Christians in Aleppo Offer Meals to Poor Muslims During Ramadan

Fate of abducted Archbishops Paul and John uncertain.

According to this news story, there is still no official word on the fate of the abducted Archbishops, though it is known that the deacon traveling with them was killed during the April 2013 attack. (See the Antiochian Archdiocese news page for the two Archbishops here.)

Christians in Aleppo Offer Meals to Poor Muslims During Ramadan

by Elise Harris, Catholic News Agency, June 17, 2016

Aleppo, Syria, Jun 17, 2016 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite the war raging around them, Syriac Orthodox Christians in Aleppo have decided to provide food to poor Muslim families throughout the Islamic month of Ramadan. 

According to Agenzia Fides, the information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies, faithful of the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo are offering breakfast and evening meals to “the poorest Muslim families” living in the predominantly Christian and Armenian Sulaimaniyah neighborhood of the city. 

The distribution center for the food, which is prepared by the Christian families themselves, is located at the archdiocese’s Cathedral of St. Ephrem the Syrian. 

“What is happening in the Middle East will happen in Europe” - Syrian Orthodox bishop in Switzerland

“'What is happening to us today began 1,300 years ago.' In the 7th century, the genocide of Christians began, then in the darkness, now in the media spotlight. The agenda of Islam has remained always the same, namely to expel the Christians from the Middle East."

A brave, faithful and honest Orthodox bishop fearlessly speaks the truth about Islam. May we heed his warnings and reject the "Same God Heresy."

“What is happening in the Middle East will happen in Europe,” 

(translated from «Was im Nahen Osten geschieht, wird auch in Europa passieren»), Tages Anzeiger, April 14, 2016 (thanks to Jihad Watch):

Isa Gürbüz, the Syrian Orthodox Church leader in Switzerland, calls Christians to be vigilant. The agenda of Islam is to take power.

“In 20 or 30 years there will be a Muslim majority in Europe. Half of European women will then wear a hijab.” This prediction doesn’t come from Michel Houellebecq or Thilo Sarrazin, but from Dionysos Isa Gürbüz, the Syrian Orthodox bishop in Switzerland. He resides in the idyllic Lake Zug Arth Capuchin monastery, with two monks and two nuns. From the monastery Mor Avgin, as it is called today, he oversees the 10,000 Syrian Orthodox faithful in Switzerland and 4,000 in Austria.

Isa Gürbüz is busy preparing for the Easter services, which are celebrated in his church in late April. Then his coreligionists will flock in the hundreds to Arth. Together they will pray, sing and debate – in the Aramaic native language, the sacred language that Jesus spoke. The Syrian Orthodox Church is the oldest of all. In her home in the former Mesopotamia, today Syria and Iraq, they are persecuted. “Arth has therefore become a center for the preservation of our endangered religion and culture,” says Gürbüz.

The fate of the Christians preoccupies the bishop.

Easter joy may not come easily for the bishop. He is too busy with the fate of Christians in the Middle East: “What today has caused thousands to join the terrorist groups of IS, Taliban or al-Qaida, is the extension of the genocide of 1915.” At that time nearly two million Christians – Aramean, Syrian and Greek Orthodox – perished, and millions converted to Islam. The Bishop continues: “What is happening to us today began 1,300 years ago.” In the 7th century, the genocide of Christians began, then in the darkness, now in the media spotlight. The agenda of Islam has remained always the same to him, namely to expel the Christians from the Middle East. Also in the coming years, the spirit of terror will reign there.