Russian Church Vows to Rebuild Christian Syria

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[ Ed. note – The video above contains Russian Christmas music. I thought it very fitting to post given the news which appeared yesterday on the Russian Faith website–namely that the Russian Orthodox Church has vowed to help Christian communities in Syria rebuild. The war in Syria has in some respects been a war against Christianity.

We should remember that the terrorists who targeted Syrian Christians in brutal and bloody attacks over the past six years, kidnapping nuns and beheading priests, plundering and ransacking churches and monasteries–we should remember that these terrorists were equipped, trained, and funded by foreign backers who knew full well that attacks on Christians were the likely result of their backing. And yet they went ahead and provided them with support and backing anyway. Those who view the Syrian conflict as solely an effort at regime change I think are seeing only part of the picture.

At any rate, below is the the report from the Russian Faith website on Patriarch Kirill’s pledge to help support the rebuilding effort in Syria…and beneath that you will find a Russian-to-English translation of the video description, including the artists and song titles.

Also down below you’ll find a bit of breaking news from the Syrian conflict itself. Tensions seem to be escalating between the US and Russia, or at least between the US and Russian Air Forces. It seems there are some particularly “close encounters” between fighter jets taking place now. ]

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By Matfey Shaheen | Russian Faith

December 8, 2017

The leader of the Russian Church, Patriarch Kirill promised that the Russian Church will help Syria to cope with post-war problems in every way possible, Interfax Religion reports.

His main concern is to help reestablish ancient Christian communities, many of which were ravaged by western-backed terrorists fighting the legitimate Syrian government. Many monasteries and Churches were damaged, for example, the Mar Taqla Monastery in Maaloula, where they speak the same language which Jesus spoke – Aramaic.

Orthodox priests and believers were cruelly persecuted. My mother’s family is distantly related to  Father Fadi Haddad, a priest martyred by extremists in Qatana, a village within sight of the biblical Mount Hermon.

Continued here

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From the video description:

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A list of songs and artists at the end of this text.
I’ve been looking for a series of Christmas songs online … Individual video clips, audio … You are welcome… But I wanted a collection of good Christmas songs in Russian. There are many assemblies in English. And I thought, why not do something like that. A couple of weeks collected Russian audio, and then the pictures. And finally, this is a nice musical assembly. Especially for his friends and everyone-everyone who loves New Year as much as I do! I’d love it if you like it! 40 minutes of Christmas and winter songs in Russian.

1. Julia Savicheva-New Year
2. Group of shiny-Tic Tac Clock
3. Choirs Arkady and Natalie-Christmas toys
4. Olga the Christmas snowflake (song from C/F Paradise)
5. Andrei Derzhavin-Christmas
6. Future visitors-Christmas song
7. Fire-Snow is spinning
8. The Christmas singer is unknown
9. History of Romance
10. Alexei Glyzin-New Year
11. Oscar Kucera-New Year
12. Stas Pieha and Pavel Christmas

By the way, the latest news on the Syrian front is that US and Russian aircraft are having encounters in the skies that in some respects resemble aerial dog fights. An article published December 9 at RT says that the Russian Ministry of Defense has “blasted” the US Air Force for the actions of “rogue” US fighter jets that have interfered with Russian military operations against ISIS. An incident that occurred on November 23 involving a US F-22 seems particularly to have vexed the Russians, and the article includes an interesting quote Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov.

“The F-22 launched decoy flares and used airbrakes while constantly maneuvering [near the Russian strike jets], imitating an air fight,” Konashenkov said. He added that the US jet ceased its dangerous maneuvers only after a Russian Su-35S fighter jet joined the two strike planes.

The major general went on to say that “most close-midair encounters between Russian and US jets in the area around the Euphrates River have been linked to the attempts of US aircraft to get in the way [of the Russian warplanes] striking against Islamic State terrorists.” He also said that the US military officials provided no explanation for the November 23 incident as well as other, similar encounters.

You can access the full article here. I would also recommend, for anyone who hasn’t read it yet, a newly-published article by Vanessa Beeley regarding the organization Reporters Without Borders–a Western-backed NGO that supposedly defends freedom of the press but which recently attempted to shut down a conference in Geneva, Switzerland at which Beeley was slated to be one of the speakers. It’s a topsy-turvy world when organizations ostensibly dedicated to free speech attempt to interfere with free speech, but that seems to be what happened.