When Churches Bleed: A Cry for Unity at the Foot of the Cross

In recent years—and as recently as just days ago in Syria—we have witnessed devastating attacks on churches during sacred moments of worship. From Saint Elias Church in Damascus to the sanctuaries of Nigeria, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines, the blood of the faithful has mingled with the altar of sacrifice. They died as they came to meet Christ in the Eucharist. They died not as Protestants, Catholics, or Orthodox—but as Christians, as Christ’s beloved.

And I wonder: Why does God allow such horrific things to happen in His house, during His liturgy, at the hour of offering?

Is it possible that God weeps not only for the lives lost but also for the disunity of His Church? Have we, the Body of Christ, grown accustomed to division, to the excommunications and estrangements we justify in His name?

The Lord Jesus did not offer up His prayer in John 17 for institutional pride or theological rivalry, but for oneness: “That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:21).

We rightly mourn our martyrs. But could it be that their blood is not only a witness to their faith, but also a call to us—to reconcile, to unite, and to return to the table together?

The Eucharist, in which we all believe—the very Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ—is not merely a sacrament of communion with God, but of communion with each other. And yet, in so many places, we remain at separate altars, our liturgies echoing in divided halls. We adore the same Lord, yet often refuse to kneel together.

If we truly believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, should we not also admit the real tragedy of our disunity at the Eucharistic table?

Let us not be deaf to the cry of those who perished while receiving the Bread of Life. Let us not remain passive while the Church bleeds from both external persecution and internal division.

We must begin at the foot of the Cross, at the breaking of the Bread. Eucharistic unity is not the end of the journey toward full communion, but it is the beginning, and the most urgent first step.

Let us return to the prayer of Christ. Let us tear down the walls built by pride and centuries of silence. Let us remember that the Church is not ours to fragment, but Christ’s to redeem.

Let the names of the churches that suffered not be just memorials, but prophetic calls.

Let the Body of Christ not be divided, but healed.

Let the altar where many died become the altar where many are reconciled.

“Until we all attain to the unity of the faith… to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

Hegumen Abraam Sleman

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