Christians worldwide pray of peace in Syria

13 May, 2013 - Christian churches worldwide joined an international mobilization effort on Saturday to pray for peace in Syria. The World Day of Prayer for Peace in Syria on May 11 was an interdenominational prayer initiative by Syria’s Christians that focussed on four main intentions: the return of peace, the liberation of all hostages, assistance for all children traumatized by the war, and humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees and displaced people. Since it is risky to move about within combat zones in the war-torn nation, Christians held local prayer gatherings in homes, churches and other meeting places. With the devastation and the tens of thousands of deaths that the two-year civil war has wreaked, the World Day of Prayer for Peace in Syria has also been informally termed “the prayer of a broken heart”. “Peace in Lebanon, Syria and the Holy Land is a requirement for regional and international peace,” Patriarch Gregory III Laham of the Church of Antioch had said in an appeal urging the world to participate in the prayer campaign. “Peace allows for coexistence and human freedom, he said.