Patriarch commends WCA and Member Federation in Germany for extraordinary accomplishment
Damascus, Syria - On August 16, 2014, His Holiness Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, sent the WCA and its member federation in Germany a letter of appreciation regarding their efforts to ensure humanitarian aid to the Arameans of Syria. It is not the first time the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East expressed his support for the WCA and its Member Federations. Last April, His Holiness blessed the WCA's mission and endeavours (view the statement).
Al-Aatchane, Lebanon (8 August 2014) - f.l.t.r. H.E. Mor Dionysius Jean Kawak (Chair St. Ephrem Patriarchal Development Committee), Mr. Daniyel Demir (Chairman Federation of Arameans in Germany), Mr. Johny Messo (President of the WCA) and H.H. Mor Ignatius Aphrem II (Patriarch Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East) discuss the dire humanitarian situation of the Arameans from Syria and Iraq.
A translation of this letter is available in the following languages:
English (original) | Deutsch | Svenska | Français | Nederlands | Italiano
To the World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) and
The Federation of the Arameans in Germany
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
We wish to express our appreciation and recognition of your exemplary services to our Holy Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and our Syriac people.
After our church and people suffered from genocide and ethnic cleansing in Iraq since 2003, we are experiencing the same fate in Syria since 2011. This has led to a large-scale refugee crisis and an unprecedented humanitarian disaster. The deteriorating situation has brought about a tremendous burden on our church.
Recently we have received your distinguished Chairmen, Mr. Johny Messo of the World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) and Mr. Daniyel Demir of the Federation of Arameans in Germany, at our residence in Lebanon. It delights us that they have expressed their full support to our Holy Church and their eagerness to help alleviate our burden.
We are truly thankful for your professional cooperation with our St. Ephrem Patriarchal Development Committee. It has resulted in opening a unique door for humanitarian aid, directly through the Foreign Ministry of Germany, that provides the basic needs of thousands of displaced and destitute families of different religious and ethnic backgrounds in the Damascus region, from September 2013 until today.
We encourage you to continue on this path and endeavor to extend the humanitarian aid from the German Government, to whom we will always remain most grateful, to the provinces of Homs, Aleppo and Hassake in Syria and currently also to our needy people from the provinces of Mosul and Nineveh in Iraq.
We are hopeful that you will inform other governments too about the necessity of urgent humanitarian assistance to our people. Therefore, we extend our apostolic blessings to you and pray that our Lord God may guide and empower you in your significant mission.
[signed and stamped, H.H. Mor Ignatius Aphrem II]
