Syrian church marks Christmas and reaffirms faith months after deadly attack

DWEIL’A, Syria (AP) — At a church in Syria where a suicide attack killed 25 people in June, hundreds of worshippers gathered before Christmas to remember those they lost and reaffirm their faith.

With a small detail of security forces standing guard outside, members of Mar Elias Church held Mass on Tuesday evening and lit an image of Christmas tree made of neon lights on the wall of the courtyard outside. The tree was hung with pictures of those who were killed in the attack.

They include three men the congregation hails as heroes for tackling the bomber, potentially averting a much higher death toll in the June 22 attack.

A man opened fire then detonated an explosive vest inside the Greek Orthodox church in Dweil’a on the outskirts of Damascus as it was filled with people praying on a Sunday.

Before he detonated the vest, brothers Boutros and Gergis Bechara and another congregant, Milad Haddad, tackled the shooter and pushed him out of the center of the church, congregants said.

“If it weren’t for the three of them, maybe not one person would remain out of 400 people,” said Imad Haddad, the brother of Milad Haddad, who attended Tuesday’s Christmas tree lighting.

He hasn’t decorated for Christmas or put up a tree at home, but gathering at the church was “is a message of peace and love” and a message that “we are believers and we are strong and we are steadfast in spite of everything,” he said.

Thana al-Masoud, the widow of Boutros Bechara, recalled searching frantically for her husband after the explosion but she never found him, alive or dead. His body had been ripped apart by the blast.

“There’s no holiday, neither this year nor next year nor the one after it,” she said.

She takes comfort in the belief that her husband and the two other men who confronted the attacker are martyrs for their faith.
“Our Lord chose them to be saints and to spread His word to all the world,” she said. “But the separation is difficult.”