Patriarch Ioannis of Antioch and All the East celebrated the New Year’s Divine Liturgy at the Mariamite Cathedral in Damascus. He was joined in the service by Metropolitan Ephrem Maalouli (Aleppo), Metropolitan Gregorios Khoury (Homs), and a number of bishops and clergy.
In his homily, the Patriarch reflected on the passing of time through the light of Christ’s Nativity. “Today we turn a page in the time of our life in this passing world,” he said, stressing that Christ’s birth became “the axis of history.”
Speaking of Damascus and the wider East, Patriarch John X placed particular emphasis on the region’s Christian vocation and endurance.
The Patriarch said: “I reject the notion of a Middle East without Christians and without Christianity, because Christ Himself is Middle Eastern. We have spoken of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We have Tyre and Sidon, and we have Damascus through which the Apostle Paul passed. We have Antioch. These places are not a handful of soil. This is the place of the divine Incarnation. We should not be surprised if circumstances arise that lead some to think they must surrender and emigrate. We will not leave. We are Antiochians and we will remain Antiochians. We will remain on Antiochian land, and Antioch will remain our apostolic capital… Our destiny is to be Antiochians, in Antioch, and we will not surrender to anything.’”
He went on to offer prayers for “the peace of Syria and Lebanon,” and for the peace of the Middle East and the whole world, and he also prayed for those still missing, naming among them the Metropolitans of Aleppo, Youhanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yazigi.
He concluded with a remembrance of those who departed in the past year: “Our prayer is for those who have fallen asleep and gone before us to meet the face of Christ,” he said, adding, “We mention in particular our children and loved ones, the martyrs of Mar Elias Church in Dweilaa,” and asking their intercessions “for us and for the Church of Antioch,” which he described as “both witnessing and martyred at the same time.”
