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Post by pieter on May 13, 2015 9:05:39 GMT -7
Syrian Christians seeking asylum in Poland12.05.2015 17:16A Warsaw-based foundation is calling for 1500 Syrian Christians to be given asylum in Poland, as civil war continues to wreak destruction in their native land.Syrian policemen inspect the site of an explosion at Ekremah al-Jadida in Homs, Syria, 12 May 2015. According to the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), two blasts at Ekremah al-Jadida and al-Zahraa neighbourhoods on 12 May left four people dead and 28 others injured. EPA/STR Dostawca: PAP/EPA.Miriam Shaded of the Ester Foundation has told Polish Radio that the costs of looking after the would-be refugees have already been covered by charities, churches and businesses, and that only residency permits are lacking. The foundation is waiting for the government's decision on the matter. Shaded has noted that the candidates are mainly children, chiefly from Christian families in Damascus. Prior to the conflict, most were from wealthy households. A special programme has been prepared to help the Syrians assimilate into Polish life, including a language course. It has been estimated that 200,000 people have been killed since the Syrian conflict began in 2011, while millions have been displaced. Prior to the war, Christians constituted about 10 percent of the population. Christians have been targeted by jihadist formations such as ISIS, although other rebel groups including the Free Syrian Army have allied themselves with the Christian Syriac Military Council. (nh) Source: IAR
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Post by Jaga on May 13, 2015 13:42:16 GMT -7
The exodus from Syria is really significant. I am glad that some of the refugees want to stay in Poland. I wish them good luck and they can enrich Polish culture with their own greatly!
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Post by pieter on May 14, 2015 8:36:02 GMT -7
Dear Jaga,
Christians from the Middle-east are living all over the West and they enrich the West (Europe and America) with their special old christian faiths, cultures and traditions. In the Netherlands I know that we have Assyrian christians, Egyptian Copts, Maronite christians and Armenians from the Middle east. Some old Roman-Catholic churches have become Coptic and Assyrian churches, and that is okay in my opinion, because they stayed christian. Other churches were demolished or became mosques.
It is very tragic that christians from the oldest ancient christian churches and communities are so persecuted and murdered in the Middle-east and Africa right now. The Assyrian christians, the Coptic christians, the Armenian christians and the Ethiopian christians. Their churches and faith communities are older than the Roman-Catholic and Orthodox christian churches in the West. They are killed, murdered and abducted in Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Libiya. They have no future in the Middle east and Northern-Africa. ISIS recently killed Ethio[ian christian workers in Libiya, and before that they killed Egyptian Coptic christians in the same country.
A service of the Syrian Orthodox church in the Dutch city Hengelo (Eastern-Netherlands)
Patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox church visits the Syrian Orthodox church community of Hengelo
Other images of the Syrian church in Hengelo, the Netherlands
Amsterdam
Here you see the process of how a former Amsterdam Roman-Catholic church becomes a Syrian Orthodox church
The patriarch enters the Syrian orthodox church of Amsterdam
Coptic church Amsterdam
Blessing of the new Coptic church in the Hague by Coptic pope
Armenian church in the Eastern-Dutch town of Almelo (near Hengelo where the Syrian Orthodox church is)
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Post by Jaga on May 14, 2015 23:22:38 GMT -7
Pieter,
beautiful old Syrian Christian traditions. I hope Poles would learn much more about it and the Syrian church would survive these difficult times.
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Post by Jaga on May 14, 2015 23:23:19 GMT -7
Pieter,
beautiful old Syrian Christian traditions. I hope Poles would learn much more about it and the Syrian church would survive these difficult times.
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Post by pieter on May 15, 2015 4:37:59 GMT -7
Dear Jaga,
I hope that the Syrian christian traditions will ad something new to the christian (Roman-Catholic) Poland. An example of spirituality, a very old branch of christianity out of the time of Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles. People who stil held or hold cermonies and mass in Aramaic (which script was widely adopted for other languages and is ancestral to both the Arabic and modern Hebrew alphabets). It is said that Jesus spoke Aramaic. If you look at the different services, there seems to be some similarity between the Syrian Orthodox, Egyptian Copt and Armenian services. They are all early christian churches.
The Syrian christians could surely ad something positive and Middle eastern to Poland, as Arab christians.
Cheers, Pieter
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