Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Damascus, SANA The Syriac Orthodox and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchates on Sunday held a prayer at the St. George’s Cathedral of the Syriac Orthodox in Damascus for the return of the two kidnapped bishops Yohanna Ibrahim and Paul Yazigi and the return of security and stability to Syria.
Aleppo’s Greek Orthodox Archbishop, Paul Yazigi, and Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim were abducted on April 23, 2013 by gunmen while returning to the northern Syrian city from the Turkish border.
The prayer, which was held on the second anniversary of the abduction of the two bishops, was led by , of Antioch and all the East.
Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem II stressed that those who abducted the two bishops aims at undermining the charity works in Syria and forcing the Syrian people to leave the land of the ancestral, expressing the Christians adherence to the land of
the ancestral.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all East and the Syriac Orthodox Church, stressed, in a joint statement, called for supporting the issue of the two kidnapped bishops and for releasing
them soon.
The statement also called for enhancing tolerance, understanding, cooperation and integration among the people of the one homeland, asserting that solution can be reached by dialogue not by violence.
It affirmed the Syrian people’s commitment to their homeland and they will together defend it.
H. Zain/ Barry
