Christians—whose belief that all persons are created equally and distinctly in the image and likeness of God is a perfect expression of…

Bishops Remain Missing After Capture In Syria

By Webmaster on May 7, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories, Uncategorized

Source: National Public Radio Click here to Listen to the Story – All Things Considered (3 min 50 sec) TRANSCRIPT ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: As Orthodox Christians around the world celebrated Easter this week, the Orthodox communities in Syria and neighboring Lebanon postponed festivities. Instead, they gathered in churches to pray for the safe return of two bishops kidnapped outside the Syrian city of Aleppo last month. While the Syrian opposition and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad continue to trade blame for the abduction, the bishop’s whereabouts remains a mystery. NPR’s Susannah George has our story from Beirut. SUSANNAH GEORGE, BYLINE: On the…

Wolf Issues Report Following Trip to Middle East

By Webmaster on March 13, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Congressman Frank Wolf WOLF ISSUES REPORT FOLLOWING VISIT TO MIDDLE EAST DURING TUMULTUOUS TIME OF CHANGE IN THE REGION Renews Call for Special Envoy to Advocate for Beleaguered Minority Faith Communities, Which are Increasingly Under Assault Washington, D.C. (March 7, 2013) – Rep. Frank Wolf today made a series of policy recommendations – including his continued push for the creation of a Special Envoy for Religious Minorities in the Middle East and South Central Asia – following a recent trip to Lebanon and Egypt, where he met with high-ranking government officials, religious leaders, humanitarian aid organizations and refugees who…

Syrian Orthodox and Catholics Appeal for Aid In Hassake

By Webmaster on January 17, 2013 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Zenit News Two months ago, an appeal was made by three regional Bishops who “launched an SOS to avoid catastrophe.” The Bishops stated that “nothing has been done: no one cares for the exhausted population of Hassake, who urgently need humanitarian aid.” Syrian Catholic Bishop Jacques Behnan Hindo and Syrian Orthodox Bishop Matta Roham are intensifying efforts to contact other Christian Syrian leaders and humanitarian organizations, but the response they have received so far has been minimal. “It is impossible to bring aid to Hassake because it is too dangerous and lacks minimal security conditions,” the Bishops stated. Islamist…

A general view of an old Byzantine church in the Druze village of Loza, in Idlib province. (AFP, File)

Syria’s archaeological heritage in danger

By Webmaster on September 25, 2012 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: News24 Reyhanli – Syria’s extraordinary archaeological heritage has fallen prey to the fighting ravaging the country for more than 18 months, with destruction, theft and systematic looting on the rise. In a country where corruption and trafficking of archaeological artefacts and treasures was already a chronic problem, widespread clashes and a power vacuum in some areas have led to an explosion of looting and illicit excavations. “It is obvious that in such situations there is always an increase in looting, illegal excavations and smuggling,” Veronique Dauge of the Unesco World Heritage Centre said by telephone. “Remember what happened in…

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Browsing: Syria