Aleppo, Syria, December 9, 2024
From the enthronement of Met. Ephraim as ruling hierarch of Aleppo in December 2021. Photo: antiochpatriarchate.org
Syrian Christians are sure to face escalating hardships and persecution as the capital city of Damascus was taken by Islamist rebels yesterday.
President Assad and his family were forced to flee the country and have received asylum in Moscow.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrian Christians have been displaced during the long civil war, and those who remain in their homes are often persecuted, harassed, and killed. In Aleppo, historically a Christian stronghold, only a handful of Christians remain.
The rebels who carried out the takeover in Aleppo late last month are a coalition of armed, popular organizations supported by Turkey, dominated by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group considered terrorist by the U.S., Russia, and other countries, reports the Orthodoxia News Agency.
In areas controlled by Islamic extremist groups, public expressions of Christianity are forbidden, while kidnappings of young Christians continue and Islamist dissidents remain active.
His Eminence Metropolitan Ephraim of Aleppo of the Antiochian Orthodox Church issued a statement on November 30, urging his flock to remain in peace and prayer and promising to remain with his flock to the end.
Met. Ephraim was enthroned as the ruling hierarch of Aleppo in December 2021. His predecessor, His Eminence Metropolitan Boulos (Paul), was captured by Islamist rebels in April 2013 and never heard from again.
One source close to Met. Ephraim, tells the Orthodoxia News Agency that things are tragic for Aleppo and especially for the Orthodox Christians who are still there and refuse to leave the area, their homes, and their churches.
Every hour that passes, we don’t know what will happen and who will survive this ordeal. Everyone left Aleppo, both Syrians and Armenians—only our Metropolitan Ephraim of Aleppo and Alexandretta remained, along with two or three priests who are with him in the Metropolis.
Please pray for them because we don’t know if we’ll see them again. We all remember that 11 years ago, Metropolitan Paul of Aleppo, his predecessor (the blood brother of the current Patriarch of Antioch John) was kidnapped by Islamists and has been missing since then. We fear the same could happen to the current Metropolitan.
Aleppo is currently under occupation. All municipal employees of organizations and services left their jobs, and rebels took their positions. They took down the Syrian flag from public buildings and raised their own.
Met. Ephraim, in speaking with the Orthodoxia News Agency, expressed his fear for every moment that passes. They monitor everything, including phone and internet communications.
“For those who left us,” he emphasizes, “we pray to the Lord to guide their steps and reach their destination safely.”
“We remain beside our people because this is our pastoral mission. We must support them in every kind of need, especially spiritual. We will continue even our prayers and services in our churches as much as we can, of course, to leave our trials in God’s hands. We will continue the path to the Cross like Christ until the Resurrection.”...
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