Deliverance of the City

After the Divine Service on Sunday, one of the young men who help in the altar rushed to me. He was holding his phone open to a website publishing news about the Saint Porphyrios Church, in southern Gaza, the annexes of which had been demolished by Israel, a month ago, on its residents. This is not the first time that this young man provides me with news about Gaza to write about. He showed me pictures from the Divine Liturgy that was held in the church last Friday. Then he said: “The insistence of the faithful in Gaza to adhere to worship, in these days, is one of the stories of Pascha, which prevails over all sadness and death”. I listened to him with joy. Mentioning Pascha is enticing in many contexts. I asked him to read the captions that go along with the worshipers’ pictures. They consisted of a prayer for the “deliverance of the city…”. He concluded the reading, then said: “Is there a more appropriate response than this prayer to everyone who works, through conspiracy and aggression, to evacuate the people of Gaza from their homes?”! No response is more appropriate.