White House Petition Urging the Release of Two Orthodox Christian Archbishops Held Hostage in Syria

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Editor’s Foreword:

Please, sign the petition by using the link below.

BMD

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An appeal to President Obama and his government for the release of two Orthodox Christian Archbishops, namely Archbishop Boulos Yazigi and Archbishop Youhanna Ibrahim, who were abducted by armed rebels on 23 April 2013 in the suburbs of Aleppo, Syria. The driver of the Archbishops was murdered and the Archbishops were forced by the rebels to go to an unknown location either in Syria or in Turkey. We appeal to you beloved in Christ and peace loving people to sign this petition urgently asking the American administration to use all its influence for the release of these two Archbishops and to bring a peaceful settlement to this bloody Syrian conflict through a negotiated settlement.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/appeal-president-obama-and-his-government-release-two-abducted-orthodox-christian-archbishops-syria/xNskxL1q

(No URL… sent to me as a cut n’ paste)

 

Statement by President Obama on the Occasion of Orthodox Easter

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This weekend, Michelle and I extend our best wishes to members of the Orthodox Christian community here in America and around the world as they observe Holy Friday and the Feast of the Resurrection. For millions of Orthodox Christians, this is a joyful time, but it’s also a reminder of the sacrifice Christ made so that we might have eternal life. His decision to choose love in the face of hate, to hope in the face of despair, is an example we should always strive to follow. However, it’s especially important to remember this year, as members of the Orthodox community have been confronted with persecution and violence, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. For centuries, the region and the world has been enriched by the contributions of Orthodox communities in countries like Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. As a nation, we reaffirm our commitment to protecting universal human rights including the freedom of religion. Moreover, in this season of hope and restoration, we celebrate the transformational power of sacrificial love.

4 May 2013

Barack Obama

President of the USA

http://www.Whitehouse.gov

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/04/statement-president-occasion-orthodox-easter

Orthodox Christians to Celebrate Easter on 5 May: They’re Still in Great Lent

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For millions of Christians, Lent just began, even though Easter for most was 31 March. Orthodox Christians, including Greek, Antiochian, Russian, and Armenian groups, will celebrate Easter on 5 May, five weeks later than Catholics and Protestants. During Great Lent, a solemn period of fasting and prayer, many Orthodox Christians abstain from meat, poultry, dairy, alcohol, and olive oil. Some fast from all food and drink on prescribed days or times during Lent; others take a more moderate course, such as doing without only during certain days or weeks.

Tom Copulos, a periodontist and father of four who attends St Mark Greek Orthodox Church in Boca Raton FL, said, “It’s not what you’re giving up, it’s that you’re trying to be closer to God. We also pray more and give more to charity”. The Copulos family scrupulously checks food labels to make sure that they eat no meat or chicken during this reflective season. They abstained from dairy products during the first week, and they’ll do the same during Holy Week, the week before Easter.

Easter usually falls on different dates for western churches and their Eastern Orthodox counterparts, although they overlapped as recently as 2011. Each church follows different rules for calculating the date. Eastern churches base their festival dates on the Julian calendar, which was in use during the Council of Nicaea, an Ecumenical Council held in 325, which clarified Christian doctrines. Pope Gregory XIII Boncompagni made corrections to the calendar in 1582, creating the Gregorian calendar that puts Easter between 22 March and 25 April each year, whilst Orthodox Easter falls between 4 April and 8 May (Gregorian calendar dates).

There are about 5 million Orthodox Christians in the USA {that’s a bald-faced lie, but Ms Solomon quoted a deliberately-lying “Orthodox” source, I’m sure: editor}. Stavros Papagermanos, a spokesman for the GOAA, said that about 2 million are Greek Orthodox {again, a gross overcount… but she’s only spitting back what she was told: editor}… the largest group… whose number has remained stable over the past ten years. Rev Elia Shalhoub said that St Philip Church, an Antiochian Orthodox congregation in Davie FL, has grown steadily, with about 125 families now. He fasts daily during Great Lent, from midnight to noon, every day except Sunday, and avoids meat and dairy foods, saying, “It gives the body more energy, control of the senses, discipline”.

Services in Orthodox churches are filled with pageantry and vivid images of passion, betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection during Great Lent and in the days before Easter. Some congregants dye eggs red, a symbol of Christ’s blood. During the Resurrection Service that starts just before midnight on Holy Saturday, Orthodox priests take a large candle and light the candles of worshipers in a darkened sanctuary. They leave the church and sing hymns outside, then return to the church for the Easter liturgy. The Rev Timotheus Soliman, of St John the Baptist Coptic Orthodox Church in Miramar FL, said that he eats one Lenten meal per day of rice, vegetables, and fruit, at 17.00, with the congregation, noting, “You’re fasting from sin, vices, and passions and acquiring virtues. It’s worked for us for 2,000 years”.

7 April 2013

Lois Solomon

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/boca-raton/fl-orthodox-lent-20130407,0,7734514.story

Challenges in Syria and Lebanon Await Next Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch

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Confronting the challenges facing Syrian and Lebanese Christians will top the agenda of the new Greek Orthodox patriarch, who’ll be elected this month to succeed Patriarch Ignatius Hazim. At least 18 bishops from Antiochian Greek Orthodox dioceses around the world will meet at Balamand Monastery near Tripoli before Christmas to elect a new head for the Church. According to officials familiar with the meetings taking place between the bishops, the unrest in Syria, its negative repercussions on the Syrian Christian community, and plans on how to face the current crisis, would carry significant weight during the talks. Metropolitan Saba Esper of the southern Syrian regions of Bosra-Houran, Jabal al-Arab, and the Golan was elected as patriarchal locum tenens at a meeting last week devoted exclusively to the organisation of a patriarchal election.

At his residence in Rabieh, Metropolitan Archbishop Antonio Chedraoui Tannous of Mexico and Central America told The Daily Star, “No doubt, there are great difficulties in Syria today. What happened in Lebanon during the Civil War is taking place in Syria. The new patriarch will be elected soon and the new patriarch will lead the Christmas celebrations”. Chedraoui said that all bishops were aware of the present challenges and the difficulties facing Christians in the Middle East, stating, “All the bishops are ready to face these challenges in the proper way”. Chedraoui, 80, has been Mexico’s bishop for the past 46 years; he said that he had no intention to leave the Americas and become patriarch, noting, “The Mexicans are part of my life. The diocese I serve is part of my life and leaving them isn’t easy, but I’m a soldier in the Church. If the Church’s decision is to appoint me as patriarch, then, I have to abide by the decision. What’s important for us is the interests of our religion, the interests of the Church, and the difficulties the region is going through”.

Officials said that many favour Saba, a Syrian, to succeed Ignatius, who was laid to rest in Damascus earlier this week after serving 33 years as the Church’s First Hierarch. Nineteen bishops from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, and Europe will meet in Balamand Monastery to elect the new patriarch. Each will nominate three bishops to succeed Ignatius. In the second round of voting, the patriarch will be elected from amongst the three bishops who receive the highest number of votes from the first round. The contest is mainly between two groups of candidates… Saba and George Khodr of Mount Lebanon on one side, and Damaskinos Mansour of Brazil and Boulos Yazigi of Aleppo on the other. However, according to one official, the electors could reach a compromise by choosing another bishop as patriarch. Metropolitan Archbishop Philip Saliba of North America, who won’t take part in the election for health reasons or Mexico’s Chedraoui could be elected as a compromise measure.

Meanwhile, in Beirut, a group of Greek Orthodox Lebanese issued an open letter to the next patriarch, calling on him to tackle the serious dangers facing the community in the country. The Orthodox Gathering called on the church’s next patriarch to develop a framework that would allow the patriarchate’s religious and lay figures to share decision-making, stating, “There are clear imbalances in the relation between religious and lay persons … Fixing these imbalances requires active participation from both sides to make us one body under one church”. The statement added that the patriarchate was about to enter a dangerous phase that could affect the future of many Greek Orthodox Lebanese.

Chedraoui said, “Patriarch Ignatius succeeded in bringing peace into the Church after all the disputes and disagreements … He united everyone in one person”. The bishop added that the Church would continue its productive mission despite Ignatius’s passing, observing, “He’ll certainly be missed, we’re all affected, but the Church isn’t dependent on one person; all the bishops form one family. History has shown that a patriarch’s death doesn’t mean the end of the Church’s continuity”. Asked about the fate of Syrian Christians after the collapse of the embattled Syrian régime, Chedraoui said that the Christian presence is in decline in the entire region, not just in any particular country, saying, “Look at Jerusalem, how many Christians are still in Jerusalem? Look at Iraq, how many Christians have left Iraq in the past decade? The Christian presence is in decline in the entire region, and that’s why we need to remain in our lands and not give up on them … This happens by bringing the Church and the people closer to each other. We came from the East, so, we need to preserve our presence whatever the costs are”. Criticising those who use violence in the name of religion, Chedraoui said, “Those who hate have no religion. I’ve said before, and I say it again, we should be religious because being religious ensures love and forgiveness, not hatred and sectarianism, as some claim. Religion can’t be used for destruction or murder, but only for building love and unity”.

14 December 2012

Van Meguerditchian

The Daily Star (Lebanon News)

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Dec-14/198432-challenge-of-syria-awaits-next-greek-orthodox-patriarch.ashx#axzz2FFeyk1O8