Orontes Syria: Also known as the Assi River, the Orontes is the only perennial river in Western Asia and its route through Syria encompasses some of the areas where the Christian minority has been most severely affected during this time of conflict in their country. It was at the city of Antioch on the Orontes River that followers of Jesus were first called “Christians” and from here that the first organized mission team set out to spread the gospel. Syria has been a place of Christianity since the first century A.D.
This site contains news, views and information about Syrian Christians from a variety of media and news sources, where possible articles are supplemented with images and drawn together with videos and other news items to provide extra information and context.
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It should be understood that while this site focuses on the plight of Christians in Syria the issues it highlights have a profound effect on all religious communities.
“The suffering has exceeded all limits. The crisis has mown down thousands and thousands of soldiers, enemies, opponents of civilians, men, women and children, sheikhs and priests, Christians and Muslims.”
His Beatitude, Gregorios III, Patriarch of Antioch,
and All the East of Alexandria and of Jerusalem
"It goes without saying that Christians in Syria do not consider themselves greater or more important that their Muslim partners in the one nation. They find themselves in solidarity with all the people of Syria, in the calamities that they share and the strikes that fall upon all their heads."
Rev. Georges Massouh Antiochian Orthodox priest and director of the Christian Muslim Studies Center at Balamand University, Lebanon.