'The Cross is ISIS' main enemy; today no trace of a Cross can be seen in Mosul'

This story provides further proof � if any is still needed � of the Islamic religious roots and motivations of the Islamic State. 

The Cross is symbolic of Islam's main enemy: Christianity. Under the terms of the dhimma contract and the Pact of Omar, Christians may not display the Cross openly, either on their buildings or on their person. 

The breaking of crosses is a potent symbol of Islam's global supremacy in the end times. Muhammad prophesied that when Isa (the Muslim Jesus) returns, he will  "fight the people for the cause of Islam. He will break the cross, kill the swine and abolish jizya� and establish the rule of Allah throughout the world (Hadith from Sunan Abu Dawud, Book of Battles, 37:4310).

Demolition of churches and crosses, or converting churches into mosques, is a classic trait of Islam's treatment of Christians wherever it has conquered for fourteen centuries now. In our days, Muslims are even taking to breaking crosses in cemeteries, as seen in the infamous YouTube videos of 2012.

In Syracuse NY we recently saw the "breaking of the crosses" on a huge scale; a venerable Roman Catholic church was converted into a mosque, the crosses removed the spires, and 10,000 crosses in the interior covered over in a hugely symbolic victory for Islam.

See also Raymond Ibrahim's recent article, 'Islamic Hate for the Christian Cross', and my own piece 'Islam's Hatred of Holy Icons � and what that means for Persecuted Eastern Christians'. 

"The Cross is ISIS' main enemy; today no trace of a Cross can be seen in Mosul"

Pravoslavie, September 26, 2015:

(Mosul, September 23, 2015) A war is currently being waged against Christianity on the territory of the Biblical city of Nineveh, which is currently under control of the �Islamic State� militants: according to eyewitnesses� evidence, the fanatics are trying their best to eliminate the very memory of the Christian presence in Mosul, reports Ankawa news agency.

In his report, sent to the Ankawa agency�s staff writer Yunus Zanoun, the journalist A.S. from Mosul gave information about ISIS�s intention to wipe out all the Christian symbols from Nineveh, and that they are working hard in order to achieve this ambition. �The cross is ISIS�s main enemy; that is why today no traces of crosses can be seen in Mosul,� A.S. noted.

According to the journalist, the terrorists threw down all the crosses from domes of Mosul churches within two weeks after seizing city; they organized raids on houses of Christian residents of Mosul to destroy all the crosses and icons in the city.

�The dwellings were ravaged with great fury � and the vestiges of this hatred for Christianity can be seen here to this day� As for churches and monasteries, whole teams are involved in the job of dynamiting or partially demolishing their buildings. For example, large-scale work at the St. George�s Monastery in the al-Arabi neighborhood of Mosul was carried out to dismantle the iron crosses from the fencing, while the St. Ephraim�s Monastery in the ash-Shurta neighborhood was deliberately �enlarged��this was done to conceal a huge cross carved on the front of the monastery�s main church,� A.S. related.

At the same time, the Alsumaria.tv portal reported that �Islamic State� militants exploded a number of Christian homes in the Karakush district. There is still no information on the number of victims or the extent of damage to the residents� property.

'Breaking of the Crosses' in Syracuse Part 2: The Sharia Doctrine against the Cross

The huge response to my recent post on the conversion into a mosque of a century-old Roman Catholic church in Syracuse, NY, gives us reason and opportunity to explore Islamic hatred of Christianity and the Cross in more depth. 

This well-researched article by Ryan Mauro of the Clarion Project elaborates the sharia doctrine behind Islam's jihad against the Cross, and helps explain the significance of Muslims breaking and covering 10,000 crosses in Syracuse.

We will only see more such examples of Islam's jihad against Christianity and the Cross in the dark days ahead. This is truly a Sign of the Apocalypse.

Al-Qaeda Declares 'We Must Eliminate the Cross'

This follows sharia doctrine that says Christianity's ultimate elimination will be carried out by Jesus,who is really an Islamist.

by Ryan Mauro, The Clarion Project (originally posted April 27, 2014)

Senior Al Qaeda leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi recently appeared in a video made in Yemen during the largest and most dangerous gathering of Al Qaeda in recent years.

Al Qaeda recently released a video of a large meeting in Yemen showing senior leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi preaching, �We must eliminate the cross� and explained that, �The bearer of the cross is America.�

Al-Wuhayshi was referencing sharia doctrine about the ultimate elimination of Christianity at the hands of the Islamist version of Jesus. It couldn�t be clearer: Their jihad is not about Western foreign policy. It�s about global conquest.

The Al Qaeda leader�s comment is important because it displays the end goal of even the �moderate� Islamists who insist that sharia governance is tolerant to Christians and Jews because it does not require a change in faith.

In truth, the system is designed to contain Christianity and Judaism and minimize their sustainability, but even this modicum of acceptance is not permanent.

Mainstream sharia doctrine holds that Jesus was not crucified or resurrected, but instead ascended to heaven. According to the doctrine, one day he will return to defeat the Islamic version of the Antichrist, which is called the Dajjal.

IslamWeb, a website that honors Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi, states in Fatwa 82061 that �the first people to follow him [the Dajjal] will be the Jews.� The Antichrist will be on earth for 40 days and then Jesus �will come down from heaven and kill him.�

IslamWeb Fatwa 124824 says Jesus will �break some crosses and command people to do the same�... 

The objective is to make Christians accept that their interpretation of Jesus is wrong and to convert to Islam.

Islamist teaching about the Dajjal foments anti-Semitism and depicts Jesus as someone who -- alongside the Muslims -- will fight the Jews. Islamic scholar Imran Nazar Hosein preached in 2011 that the Dajjal will have an army of 70,000 Jews from Isfahan, Iran �externally appearing to be Muslims.� Egyptian Sheikh Mahmoud al-Masry says the same thing, adding that the Dajjal will be born to a Jewish woman in Isfahan and reign from Jerusalem.

IslamWeb Fatwa 124824 says Jesus will �break some crosses and command people to do the same� and will also �prohibit keeping them.� The objective is to make Christians accept that their interpretation of Jesus is wrong and to convert to Islam.

OnIslam.net, a website where Muslims can ask Islamic scholars questions, says Jesus �will declare himself as a prophet of Islam, coming to correct his message and to unite all the believers under the banner of Islam.� Jesus will then abolish the jizya, the mandatory tax paid by non-Muslims under sharia governance.

This prophetic absorption of Christianity into Islam is what is envisioned by the United Muslim Christian Forum, an Islamist terrorist front group, when it talks about bringing the two religions together into a single bloc.

Sharia will be the only government and Islam the only faith. The Reliance of the Traveller, an authoritative Sharia manual endorsed by Egypt�s Al-Azhar University (the highest school of Sunni learning) and the Muslim Brotherhood-linked International Institute of Islamic Thought, says in section 09.8:

�After his [Jesus] final coming, nothing but Islam will be accepted from them [Jews and Christians], for taking the poll tax [jizya] is only effective until Jesus� descent�The coming of Jesus does not entail a separate divinely revealed law, for he will rule by the law of Mohammed��

IslamWeb Fatwa 82052 explains that Jesus will

�implement Islamic rules, and He will fight against the present Idolatrous Christianity. The most correct evidence shows that he is still alive, has not yet died, after Almighty Allah rescued him from the guilty Jews.�

Sharia doctrine further explains that Christians who convert at this time will go to Paradise. As for Christians and other non-Muslims who did not live for this prophetic time, they will be judged one day by Jesus. Anyone who ever lived and heard the message of Islam and did not convert will have Jesus as a �witness� against them on the Day of Judgment, according to Fatwa 82052.

These fatwas reference the hadith, or the collection of narrations about Mohammed�s life, as the source for their determinations. Muslims often disagree about the authenticity, interpretation and correct application of the different hadiths, but the top sharia scholars are united in their beliefs about Jesus� role in prophecy and his destruction of crosses.

The Islamist offensiveness at the sight of a cross comes from these teachings about Sharia. Since they believe Jesus finds it so offensive that he will one day break the crosses, these Islamists believe they are commanded to likewise be offended by Christianity and the symbol of the cross in particular.

There is disagreement among Islamists about when Christians are acceptable targets, but Islamist terrorists like Al-Qaeda can cite authoritative Sharia rulings to show that attacks on Christianity are permitted before Jesus� descent from heaven.

A worldview that says �we must eliminate the cross� cannot be changed by political [or religious] dialogue...

When Islamists destroy crosses or talk of destroying the cross, they are emulating the anger they believe Jesus has towards the cross. They are acting as they believe Jesus would if he were on earth today. This is the source for al-Wuhayshi�s statement that �we must eliminate the cross.�

This is also why Christian girls in Egypt are having their necklaces with crosses broken. It is also why Islamists in Libya destroyed a cross (along with the gravestones) at a gravesite for British soldiers who died there fighting the Axis powers.

Section o9.8 of Reliance of the Traveler states that a caliph (the leader of a caliphate) �makes war upon Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians� after first giving them a chance to convert or submit to sharia governance and agreeing to pay the jizya. Some Islamists argue that the resurrection of the caliphate is required for this war to commence, but that�s not exactly a reassuring qualification.

The Distinguished Jurist�s Primer by Ibn Rushd was published by the Qatar-based Center for Muslim Contribution to Civilization and endorsed by a list of prestigious Islamist scholars including Qaradawi, members of Al-Azhar and the Qatari government. Section 101.1.7 of the Primer states, 

�The Muslim jurists agreed that the purpose of fighting the People of the Book, excluding the (Qurayshite) People of the Book and the Christian Arabs, is one of two things: it is either for their conversion to Islam or the payment of jizya.�

Islamist terrorists like Al-Qaeda who target Christians and Western civilization believe they are doing the work of Allah and, ironically, Jesus. A worldview that says �we must eliminate the cross� cannot be changed by political dialogue and foreign policy alterations.

 _______

Ryan Mauro is the ClarionProject.org�s National Security Analyst, a fellow with the Clarion Project and is frequently interviewed on top-tier TV stations as an expert on counterterrorism and Islamic extremism.

SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE: Muslim 'Breaking of the Crosses' in Syracuse NY

Muslims cut down, paint over 10,000 crosses to convert former Roman Catholic church to mosque. Plan approved by Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board.

This is surely another sign of our times, a sign of the impending apocalypse. The breaking of crosses and conversion of churches into mosques is widespread in Europe, but not yet so much in America.

The Final Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Syracuse NY (February 2010).

For Christians, it is a reminder of the warning of our Lord Jesus Christ: "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8).

The number of crosses covered over � 10,000 � is a deeply symbolic, Biblical number, and was no doubt chosen by the Holy Trinity Church founders based on Revelation 5:11, where the seer John beholds the myriads of angels around the throne of God:

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands...

This scene comes immediately after "the Lamb who was slain" (who is, of course, Jesus Christ) takes the scroll with the deepest mysteries of God, sealed front and back with seven seals, and is immediately praised:

Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying:

�You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.� (Rev. 5:8-10)

Following this ecstatic worship of the Lamb by the four living creatures, the twenty-four elders, and the prayers of the saints, the "ten-thousand times ten-thousand" worship Him too:

... saying with a loud voice: 

�Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!� 

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: 

�Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!� 

Then the four living creatures said, �Amen!� And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever. (Rev. 5:12-14)

The whole point of chapter 5 of the Apocalypse is to show that the Lamb � Jesus Christ � is equal with God the Father, that He is worshipped just as the Father is, by all the hosts of heaven, all the saints, and by "every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth."

Such is the significance of the 10,000 crosses, and the name of the former parish, Holy Trinity. It was one of the most visible, richly symbolic representations of the Christian presence in Syracuse, and in New York State and the United States by extension.

Though it is certainly a temporal tragedy that such a symbolic church would be desecrated, let the significance of this serve to enkindle our zeal. The collapse of institutional Christianity is happening all around us, but Christ promised us that "Even the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church."

During the desecration of Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, Syracuse NY.

Desecration accomplished: the former home of Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church
is now a functioning mosque. Lord have mercy.

As for observant Muslims, this will be seen as a victory over Christianity, and a powerful sign of Islam's new global resurgence, of Islam's eventual domination over the United States and the Western world, and especially, as an eschatological sign of the end times, when, Muslims believe,

Isa (the Muslim Jesus) will return and "fight the people for the cause of Islam. He will break the cross, kill the swine and abolish jizya� and establish the rule of Allah throughout the world (Hadith from Sunan Abu Dawud, Book of Battles, 37:4310).

Orthodox Christians! Let these dire signs rouse us to fervent faith and love for the Lord and His Church! As Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim of Platina wrote:

"Now one cannot be a half-hearted Christian, but only entirely or not at all."

Syracuse: Muslims cut down, paint over 10,000 crosses to convert church to mosque
Creeping Sharia � August 17, 2015 (Comments in italics below in original post.)

Holy Trinity Church of Syracuse, before the "breaking of the crosses..."

For background on this story, see also:

• Muslim Refugees Take Over Former Catholic Church in Syracuse, New York
• At Holy Trinity's final Mass, a bishop prays, a protest is made, and the pews are packed

ISIS destroys Christian symbols in the Middle East. Boko Haram attacks churches and churchgoers in Africa. In the west, the process is more refined� for now. 

via From church to mosque: Syracuse Islamic group cuts crosses, tries to connect to neighborhood | syracuse.com.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. � Two gray church spires grow out of a bumpy plain of city rooftops along Park Street. The skyline is the same as it has been for the better part of a century until you look closer at Holy Trinity Church: There are slim copper crescents where, for 100 years, there had been crosses. 

The six crosses were removed and replaced at the end of June. Four of them were massive: 600 pounds of concrete each, and more than 4 feet tall. The step was the last, and most visible, in the building�s change from church to mosque.

The transformation has been a series of careful choices aimed at balancing the forces of two religions in a neighborhood that is shifting. The North Side, once full of Italian and German immigrants, is increasingly home to new Americans who are refugees from countries where Islam is the dominant religion. 

Even as the crosses were cut from the church spires on the outside, and 10,000 crosses were painted over on the inside, the new owners of 501 Park St. tried to leave what they could, and reuse what they couldn�t. 

The wood from the pews has been repurposed to fix the floor, which is where Muslims sit to pray. Painters worked to make the minbar, the pulpit where the imam stands, blend in with the stonework. The name of the mosque is Masjid Isa Ibn Maryam, which translates to Mosque of Jesus Son of Mary.

Is this the history we want to leave for future generations? It will be and it will get much worse if Muslim immigration is not halted and/or reversed very soon. More below the fold.

The cost to buy and transform the church was great: $300,000 and counting, said Yusuf Soule, the volunteer director of the North Side Learning Center, which bought the property and is overseeing the mosque construction.

Yusuf Soule, director of the North Side Learning Center, with the desecrated church in the background.

But the physical work and fundraising has been the easy part of the transformation.  

Soule stood inside the mosque, his nearly 7-foot frame diminished by the vastness of the space. The 50-foot ceilings seem higher than they were when there were church pews and an altar inside the building. Painters, paid and volunteer, were up on ladders for weeks, painting over some 10,000 crosses, Soule said. 

The crosses were turned into other designs, or, in some cases, covered over by gray paint so they blended into the walls. 

Covering those 10,000 crosses was a small feat when compared with what it took to remove the crosses from the church spires. That took months of back and forth with the city�s Landmark Preservation Board, submitting and resubmitting plans for removing the crosses and storing them onsite, which the board required. 

On June 29, Paul Waelder rode a crane to the top of the church. Along with workers from Giarrosso Sheet Metal, Waelder spent two days 200 feet in the air, working first with concrete saws to remove the crosses. Then his son, David Waelder, an artist and metal worker, hammered the domes and crescents into place. The crescents are smaller, less than a foot, on top of thin metal spires. They cover up the lightning rods that were part of the crosses and had to be left to protect the building. 

Paul Waelder said the high-profile job came with two stipulations: no talking to the press and no pictures or video of the cross removal. 

Waelder understood. �They had a bull�s eye on their backs,� he said. �They are doing good things over there.�

So good they didn�t allow Waelder to talk to the press or allow anyone to take pictures of the crosses being taken down. Did they not want to catch Muslims cheering? 

Watching the crosses come down off of Holy Trinity was hard for the people who found their spiritual home there, week after week, year after year. 

Anne Angiolillo raised her 10 children spending every Sunday in the pews of Holy Trinity. She opposed taking down the crosses, and cried inside when it was done, she said. 

Angiolillo moved from the neighborhood last year, but when she goes back and looks to the sky now, it seems empty. �They�re missing,� she said. �They really were a landmark.� 

Even now, Soule was reluctant to have pictures taken of the massive crosses. After they were removed from the building, they were carefully wrapped in plastic and cloth. They look a bit like mummies. The two copper crosses, less than 100 pounds each, were easier to remove. They are not wrapped. 

The city allowed Soule�s group to take the crosses down, but it also required them to keep the crosses at 501 Park St. Soule said the hope is that the crosses can be kept in a way that lets the public see them. But the final plan hasn�t been worked out.

Why would the city allow them to take down the crosses then keep them on site? Don�t hold your breath waiting for a plan.

Read it all to notice the inherent Islamophilia in the Muslims-good, Americans-bad puff piece by Marnie Eisenstadt.

Our previous coverage of the church-now-mosque and previous Eisenstadt Islamophilia here.

Metropolitan Tikhon: 'The way of the Church is the way of sacrifice and martyrdom'

"We are here, in North America, called to be apostles and martyrs for Christ."

On July 20, the presiding hierarch of the Orthodox Church in America, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, delivered a significant address to the OCA's 18th All-American Council in Atlanta, Georgia.

What would he say to this important gathering? Especially in our days of such turmoil, "men�s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth" (LK 21:26).

Thanks be to God, His Beatitude presented the message of the Cross and Resurrection. He wasted no time, but from the very beginning "launched out into the deep," renewing our calling as Orthodox Christians. In a manner of speaking, he "rebuked the raging sea," confronting it with calm strength founded upon the Rock. And from such a beginning, having secured his listeners' attention, he set forth his vision.

I recommend listening to the address while having the text before you, and following along. It is lengthy, about an hour and a quarter, but very worthwhile. Text, pdf and audio are available here.

Here are just a few key excerpts, followed by some remarks by Archimandrite Sergius, Abbot of St Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery:

THE APOSTOLIC WORK OF THE CHURCH

ADDRESS OF THE METROPOLITAN TO THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA

EIGHTEENTH ALL-AMERICAN COUNCIL

ATLANTA, GEORGIA � July 20, 2015 

[...] 

It is only through prayer, and the life that flows from prayer, and the virtues that are engendered by prayer, that we can reach our goal; and our goal is not the passing of resolutions or the compiling of minutes; our goal is not to debate issues or share our opinion; our goal is not to get to the end of this week or even to set the agenda for the next triennium. 

Our goal is to seek God above all, and to let this desire illumine our work together, so that we might make our own the words of Saint Herman of Alaska: 

�And I, a sinner, have tried to love God for more than forty years, and I cannot say that I perfectly love Him,� � �at least let us make a vow to ourselves, that from this day, from this hour, from this very moment, we shall strive above all else to love God and to fulfill His Holy Will!� 

THE WAY OF MARTYRDOM 

We gather in Council at a time when the world, as it is wont to be, is enshrouded in military conflict, economic hardship, civil war and persecution. Even if we remain somewhat shielded from these global realities in our own North American context, we nevertheless feel the weight of these worldwide struggles even as we wrestle with our own challenges in the economic, political, spiritual and moral spheres. 

What can we, as the Orthodox Church in America, offer in the face of these challenges? How can we, small and numerically insignificant, imagine contributing even a bit of light in the midst of such darkness? 

The only way to do something is to heed the words of the Lord, who tells us: Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it; Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14) 

The way of the Church, and the path of Christians walking along that way is difficult, painful and full of sorrow because it is the way of the Cross. But the way of the Cross is also the way of the Resurrection, though this way may lead us through hell itself. And through the Cross and the Resurrection, we find the love of Christ, Who bore the former and gave us the latter. 

The way of the Church is the way of sacrifice and martyrdom � this has been so since the foundation of the Church and it remains true for us today. But it is a sacrifice that begets life and a martyrdom that is victorious in Christ�s holy resurrection. 

A few months ago, I made my official Irenic - peaceful - visit to the ancient Church of Georgia, a Church which has witnessed the martyric life of Christianity from its foundations even up to more recent times. Exactly four hundred years ago, in 1615, the Persian shah, Abbas I, led his great army in an attack on the country of Georgia. At one point during his campaign, he was drawn to a flaming column of light high up in the mountains of the Gareji region. He asked about it and was told that there was a great monastery located there. It was the night of Holy Pascha and the monks of the Davit-Gareji monastery were circling the Church three times with lighted candles in celebration of the Lord�s resurrection. When the Persians arrived at the monastery, the Abbot, Arsen, approached the leader and asked that the monks be given a bit more time to finish the service and for all the brothers to receive Holy Communion. The Persians allowed for this and the fathers partook of the Holy Gifts, encouraged one another, and then presented themselves clad in festive garments before the unbelievers, who straightaway beheaded the Abbot and massacred a total of 6,000 brothers.*  Those martyred brothers now �as a cloud of witnesses� intercede before the throne of God for the salvation of those in the Church of Georgia.

 * This account of one of the many Muslim jihad campaigns against the Georgian Church, and the resulting "great cloud of witnesses" � martyrs � is included in The Lives of the Georgian Saints, St Herman Press, Platina CA, p 279.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ � we cannot begin to speak about how to expand the mission, the theme of our Council this year, if we do not begin with the reality of martyrdom, which is the only authentic foundation for our Apostolic work. 

This Apostolic work is not just a theory, just as martyrdom is not just a theory or principle. They are realities of our Church life that challenge us where we are. And we are here, in North America, called to be apostles and martyrs for Christ. 

Saint Tikhon of Moscow, the Enlightener of North America, understood this fully when he addressed a similar gathering to ours 106 years ago. He entitled his talk with the words which we have chosen as the theme of this week�s Council; and he did it with the full realization that the question �how to expand the mission� could only be answered with a full acceptance of the martyric life of the Church and a commitment to live that life where he was, where the Church was, and where the Church could be... 

Just as the Georgian monks facing certain death on the feast of Holy Pascha, so Saint Tikhon clung to the joy and the hope of the resurrection which would be the foundation of his apostolic work, and this, without any foreknowledge of the Cross that would be his to bear as Patriarch of the Russian Church...

Is His Beatitude, through this recounting of the link between Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow's apostolic labors and his eventual martyrdom, preparing us for martyric trials ahead?  Surely we must let these words sink down into our ears � and prepare for trials � as we labor here in America.

---

And this from the address of Archimandrite Sergius, Abbot of St Tikhon's Monastery:

I ask you a simple question now. Do you enjoy and sense the peace, blessing and love that are given to you in the person of my Bishop and confessor, Metropolitan Tikhon? Do you sense that God is with us in a real way now in his leadership and his person? 

I believe that the answer to the above is yes and I offer for your consideration that he is a direct product of St. Tikhon�s Monastery and that starting as a simple novice, history will show you that he is the first Metropolitan of this Orthodox Church in America that began as a lowly novice cleaning sinks, toilets, cooking, directing, and serving in whatever capacity he was asked � just as he serves in that same humble way now. I offer to you the product of a life of prayer, humility and of our Church�s Monastery, the Monastery of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk.

---

I was greatly encouraged and deeply consoled as well as inspired by the words of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon. His words and example should inspire and urge us all on to do what we can to advance the Orthodox Gospel of Jesus Christ here in the Americas. AXIOS and thanks be to God!

Special Request: For an Orthodox Priest and his Family in Great Need

Please consider helping to support Fr. Matthew Harrington and Matushka Anna and their family during this time of crisis. Rather than merely link to the GoFundMe site, I wanted to share Rod Dreher's full post, as Fr Matthew's story is a profound one of deep conversion, of brokenness, of mission, and of taking up one's cross and following Christ. Fr Matthew's story needs to be shared, because it is so authentic. Through his and Matushka Anna's crosses, through their suffering, and through our prayers and help for them, we all may learn and grow into the likeness of Christ together. . .

_______

As posted at Pravoslavie: We would like to post on our site a plea from Rod Dreher, Orthodox blogger at The American Conservative, concerning the current pressing need of his priest Fr. Matthew Harrington and his family, as his wife faces a dangerous and costly surgery for the birth of their fourth child. Please consider contributing as you can, through prayer and donations.

A CLERGY FAMILY IN GREAT NEED

by Rod Dreher, The American Conservative � July 19, 2015

If you�ve been following this blog for the past two or three years, or if you�ve read How Dante Can Save Your Life, you will have read about my priest, Father Matthew Harrington. As pastor of St. John the Theologian Orthodox Mission, he�s a terrific priest, and helped me tremendously through my own spiritual and emotional struggles, as I recount in the book. Here�s an excerpt from How Dante telling you a little about who he is:

St. John the Theologian is Father Matthew�s first parish. When Father Seraphim Bell, a Walla Walla, Washington, priest who is Father Matthew�s own spiritual father, dispatched the newly ordained Matthew to us, he told me that the former police officer was a naturally gifted pastor �because he has suffered.� 

After we had known each other a while, I asked Father Matthew what Father Seraphim had meant by that. I knew that Father Matthew had been raised by his grandparents and had never known his father. And I knew that he had been a police officer. One afternoon, sitting alone with him in the fellowship hall, I asked him to tell me his story. 

�I was a very capable police officer, but I always felt like I was being punished for doing my job,� he said, squaring his shoulders under his black cassock. �I would arrest some city bigwig for drunk driving, and my boss would fuss at me. Why? It really aggravated a sense in me of deep mistrust of authority. 

�And there were other things that are normal in police work but that started to get to me. I would think, �Why did that guy try to kill me? Why couldn�t I have saved that person?� As I progressed in police work, I felt more and more of a sense of being orphaned. It all came out of self-pity, but those are real, hard emotions that being a cop coughed up.� 

�Tell me about the breaking point,� I said. 

�It was the second-to-last call I ever took,� he told me. �It was a little girl. She lived right by a big aqueduct, and fell in and drowned. I never saw her body, but by then I was so emotionally fragile that the pictures by themselves shook up me up pretty bad. She had on these pink sandals with flowers on them. 

�That was a Saturday. The next morning, I went to liturgy, and in front of me was a little girl wearing the exact same shoes,� he continued. �I came undone. That was the end of my career. It really was. My wife knew. I knew. It was just how I navigated the exit.� 

Father Matthew�s last deed as an active police officer was to chase two suspected thieves who were escaping on bicycles. They dropped their bikes and slipped away. Enraged by this, he took out his knife and cut their tires. 

�Just like that,� Father Matthew said, shaking his head. �Then I realized that I had become what I was fighting. I couldn�t be a cop anymore. I talked to my chief and told him I couldn�t go on. I wasn�t a bad cop, and I wasn�t a malicious cop, but I was a suffering cop, and I needed out.� 

Father Matthew and his wife, Anna, had discovered the Orthodox Church through the parish pastored by Father Seraphim. As the young police officer�s emotional life disintegrated under job pressure, the congregation held him up. 

�What I thought was a strong wall cracked, and I fell apart,� the priest told me. �They didn�t judge me when they saw me bawling through vespers and liturgy, just bawling.� 

�Wait,� I said. �You? You cried in front of all those people?� 

Tall and stern, with a piercing gaze, Father Matthew is not the kind of man you imagine crying in public, if at all. Though he wears a cassock now (�my dress,� he snarks), this priest does not look like the sort of cleric fat-mouthing heretics would want to mess with. 

�Yeah, I cried,� he said. �I was broken. I still am broken. I can�t watch war movies or anything like that. It�s a humbling experience to know that you�re in the prime of your life and you�re broken.� 

Meeting Father Seraphim had made all the difference in his life. �He tells it like it is,� said Father Matthew. �He made me face myself, and all my pride and anger. Man, was I ever angry. Orthodoxy allowed me to come out of that.� 

�Dante would call it a dark wood,� I said. �So is that why you became a priest?� 

�I haven�t thought about it,� he said. �It was a response to the love I received from Christ through the Church. If anything, my time in the civil service showed me that the only way I could help people was to heal my own heart. I had to seek the fullness of life in Christ, to be able to see the divine light in anyone. Otherwise, all they�re getting is the blind leading the blind.�

Starting tomorrow [July 20], Father Matthew and his wife Anna are going to face the biggest challenge of their lives. Anna�the priest�s wife is called �Matushka,� meaning �little mother,� in the Russian Orthodox Church�will be admitted to the hospital for a high-risk, extremely complicated surgery, to give birth to their fourth child, a daughter they will name Irene. Theirs is a clergy family, one that serves a very small mission church. We in the congregation are giving all we can, but it won�t be remotely enough to meet all the medical needs of the Harringtons. Friends of the Harringtons outside our parish have set up a GoFundMe for those who would like to help them. From the GoFundMe site:

Due to complications with Anna�s pregnancy, Irene�s delivery will require her month-early arrival (July 21) by a complex surgical procedure. She will also be born with a special condition called hemifacial microsomia that includes pronounced spinal scoliosis. 

Matushka Anna stopped working at the end of April due to these medical struggles. While the members of the Parish of Saint John the Theologian lovingly support Father Matthew financially in his priesthood , the Harrington family also depended on Matushka Anna�s income to fulfill their needs. The Harringtons are facing major financial hardship. Anna will not physically be able to work, and baby Irene will require her attentions full-time. Irene will likely need future surgical procedures and the attentions of specialists to care for the many possible complexities of her condition. This includes medical care and may include travel to major hospitals in other areas of the United States. 

Matushka Anna�s condition is delicate in the sense that the procedure she will undergo is complicated and will require a week or so long hospital stay and her recovery will be longer than expected. The family has never been known for anything but grateful acceptance of even the most challenging situations, but these new tests have involved selling Matushka�s car, delaying almost all purchases, and belt-tightening to an extent which we, both friends and those who have been affected by Father, as well as those who appreciate voices of his variety, need to step up and do what we can.

I can vouch for the fact that the Harringtons lived a very modest life since they arrived to start our tiny mission church. Theirs has become much more modest since Mat. Anna had to quit her job. The family has the spiritual resources to face this challenge, but the financial aspect is going to be an enormity. I don�t post things like this often, but because Father Matthew�s work among our little congregation has touched many of you, via this blog and my Dante book, I thought you would like to know that the need for prayer and other forms of assistance is great with this family. Please do what you can.

* * *

For updates on Father Matthew and Matushka Anna, please see Rod Dreher's Twitter page.

Islamic Hate for the Christian Cross

For nearly fourteen centuries, beginning with Muhammad himself, Muslims have waged war against the symbol of God's infinite love for mankind, the means by which Jesus Christ was victorious over sin, death and the devil. 

The irony is that these deceived Muslims, unwitting allies of the devil, are blind to the truth, that Christ forgave even them, while hanging from the very Cross which they hate so much: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do..." 

To any Muslims reading this, we Christians hope and pray that you will repent, and turn to Jesus Christ in the Orthodox Church, that you may be delivered from spiritual deception and saved from hell.

See also my article: Islam's Hatred of Holy Icons � and what that means for Persecuted Eastern Christians

Islamic Hate for the Christian Cross
by Raymond Ibrahim, PJ Media � June 20, 2015

Muslims in Pakistan burn cross

Last May in Italy, a Muslim boy of African origin beat a 12-year-old girl during school because she was wearing a crucifix around her neck.  The African schoolboy, who had only started to attend the school approximately three weeks earlier, began to bully the Christian girl��insulting her and picking on her in other ways all because she was wearing the crucifix��before he finally �punched the girl violently in the back.�

What is it about the Christian cross that makes some Muslims react this way?

The fact is, Islamic hostility to the cross is an unwavering fact of life�one that crosses continents and centuries; one that is very much indicative of Islam�s innate hostility to Christianity.

Doctrine and History

Because the Christian cross is the quintessential symbol of Christianity�for all denominations, including most forms of otherwise iconoclastic Protestantism�it has been a despised symbol in Islam.

According to the Conditions of Omar�a Medieval text which lays out the many humiliating stipulations conquered Christians must embrace to preserve their lives and which Islamic history attributes to the second �righteous caliph,� Omar al-Khattab�Christians are �Not to display a cross [on churches]� and �Not to produce a cross or [Christian] book in the markets of the Muslims.�

The reason for this animosity is that the cross symbolizes the fundamental disagreement between Christians and Muslims.   According to Dr. Sidney Griffith, author of The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque, �The cross and the icons publicly declared those very points of Christian faith which the Koran, in the Muslim view, explicitly denied: that Christ was the Son of God and that he died on the cross.�  Thus �the Christian practice of venerating the cross and the icons of Christ and the saints often aroused the disdain of Muslims,� so that there was an ongoing �campaign to erase the public symbols of Christianity, especially the previously ubiquitous sign of the cross.�

Devout Muslims believe they are honoring Muhammad AND Jesus by destroying crosses and persecuting Christians.

Islam�s hostility to the cross, like all of Islam�s hostilities, begins with the Muslim prophet Muhammad. He reportedly �had such a repugnance to the form of the cross that he broke everything brought into his house with its figure upon it.� He once ordered someone wearing a cross to �take off that piece of idolatry� and claimed that at the end times Jesus himself would make it a point to �break the cross��an assertion the Islamic State regularly makes.*

[* In the end times, said Muhammad, Isa will �fight the people for the cause of Islam. He will break the cross, kill the swine and abolish jizya� and establish the rule of Allah throughout the world. �Hadith from Sunan Abu Dawud, Book of Battles, 37:4310]
 

Islamic history following Muhammad is riddled with anecdotes of Muslims cursing and breaking crosses.  Prior to the Battle of Yarmuk in 636, which pitted the earliest invading Muslim armies against the Byzantine Empire, Khalid bin al-Walid, the savage �Sword of Allah,� told the Christians that if they wanted peace they must �break the cross� and embrace Islam, or pay jizya and live in subjugation�just as his Islamic State successors are doing today in direct emulation.  The Byzantines opted for war.

In Egypt, Saladin (d. 1193)�regularly touted in the West for his �magnanimity��ordered �the removal of every cross from atop the dome of every church in the provinces of Egypt,� in the words of The History of the Patriarchate of the Egyptian Church.

Europe: Growing Violence against the Cross

Centuries later, not much has changed concerning Islam�s position towards the cross, though much has changed in Western perceptions.  In other words, an African boy punching a Christian girl in Italy for her crucifix is part of a long continuum of Islamic hostility for the cross.  Perhaps he learned this hatred in mosque�the same European mosques where Islamic State representatives call Muslims to jihad?

After all, earlier this year in Italy, another  crucifix was destroyed in close proximity to a populated mosque.  The municipality�s Councilor, Giuseppe Berlin, did not mince words concerning the identity of the culprit(s):

Before we put a show of unity with Muslims, let�s have them begin by respecting our civilization and our culture. We shouldn�t minimize the importance of certain signals; we must wake up now or our children will suffer the consequences of this dangerous and uncontrolled Islamic invasion.

Nor is Italy the only European nation experiencing this phenomenon.   In neighboring France, a �young Muslim� committed major acts of vandalism at two churches.  Along with twisting a massive bronze cross, he overturned and broke two altars, the candelabras and lecterns, destroyed statues, tore down a tabernacle, smashed in a sacristy door and even broke some stained-glass windows.  (Click for images.)

And in Germany, a Turkish man who checked himself into a hospital for treatment went into a sudden frenzy because there were �too many crosses on the wall.�  He called the nurse a �bitch� and �fascist� and became physically aggressive.

Of course, other times Europeans willingly capitulate to Islamic hostility for the cross.  Real Madrid, a professional football (soccer) team in Spain reportedly stripped the traditional Christian cross from its club crest as part of a deal with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi��so as not to offend Muslim sensibilities in the United Arab Emirates.�  And in the United Kingdom, offensive crucifixes are being removed from prisons in order not to offend Muslim inmates (who are further provided with food baths for Islamic rituals).

Muslim World: Christians Killed for the Cross

If this is how some Muslims react to the Christian cross in Europe�where Muslims are aware of their outnumbered, minority status�how do other Muslims react to the cross in the Islamic world, where vastly outnumbered and ostracized Christian �infidels� are easy prey?

The answer is murderous�literally, Christians are being murdered by Muslims provoked at the sight of the cross:

From one of many YouTube tributes to New Martyr Mary the Copt.

Last year in Egypt, a young Coptic Christian woman named Mary was mauled to death�simply because her cross identified her as a Christian to Muslim Brotherhood rioters.

According to an eyewitness who discussed the episode, Mary Sameh George was parking her car by the church to deliver medicine to an elderly woman:

Once they [Brotherhood rioters] saw that she was a Christian [because of the cross hanging on her rearview mirror], they jumped on top of the car, to the point that the vehicle was no longer visible. The roof of the car collapsed in.  When they realized that she was starting to die, they pulled her out of the car and started pounding on her and pulling her hair�to the point that portions of her hair and scalp came off.  They kept beating her, kicking her, stabbing her with any object or weapon they could find�.  Throughout [her ordeal] she tried to protect her face, giving her back to the attackers, till one of them came and stabbed her right in the back, near the heart, finishing her off.  Then another came and grabbed her by the hair, shaking her head, and with the other hand slit her throat.  Another pulled her pants off, to the point that she was totally naked.

In response, the Coptic Christian Church issued the following statement: �Oh how lucky you are, Mary, you who are beloved of Christ.  They tore your body because of the Cross.  Yet they offered you the greatest service and gave you a name of honor as one who attained the crown of martyrdom.� The statement also quoted Christ�s warning to believers: �Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service� (John 16:2).

In October 2011, seventeen-year-old Ayman Nabil Labib, a Coptic student, was strangled and beaten to death by his Muslim teacher and some fellow students�simply for refusing to obey the teacher�s orders to remove his cross. Student eyewitnesses present during the assault said that while Ayman was in the classroom he was told to cover up his tattooed wrist cross, which many Copts wear. Not only did he refuse, but he defiantly produced the pectoral cross he wore under his shirt, which prompted the enraged Muslim teacher and students to beat the Christian youth to death.

Before that, an off-duty Muslim police officer on a train from Asyut to Cairo shouted �Allahu Akbar!� and opened fire on six Christians, killing a seventy-one-year-old man and critically wounding the rest. Before opening fire he had checked for passengers with the traditional Coptic cross tattooed on their wrists. (Days ago, another Coptic woman was �shot dead by an Egyptian police officer.  Although officially an �accident,� the Muslim officer is notorious for hating Christians.)

In Pakistan, when a Muslim man saw Julie Aftab, a Christian woman, wearing a cross around her neck,

The man became abusive, shouting at her that she was living in the gutter and would go to hell for shunning Islam. He left and returned half an hour later, clutching a bottle of battery acid which he savagely chucked over her head. As she ran screaming for the door a second man grabbed her by the hair and forced more of the liquid down her throat, searing her esophagus. Teeth fell from her mouth as she desperately called for help, stumbling down the street. A woman heard her cries and took her to her home, pouring water over her head and taking her to hospital. At first the doctors refused to treat her, because she was a Christian. �They all turned against me . . . even the people who took me to the hospital. They told the doctor they were going to set the hospital on fire if they treated me�. . . . 67 percent of her esophagus was burned and she was missing an eye and both eyelids. What remained of her teeth could be seen through a gaping hole where her cheek had been. The doctors predicted she would die any day. Despite the odds she pulled through.

All this because she was wearing a cross.

Even in Muslim nations deemed �moderate,� violence provoked by the cross is not uncommon.  In 2012, a 12-year-old boy in Turkey who converted to Christianity and decided to profess his new faith by wearing a silver cross necklace in class was spit on and beat regularly by Muslim classmates and teachers.

In the Maldives, October 2010, authorities had to rescue Geethamma George, a Christian teacher from India, after Muslim �parents threatened to tie and drag her off of the island� for �preaching Christianity.� Her crime was simply to draw a compass in class as part of a geography lesson.  The compass was mistaken for the Christian cross.

Christians �Killed� Again for the Cross

If some Muslims kill the wearers of the cross, so do they disturb the slumber of those already dead for having the cross on their tombstones. A few of the many examples follow:

• Libya, March 2012: A video of a Muslim mob attacking a commonwealth cemetery near Benghazi appeared on the internet.  As the Muslims kicked down and destroyed headstones with crosses on them, the man videotaping them urged them to �Break the cross of the dogs!� while he and others cried �Allahu Akbar!�  Towards the end of the video, the mob congregated around the huge Cross of Sacrifice, the cemetery�s cenotaph monument, and started to hammer at it, to more cries of �Allahu Akbar.�  Other Christian cemeteriesin post-�Arab Spring� Libya have suffered similarly.

• France, April 2015: Christian crosses and gravestones in a cemetery were damaged and desecrated by a Muslim.  After being apprehended, he was described as follows: �The man repeats Muslim prayers over and over, he drools and cannot be communicated with: his condition has been declared incompatible with preliminary detention.�  He was hospitalized as �mentally unbalanced.�  (See his handiwork.)

• Malaysia, February 2014: A Christian cemetery was attacked and desecrated in the middle of the night by unknown persons in the Muslim majority nation.  Several crosses were destroyed, including by the use of �a heavy tool to do the damage.�

• Germany, June 2014: After Muslims were granted their own section at a cemetery in Seligenstadt, and after being allowed to conduct distinctly  Islamic ceremonies, these same Muslims began demanding that Christian symbols and crosses in the cemetery be removed or covered up during Islamic funerals.

_______

One can go on and on with more recent examples of Islam�s hostility to the cross.  Last April in �moderate� Malaysia, a Muslim mob rioted against a small Protestant church due to the visible cross atop the building of worship.  It was quickly removed.

And in Pakistan, a nation where the mere accusation of offending Islam get Christians burned alive�a Muslim shopkeeper is allowed to sell shoes which depict the Christian cross on their sole: �In Pakistani culture, showing the sole of one�s shoe or foot is offensive because placing anything on the ground is considered to be an insult to the object. Therefore, something on the sole of a shoe is going to be constantly insulted as the person walks.�

From an African School Boy in Italy to �ISIS�

In light of the above, it should come as no surprise that the Islamic State��ISIS��also exhibits violence to the Christian cross.   In its communiques to the West, hostile reference to the cross is often made:  �We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah�. [We will cast] fear into the hearts of the cross worshippers�.�

After carving the heads of Coptic Christians off in Libya, the lead executioner waved his dagger at the camera and said, �Oh people, recently you have seen us on the hills of as-Sham and Dabiq�s plain [Syrian regions], chopping off the heads that have been carrying the cross for a long time.  And today, we are on the south of Rome, on the land of Islam, Libya, sending another message.�  He concluded by declaring: �We will fight you [Christians/Westerners] until Christ descends, breaks the cross and kills the pig� (all eschatological actions ascribed to the Muslim �Christ,� Isa).

ISIS member destroying cross in ancient church

Moreover, the Islamic State has committed countless atrocities against and because of the cross:  it made and disseminated a video showing its members smashing crosses in and atop churches in territories under its sway; it beheaded and stabbed a man with his own crucifix after it exposed him as a Christian; and it published pictures of its members destroying Christian crosses and tombstones in cemeteries under its jurisdiction � and quoted Islamic scriptures justifying its actions.

Careful readers will note the similar parallels here: destroying crosses in churches and cemeteries and even killing Christian �infidels� for wearing them, as documented above, is not limited to �ISIS� but is happening all around the Muslim world, and even in Europe.

In short, Islam�s age-old hatred for the Christian cross�and what it represents�is not a product of the Islamic State, but of Islam.

Joint Statement on the Second Anniversary of the Kidnapping of Archbishops Paul and John

"Paul and John are on trial; the Christian persecution for Evangelization of the first century has now returned to this land."

Antiochian Archdiocese of North America via Pravmir

April 25, 2015

A Joint Statement Issued by the two Patriarchates of Antioch and of All the East: The Greek (Roum) Orthodox Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church

On the occasion of the second anniversary of kidnapping the two Metropolitans of Aleppo: His Eminence Paul (Yazigi) and His Eminence John (Abraham) on April 22, 2013

Damascus April 22, 2015

�It is for our hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.� (Acts 23:6)

Paul and John are on trial; the Christian persecution for Evangelization of the first century has now returned to this land. Such persecution is not common in the East or in modern times. The consequences of this trial are not only earthly but heavenly. In this struggle, the Great Judge will prevail, for His judgement is both the case of True Man and True God.

Maybe this trial is unfair, most probably because the kidnapped are not able to plead their case. But their testimony resounds ceaselessly by their spirit and life, and echoes in the wilderness of this world.

O brethren of the Word, you are our children in Aleppo; in you and among you we planted the seeds of the true word, the word of witnessing and of ministry. Behold, the plant is growing! We see this growth in you and we are proud of its fruit. We are astounded by your perseverance, which strengthens our perseverance. We exalt your steadfastness which sustains us. We esteem your patience, which recompenses our patience. How not? You are the crown of our glory and pride (1 Thess 2.19,20) in this trial against evangelization.

O brethren of Faith, we are on trial because of what we believed in and evangelized and we served by the hand, heart and conscience. We live today on earth so that we can live thenceforth in Heaven. Man has the right to believe in the True God, and to faithfully minister with this faith his neighbor as himself. Our belief in the True Man, leads us to serve Him anywhere we are, but we will continue to be citizens where we are today. We will not deviate one iota from this determination. It deserves every sacrifice in defense of human dignity. Man is oppressed and dehumanized by the contemporary human market which offers people as a commodity in a wicked commerce. The sting of dehumanization shall be broken in this trial against dignity.

O brethren of hope, be not oblivious to the fact that we are on trial � for our hope in the resurrection of the dead�. (Acts 23:6) St. Paul attested once, and we declare it out loud: they want to eradicate the future at the expense of the present! However, they do not know that the Lord of heaven and earth, Who created them both, also provided that we may traverse the distance separating the two in spirit through Faith, and may attain the future with God-given hope toward achieving His promise to us. The present life is transient, but the future one is permanent.

We all look forward in great expectation, remaining steadfast with this hope in the face of death, crouching close to destroy your bodies and souls. However, our hope in the resurrection of Christ has broken the sting of death in this trial against endurance.

O brethren of love, it is undeniable that when facing such a trial one must confront it with his true identity and faith. If we betray the love of Christ towards us, our hearts and consciences grow dim. When we see you strong and consistent, brethren, our hearts rejoice with the sight of your love among the wreckage of fallen humanity, whose self-centeredness has truly reached the gates of Hades. By your love we conquer everything, and by it you overcome all forms of death, so that you may enter into the Kingdom of the God of Love. Amongst devastation, death and foul play, the evidence of your love will be built as a final judgment in the trial against conscience.

O brethren of blood, you have been judged, or you will be judged. Some of you have received the favorable judgment of God to be martyrs and confessors, and some of you live the testimony of unsurpassed hope, in silence or under threat, in weakness or in agony. However, by your perseverance you muzzled those who lay a wager for your betrayal, apostasy, and feebleness in the face of weakness, enticement, or threat. Your blood, whether still pulsating or shed, is a balm to your families and to your brethren, and a seal of victory in the trial against immortality.

O brethren of truth, be assured that anyone who has declared victory over truth and hidden falsehood is silenced. We see them through the eyes of the heart, and fathom what is noticeable in them, in their words (media) and actions, as well as in their secret intentions, and consciences. No truth will supersede the truth of God and man, regardless of their sins. This is the cry of John in all of us: �He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.� (1 Jn 3:14 to 15). We will not compromise when it comes to human beings, and we will not yield to anything except to the truth. We proclaim it with you, at the heart of your suffering, struggle, steadfastness, and courage. By this, you have disclosed their evident error in the trial against truth.

O brethren and compatriots, your wounds are our wounds, and your pain is our pain, your suffering is our suffering, and your tears are our tears, and your life is our life. Our hands are extended to you, and our hearts have room for all of you. Let us shake hands, talk to each other, have peace, reconciliation, mutual understanding, cooperation, and integration. A solution is not achieved by violence, but by multiple forms of dialogue. Let�s act now. Fear comes when human civilization perishes and disappears, and when this trial is prolonged. With you we raise the flag of the partnership in the trial against unity.

O brethren of fate, our East; we are the sand of its deserts, dirt of its fields, rocks of its mountains, water of its rivers, roots of its trees. If they vanish, life will no longer exist or it will have no meaning. Our East has become an open arena for all evils. The bargain of this trial is to demolish life in its cradle, shatter civilizations, remove the rudiments of its landmarks, conceal its characteristics, displace man, destroy history, and disfigure the identity of God. Our victory of truth on earth is derived from heaven, but not by calling upon God to be exploited, as impulses of passions, of which heaven is completely acquitted! We are devoted to stay in the East, to which we belong, of which we are, in which we bear witness to our faith, from which our witness starts out, and on which we build our humanity. The one God was not for us a subject of dispute, and reason for fighting, or cause of division. We learned to address Him as �Our Father� (Matthew 6.9), so we are all, �Brethren.� We can speak to everyone in truth and love, and �to lay down our lives for them� (1 Jn 3:16); and so we are able to confess that we share a common destiny. Either we all hold tight together, or we all lose! No believer or nonbeliever, whether from the East or outside it, can bear a false witness, blinded to what is going on here. With you we raise the banner of brotherhood, confounding the false witnesses the trial against human and religious.

O brethren in humanity, our cause is beyond one group or nation, and wider than one region. Our ordeal is a test for all humanity in the contemporary world, which is distorted by its enslavement and various distractions. We are thankful for all those who are aware of these perils, and for those who are striving to contain them, treat them, and prevent them. We will not become a cause to be resolved and decrypted. We are not like this, for you are our cause! We are vigilant, from our dwelling place, over the consciences of those who willingly continue to eradicate our cause: the cause of the true human and the true God. Is it not unreasonable for roles to be exchanged, so that the sentenced might become a judge, even if he was in a cell, and the judge might become sentenced, even though he is sitting on the judgment seat?

O brother in completeness, He Who was incarnate for us, carried our nature, endured unjust sentence, ascended on the Cross, went to Hades and then rose to heaven, has taught us that we are your �brethren�, unworthy though we be, and that �your Father is our Father and your God is our God� (Jn 20:17). Our peace and joy in you have reached to a level whose height and depth is unattainable in our spiritual life, and whose length and width is immeasurable in our material life! It is a joy, and peace, according to the measure of the giver: �My Peace I leave with you, My joy I give unto you� no man taketh from you.� (Jn 14:27; 16:22). You have determined to give us your joy and your peace! How great is our victory, and how benevolent is God�s judgment!

These are the ten categories of the brethren, and the �book� of our complete defense, which we �took out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne.� (Rev 5:7). This is our good news to you; �Listen to them� (Acts 2:14), so great is our consolation in you. We are all aware that the trial is not over yet, as we have yet many rounds, according to the will of the Holy One. �What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid� What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory� �(Romans 9:14; 22-23).

This is a victory of the right hand of the Most High, accomplished through you and through us! As our unceasing encounter is sustained in prayer for all, we lift it up to Thee, O Lord, for unto Thee belongs, glory, power, worship, and dominion forever! Amen.

Translated by Archdiocese Office