Statement by His Holiness the Patriarch of Serbia, Mr. Porfirije, on the latest events in Syria and the Middle East
We have been following with great concern for months the tragic news about the suffering of the people in Palestine, and now it seems that the fire of war, as if carried by the wind, is once again spreading further east, to Syria. The suffering experience of the Serbian Orthodox people in recent decades, but also of other neighboring peoples, obliges me to appeal to all states and individuals involved in the events in the Middle East to bear in mind that the East and the West are connected courts and that the suffering of the people in Syria and Palestine can easily be transferred to other parts of the world.
I call upon the clergy, monasticism and the Serbian Orthodox people, just as we pray daily for our suffering brothers and sisters in Kosovo and Metohija, to ask for prayerful help from the Lord and the Most Holy Theotokos for the Orthodox in the Middle East, but also for all other Christians in that part of the world that was sanctified by the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ and his first disciples. We pray for all the people who are suffering there, but also for all the sufferers in Ukraine and other parts of the world, aware of the profound truth of the Lord's words that if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it (1 Cor 12:26).
I express special prayerful, compassionate and fraternal love and support to the true friend of the Church of St. Sava, His Beatitude the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Mr. John, and his holy clergy who fearlessly, like the martyrs of the first centuries, bear witness to the love of God.
AEM and Serbian Patriarch
Porphyrije
Source: Serbian Orthodox Church