Leaders of the European Baptist Federation strongly condemned the recent increase in violence in Syria, as government forces and their allies push to reclaim rebel-held neighborhoods in Aleppo, once the nation’s largest city and a key battleground since fighting broke out in the Mideast country in 2012.
Aleppo (Photo/Wikipedia)
Hundreds of civilians have been killed or injured in Russian and Syrian government air strikes affecting an estimated 270,000 people, including 100,000 children, besieged in Aleppo’s eastern districts. ABC News reported Oct. 3 that a major hospital in Aleppo was bombed for the third time in less than a week.
A resolution passed in EBF council meeting Sept. 29-Oct. 1 in Tallinn, Estonia, said the recent increase in violence in Aleppo “fails to differentiate between civilians and those fighting.”
“As followers of Christ, we affirm the sacred nature of all human life, regardless of religion, culture or country,” the EBF council said. “We see every attack on human life as striking at the very reflection of who our Creator God is.”
Another resolution brought attention to the profound effect of the Syrian crisis in Turkey, which borders Syria to the north and has been accepting refugees since April 2011.
The resolution on Turkey “recognizes the huge task facing our brothers and sisters in the Baptist Alliance of Turkey” as they seek to offer hospitality and care to hundreds of thousands of refugees and urges “sustained prayer for protection for the witness of Christian believers in Turkey.”
The resolution challenges member bodies and mission partners to “financially and practically support the relief of the humanitarian crisis in Turkey” and “continue to pray for an end to conflicts in the region which have created this humanitarian crisis.”
A third EBF council resolution celebrated recently planted churches in member Baptist unions and prayed “for further opportunities for Baptists in Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East to bless the communities around them.”
The EBF, representing about 826,000 Baptists in 54 unions and conventions in Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East, is one of six regional fellowships within the Baptist World Alliance.