Prince Charles finds new Syriac Orthodox Church “Deeply Encouraging”

The plight of the Syriac Orthodox Church has been a very harrowing one these past few years, with expansions by Da’esh into the Assyrian heartland within northern Iraq and Syria driving hundreds of ancient Christian communities out of the region entirely.

Faced with endemic persecution and the threat of extinction, tens of thousands of Assyrians have fled westward to safer havens in Europe and beyond. The United Kingdom itself has become the home for many of those seeking refuge, and now those of the Syriac Orthodox Church have just consecrated their first cathedral in Acton, West London.

Formerly the Saint Saviour’s Church, the consecration ceremony of St Thomas Cathedral was attended by Charles, the Prince of Wales, Ignatius Aphrem II, the Patriarch of Antioch, and various other bishops and representatives of both the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Church of England and nearly 600 other worshipers. The service was led by Toma Dawod Dakkama, the Archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom.

Read here