Message for the 4th Year on the Abduction of Boulos Yazigi and Mor Gregorius Youhanna Ibrahim | Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch

Message for the 4th Year on the Abduction of Boulos Yazigi and Mor Gregorius Youhanna Ibrahim | Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch 

We are being crucified in this East, suffering this great ordeal. The
world looks at the cross of our agony, and is satisfied merely by
expressing grief over us. Nevertheless, the power of this world will not
drive us out of our land, because we are the sons of the cross and the
resurrection. We have been displaced throughout history, and we are
still being displaced up to this day, but each of us is called to
remember that the land of Christ will not be emptied of his beloved ones
and of those who were named after him two thousand years ago. And if
the act of kidnapping the two archbishops and priests aims at defying
our Eastern Christian presence, and uprooting it from this land, our
answer is clear. Even though it has been four years since the two
archbishops were kidnapped and this crisis has lasted six years, we are
staying here next to the tombs of our fathers, and their hallowed
ground. We are deeply rooted in the womb of this East. We are determined
not to leave our land, furthermore we will defend it with our own blood
and lives.