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World churches’ body renews calls for release of two archbishops kidnapped in Syria

The World Council of Churches has renewed calls for the release of two archbishops who were abducted from a car near Syria’s border with Turkey in April, 2013.

Syrian archbishops

PICTURE: Courtesy WCC

In a communique released this week, the WCC’s permanent committee on consensus and collaboration expressed its solidarity with the Orthodox churches in Syria and Lebanon which Boulos al-Yazigi, Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, and Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, are part of.

“In the years since their abduction, the World Council of Churches has expressed its concern and called for the release of the two archbishops of Aleppo,” the statement said. “There is still no word on the whereabouts and condition of these two archbishops.”

It added that both archbishops “demonstrated the love of Christ for all persons without exception, and are considered spiritual Orthodox leaders” and called for prayer for their safe return “as a sign of hope for all the Christians of Syria and the region”.

Last month a Syrian Orthodox priest in Germany told a Lebanese newspaper that negotiations were underway for the release of Mar Gregorios.

 

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