Resources
Pope to new Armenian Patriarch: closeness to Syria, Lebanon
Publication Date: 24/9/2021
Source: Vatican News
After his election, the Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians wrote to Pope Francis requesting “Ecclesiastica Communio” (ecclesiastical communion), which the Pope granted in a letter on Thursday. The Holy Father said he was sharing the joy of the Armenian Catholic Church, which prayed as the synod first met in Lebanon and then in Rome to elect the successor to the late Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan, who died on May 25.
Diver finds 900-year-old crusader sword off Israel's coast
Publication Date: 19/10/2021
Source: BBC
An amateur diver exploring shallow waters off northern Israel has found a sword thought to have belonged to a crusader knight 900 years ago.
Man charged with murdering his mother because she converted to Christianity
Publication Date: 27/9/2021
Source: The Times of Israel
A 27-year-old man from northern Israel was charged on Monday with murdering his mother and hiding her body last month, after she converted from Islam to Orthodox Christianity.
In Hamas-Run Gaza, the Last Arab Christians Are Hanging On
Author: Janine di Giovanni
Publication Date: 3/10/2021
Source: Foreign Policy
An ancient community bears witness to its own purging—and recalls a more tolerant time.
Beirut, a City Where Everyone Gets By, Revisits Sectarian Violence
Author: Ben Hubbard and Hwaida Saad
Publication Date: 16/10/2021
Source: The New York Times
Lebanon’s capital thrives on its religious diversity, but sectarian tensions and memories of civil war lurk just beneath the surface.
Patriarch-Christians will be extinct if West does nothing
Author: Fionn Shiner
Publication Date: 20/10/2021
Source: ACN UK
Amid a spiraling economic crisis and an upsurge in violence, a Middle Eastern Patriarch says that if the West fails to help the Christians in Lebanon the community could soon be extinct.
Syriac Catholic bishops cite challenges of Christians in Middle East
Author: Doreen Abi Raad
Publication Date: 21/9/2021
Source: UCA News
Syriac Catholic bishops, meeting in Lebanon for the first time since 2019 because of the pandemic, called on governments in the Middle East to work "to stop wars and renounce the logic of sectarianism and racism."
Assyrian Villages Caught Between SDF and Turkish Fighting
Publication Date: 16/9/2021
Source: Persecution - International Christian Concern
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has installed military artillery in the Assyrian village of Um Waghafa (Tal Tawil) in Al-Hasakah Governorate, nearby the village church, according to Assyrian Monitor for Human Rights. The Christian village is on the border of the fighting between the SDF and Turkish-backed militias, along with many others including the Christian town of Tel Tamer, where civilian infrastructures have been damaged, violating international agreements.
