Syria (MNN) — This year, many churches in Syria are restraining their Easter celebrations as an expression of solidarity with a Christian town that was attacked over the weekend.

Samuel* with Redemptive Stories says multiple reports are circulating, but the basic outline is this: Muslim men were allegedly harassing a young woman in the predominantly Christian town of Suqaylabiyah on Friday. When men in the community came to her defense, it quickly escalated. 

“There were reprisal attacks on the people who were harassing her,” says Samuel. “Then the group that was harassing the young lady attacked a Christian village.”

A girl in Syria (Photo courtesy of Ahmed Akacha via Pexels)

The National reports that on Saturday, gunmen entered Suqaylabiyah and damaged businesses, cars, and a statue of the Virgin Mary. Thankfully, no casualties were reported. 

In response to the attack, Syria’s Greek Orthodox and Catholic patriarchs have issued a joint statement: Easter this year will be celebrated “only with prayer inside the churches.” Maronite Archbishop Joseph Tobji was careful to say that it was not a decision made out of fear. 

Samuel puts it this way: “Not the whole of Syria, but a lot of Christian communities are standing with this one community that was attacked. In solidarity, they’re limiting their celebrations external to the church over Holy Week.”

Samuel says that especially in Syria, Easter is normally a time of great celebration, with marching bands and songs of lament and joy.  That makes this restrained observance of Easter “a sad realization of the pressures that Syrian Christians face these days,” he says.

Please pray for believers in Syria. Ask God to bless them in unexpected ways this Easter, even though it won’t look like what they had hoped. 

“As the government becomes more restrictive in Syria, [pray] that the Church will just continue to be a bright light in the midst of that,” says Samuel. “[Pray] that Christians would not leave the region, because the more Christians leave, the less the voice of the Church can be powerful to communicate hope.” 

Header photo: Syria (Stock photo courtesy of Abd Alrhman Al Darra)