The death of His Holiness Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim

Text of the appeal addressed by His Holiness Ignatius IV, patriarch of Antioch, to all the sides in conflict in Syria, within and outside its border (25 July 2012):

Appeal that all hostile actions cease, whatever their provenance

We are addressing an invitation to all sides involved in the conflict, in this Syria torn by war and outside of her, that all hostile actions cease, of whatever provenance. An incalculable number of Muslim and Christian Arabs, men, women, and children, fall victims of the bombs every day. The hospitals are filled with the wounded, and human moans have become permanent, uninterrupted. We Arabs in Syria, independently of our religion, have the right to live in peace in our country. In these fifteen months we have lost an incalculable number of persons; many are those who have emigrated, leaving their homeland and seeking refuge in other countries. Under the ruins of the fighting our Christians have lost their villages, their towns, their properties, their holy churches, and their families. We invite all Syrians, in the name of the one and true God, to find an accord to live together in our blessed Syria. We hope that international organizations may understand the particular character of our country and may guarantee us peace, stability, ad reconciliation.

Ignatius IV of Antioch, Primate of the Greek-Orthodox Church of Antioch and all the East

 

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Spirit of peace

Eastern Christians are called upon to operate actively so that peace may be established in their regions. They are children of evangelical humility and love, their Church calls upon them to be faithful to this particular vocation of theirs. For this reason the Church rejects the violence exercised generally in the Arab world, which leads to massacres, the displacement and exodus of populations, destruction, multiple disorders, and the kidnapping of persons. History has proved that violence, whatever its provenance, is not a way that resolves problems, but, on the contrary, contributes to greater tension in situations of division among the children of the same homeland and determines an increase of conflicts and wars.

(From the communiqué of the Holy Synod of the Greek-Orthodox Church of Antioch, Balamand, 2–4 October 2012)