Showing posts with label Virgin Mary Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virgin Mary Church. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

'Indispensable' Ancient Church Shaken By World Violence - WORLD WATCH MONITOR CHARISMA NEWS

The Virgin Mary Church is 'indispensable' to Christianity.

The Virgin Mary Church is 'indispensable' to Christianity. (World Watch Monitor)


'Indispensable' Ancient Church Shaken By World Violence




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One of the oldest churches in the world sustained damage last week in the intensified fighting between the Turkish government and Kurdish separatists.
Rocket-propelled grenades destroyed a portion of the wall surrounding the Virgin Mary Church in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on 28 Jan. The Syriac Orthodox church is 1,700 years old.
Fr. Yusuf Akbulut, the priest of the church, was sheltered with his family at his home, located on church grounds, during the attack.
Violence has engulfed Diyarbakir's Sur district, the location of the church, since early December. The government issued an evacuation order on 26 Jan. due to pitched street battles between armed militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Turkish forces.
Fr. Akbulut, who has overseen the church for 23 years, initially refused to evacuate. He and his wife remained in the building until 28 Jan., saying he feared the church would be levelled in an aerial bombardment if left empty.
"We wouldn't have left the church. But when we looked [on the street] and saw that land mines and rockets were exploding non-stop, we knew that we couldn't stay," he told World Watch Monitor. "Our house was shaking and we thought it would collapse."
The power, electricity, and water were cut off. It was time to flee.
Fr. Akbulut dialed 155, the police emergency line. He was told that his neighbourhood was a no-go area, barricaded off to civil authorities. The operator gave him instructions on how to escape. They stepped out on the street cautiously, with Fr. Akbulut waving a white flag. Nobody was there.
Whole buildings were collapsed, reduced to piles of rubble. "It was like a war zone," he said.
Fr. Akbulut and his family are staying in a hotel for the foreseeable future. Ongoing clashes in the church's neighbourhood prevent their return.
But controversy has followed him. He has fended off reports from the Turkish media that his church had indirect involvement with the PKK.
Turkish newspapers claimed on 30 Jan. that a cache of ammunition and explosives was found on the site of Virgin Mary Church. Fr. Akbulut said that he knew nothing of this cache while he was there, and that it was likely deposited after he fled.
Syriac leaders blasted the reports for insinuating that their church could have any link to violent terrorism.
"We know the goals of these reports, which are hateful and completely made up," announced Evgin Turker, president of the Federation of Syriac Foundations. "After the news came out, threats against us started to rain down."
Turkish Protestant church leaders have condemned the PKK violence, raging for the past two months, issuing a joint call for the state to show justice and mercy to its citizens. In early January, a 12-person delegation came to Diyarbakir to issue a statement calling on both sides to seek a peaceful solution.
"We came to beg all parties to take steps towards peace to escape from this spiral of violence," said Ihsan Ozbek, leader of Turkey's Association of Protestant Churches. The pastors met with the district governor, Huseyin Aksoy, and Diyarbakir mayor, Gultan Kisanak.
The violence in Diyarbakir has engulfed other Christian fellowships. Members of Diyarbakir Protestant Church, located directly across the street from the Virgin Mary Church, couldn't hold regular services in their building for two months.
They met in an alternative site throughout the winter but resumed their meetings in the church three weeks ago. When the attacks started last Wednesday, three members of the church in the building immediately fled. Following the advice of the Turkish security forces, they also waved white flags.
Protestant pastor Ahmet Guvener, a friend of Akbulut, called the priest repeatedly to convince him to flee the neighbourhood.
"The bombs started going off every hour. We called Father Yusuf multiple times to try to get him and his wife to leave," Guvener told World Watch Monitor.
Guvener and Fr. Akbulut both said none of the attacks specifically targeted their churches, which are caught in the ongoing violence between the Turkish military and the PKK.
Fierce fighting has escalated across southeastern Turkey since the end of a two-year ceasefire in July 2015. Youth members of the PKK declared self-rule over large parts of Sur, digging trenches and building barricades to keep authorities out, according to Al-Monitor.
A military statement in the official Anadolu Agency said Turkish forces have so far killed 500 PKK fighters in the southeastern town of Cizre and 149 in Sur since December.
According to the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), the government has imposed curfews on many predominantly Kurdish towns and cities. To date, at least 161 civilians, including dozens of children, have died in the violence.
An 'indispensable' holy site for Orthodox Christians
Fr. Akbulut was insistent that he stay in the church as long as possible, even at the risk of his own life. He considers the church indispensable for his congregation, and for Syriac Orthodox Christianity at large.
"I would not be able to live with myself if I abandoned the church," Fr. Akbulut told the Assyrian International News Agency. "It is a symbol for us Assyrians and a symbol for all Christianity. This is a holy place."
The church is of enormous importance to Eastern Orthodoxy, having produced theologians and patriarchs in the early centuries of Christianity. It holds relics such as a piece of the cross and the bones of the apostle Thomas.
The Virgin Mary Church was recently renovated with funds collected from the Syriac diaspora in Europe. Artisans and masons restored the church's mosaics, hand-carved walnut tree doors, stone and brick walls, and silver lanterns.
Fr. Akbulut leads a congregation of 40 members. He speaks Syriac, a language closely related to Aramaic, the language of Jesus and his disciples.
The congregation represents a tiny remnant of Syriac Christianity, an ancient Eastern Rite Church still found in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey.
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Sunday, June 14, 2015

Widow's Joy: He Didn't Deny Christ When Beheaded

Widow's Joy: He Didn't Deny Christ When Beheaded

CAIRO, Egypt -- Imagine ISIS kidnapped a relative of yours and then you see their brutal beheading on television. Many different emotions can take over, including anger, grief, and depression.
CBN News found a group of Egyptian Christians, however, who responded much differently. They are happy their family members stood firm in their faith.
Widow Mariam Farhat told us she, "was very proud" that her husband "stood firm in his faith and that he didn't deny Jesus."
That surprising reaction is happening 150 miles south of Cairo, in the village of Al Aour.
Residents there honor the sacrifice of 21 Egyptians brutally murdered last February by ISIS. Their pictures are prominently displayed in the sanctuary of Virgin Mary Church.
Thirteen attended the church. The martyrs left behind family members like 23-year-old Farhat. She became a widow when the militants beheaded her husband Malak Ibrahim in Libya.
She first learned of his murder when she saw the now infamous video on local television.
"We were very sad for the first two days, but we hadn't seen the video," she recalled. "When we saw them in the video calling to Jesus we were very comforted."
And that's why Mariam and other families say they are now joyful, not sad.
Bebawy Al Ham's brother Samuel was among those killed.
"We were always praying that God would make them steadfast in their faith," Bebawy told CBN News. "We were very happy with what they said on the video: 'Jesus Christ have mercy on us.' When we found out they had been killed for being Christian, we were very comforted, because these were God's children and he took them."
Although Samuel's wife and children now live without a husband and father, his family told CBN News their faith is stronger; they forgive the jihadists, and even pray for ISIS.
"I pray for them that God may open their hearts, and they may know the truth and know that what they do is wrong and then do the right thing," Bebawy said.
"Jesus told us to forgive every sin and we forgive them and we hope that they can come to know Jesus," he said.
Egyptian Christians are encouraged to know they are not alone. In the United States there's a growing movement among Christians to demonstrate unity and solidarity with those who are suffering for Christ in the Middle East.
Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, explained.
"What we thought was how could we identify and stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being brutalized around the world for their Christian faith?" he said. "What tangible thing could we do, what practical thing could we do?"
Immediately, orange jumpsuits came to mind. Mahoney and others launched the #orangejumpsuitcampaign. The movement has expanded to orange scarves, sweaters, and ribbons.
"It's to remind our brothers and sisters that we love them, and we're standing with them and to remind decision makers here in America and across the globe--the free nations of the world--we cannot be silent on this issue," Mahoney said.
He said the response has been amazing. Non-Christians have joined in as well.
"A Jewish rabbi, to stand in solidarity with persecuted Christians is dying his beard orange, which I think is incredible and I can't wait to see that," Mahoney said.
Mariam was encouraged after she viewed cell phone photos of Americans wearing orange.
"May the Lord make their love grow and grow. We are very happy with their love and we don't deserve their love," she told CBN News.
Mahoney said every five minutes around the world a Christian is killed for his faith.
"People don't understand the kind of barbarism and brutality they are going through," he said. "And you know when I visit persecuted Christians in the Middle East there is one thing that they always ask--it doesn't matter if it is Iraq, Syria, wherever it might be-- it's this: 'Please remember us!'"
And wearing orange on the job or at church helps people remember them.
"I think people need to understand that if we do not act quickly, the public expression of Christianity may be extinguished in the Middle East. As Elie Weisel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, says, "we must always take sides. Silence only helps the oppressor, never the oppressed,'" Mahoney said.
Mariam also has a message for others who have suffered or still face danger from ISIS.
"Don't be sad or cry. God will support us all," he said. "And he will fulfill his promise that he is the father of the orphans and the widows."
Watch video: Joy in Jesus