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Very sadly, the Divine Liturgy in English at 9-30 am on Sundays at the Holy Family Cathedral, Lower Church, have had to be put on hold. Until the practicalities we cannot use the Lower Church space. Hopefully this will be resolved very soon. Please keep checking in here for details.

Owing to public health guidance, masks should still be worn indoors and distance maintained. Sanitisers are available. Holy Communion is distributed in both kinds from the mixed and common chalice, by means of a separate Communion spoon for each individual communicant.

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The new catechism in English, Christ our Pascha, is available from the Eparchy of the Holy Family and the Society. Please email johnchrysostom@btinternet.com for details.

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Syria: Armenian Christians Forced to Convert to Islam or Die

Arabic language websites reported earlier this week that the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant—which, throughout the course of the war against the Syrian Bashar al-Assad government has committed any number of atrocities, from decapitating “infidels” to burning churches—has successfully “forced” two Armenian Christian families to convert to Islam.
 
A video accompanies some of these reports. In it, what appears to be an elderly Armenian man stands alongside an Islamic cleric who announces the Christian man’s conversion to Islam—to thunderous cries of “Allahu Akbar!” In his exultation, the cleric makes exuberant statements like “You see, we have no honor without Islam—without proclaiming aloud that ‘There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet!’” 
 
The cleric also adds that, because the man is the head of his household, his Christian wife and children are all now Muslim as well—“all praise to Allah!” Naturally, if they reject their new Islamic identity, they become “apostates,” a crime punishable by death.   
 
New information has just emerged concerning the recent killing of a young Armenian man, Minas, for refusing to convert to Islam, again at the hands of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (so much for their claims that they do not threaten Christians to convert).

He was reportedly killed in one of ISIL’s dungeons in Aleppo, north Syria, which has a notable Armenian minority. According to iNews, “Minas and his father were held in ISIL’s prison for 115 days, according to one activist, and his accusation was that he refused to submit [to Islam, i.e., convert].”

iNews adds that activists from the region sent the accompanying picture, saying it is of the slain Minas.  Others confirm that the picture is of a slain Armenian in Syria, but not of Minas.  In any case, the man appears to be wearing the garments of the Armenian Evangelical Church of Aleppo.
 
The same report mentions other Christian Armenians slaughtered, including one who reportedly had “his head chopped off and placed in a biscuit box.”

Read the report online here at "The Orthodox Christian Channel":
Syria: Armenian Christians Forced to Convert to Islam or Die

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