6th of June 2025
The bombs do not pause for prayer.
In Gaza, churches—those sanctuaries carved out of stone and sanctified by centuries of faith—are crumbling beneath the weight of modern warfare. Places once consecrated for peace, worship, and refuge have become battlegrounds. But more than just buildings are under siege.
Inside those walls are not strangers.
They are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
They are our kin.
They are families who pray as we pray.
They break the same bread.
They chant the same hymns.
They believe in the same Resurrection.
Now, they are sheltering not from storms, but from bombs.
They kneel not in reverence, but in fear.
At the heart of this unfolding catastrophe stands Saint Porphyrios Orthodox Church, the oldest active church in Gaza. Built in the 5th century over the tomb of Saint Porphyrios, Bishop of Gaza—who reposed in the year 420 A.D.—this church has stood for over 1,500 years as a living testimony of Christian endurance and the Palestinian Christian presence in the Holy Land. Through centuries of conflict and occupation, through crusades and colonialism, it remained—not merely as a structure of stone, but as a beacon of faith, heritage, and hope.
Today, its ancient walls tremble beneath the shriek of Israeli warplanes.
Once a sanctuary for the faithful, it has become a crowded shelter for the displaced.
Christian families—alongside their Muslim neighbors—now huddle in its interior and courtyard. There is no other refuge left.
On October 19, 2023, Saint Porphyrios was struck by an Israeli airstrike that hit part of the church compound. Over eighteen people were killed—men, women, and children—martyred in the very house they believed would protect them.
They died where they prayed.
They died in our Church.
Now, once again, Saint Porphyrios finds itself within a so-called “evacuation corridor.”
Today’s alert issued by Israeli forces outlines a new “safe route” through zones that are anything but safe. The listed evacuation route includes:
Fattouh Station on Salah al-Din Street through Shuja’iyya
Dahlet al-Shama’a
Areas north of Shama’a Street, including the vicinity of Saint Porphyrios Church
Souq al-Zawiya, Jabalia Stop, Sidra Area, and back to Fattouh Station
To call this an evacuation route is a cruelty beyond words. These areas are under constant shelling, aerial surveillance, and military bombardment.
Drones patrol the sky. Fighter jets strike without warning.
Buildings collapse with entire families still inside.
Aid workers describe these paths not as humanitarian corridors—but as death traps.
There is no mercy here.
Only the illusion of escape.
In the northern region where the church is located, the humanitarian situation is beyond catastrophic. There is no food, no water, no medicine, and no aid allowed in. Humanitarian organizations report that relief convoys are routinely turned back or bombed. Distribution points have been targeted. Aid workers have been killed. Hospitals that still stand operate without anesthesia, antibiotics, electricity, or basic supplies.
And the churches?
They are overflowing with the suffering.
The pews are beds. The halls are clinics. The crypts are shelters.
In Saint Porphyrios and other churches like it, the elderly and the sick lie on stone floors. Women cradle infants with nothing to feed them but what the church can spare. The wounded cry out in agony, untreated and unheard.
There is no rest. No nourishment. No medicine.
Only prayer, pain, and the hope that tomorrow the missiles will miss.
And still, most remain.
Not because they are defiant.
Not because they are stubborn.
But because they have nowhere else to go.
They know what an “evacuation order” truly means:
It means the bombs are coming.
It means roads turned to rubble.
It means fleeing into fire.
How can we kneel in warm churches while Saint Porphyrios smolders in the cold silence of neglect?
How can we light candles of peace while Christians in Gaza cower beneath bombs?
How can we remain indifferent when eighteen plus of our own were killed in their church just twenty months ago—and more are at risk tonight?
This is not just a humanitarian crisis.
It is a moral reckoning.
And it is a spiritual call.
We raise our voices not in anger, but in holy sorrow.
Not in politics, but in truth and love.
We call for:
An immediate and total ceasefire
The protection of all places of worship, hospitals, schools, and shelters
The restoration of unfettered humanitarian access—food, water, medicine—without delay
A binding international commitment to protect civilians, regardless of creed, in accordance with all laws of war and the commands of conscience
Because every day of silence costs lives.
Because every moment of delay buries another child.
Because every strike on a church is a wound in the Body of Christ.
Saint Porphyrios Must Not Fall Again
Gaza’s churches were never meant to be fortresses.
They were built as sanctuaries.
They were meant to echo with liturgy, not explosions.
With the beat of incense, not the blast of shrapnel.
They belong to all of us—Christian, Muslim, Jew, and seeker alike.
But especially to us who call ourselves disciples of Christ.
If we forget them, we forget Him.
If we abandon them, we abandon Him.
Now is the time to act.
Now is the time to speak.
Now is the time to remember:
“Whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for Me.”
The Order of Saint George the Great Martyr is the only authorized international non-governmental organization blessed to raise funds for the Orthodox Christians of Gaza. This is per the direct and public blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Alexios of Tiberias, the ruling Orthodox hierarch in Gaza. In addition to helping Saint Porphyrios directly, the Order is actively looking for ways to offer charitable assistance to the Latin Church in Gaza, which has taken in nearly 300 Orthodox Christians. The Order remains steadfast in its commitment to the community of Saint Porphyrios, to Archbishop Alexios of Tiberias, to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and to all Christians who live and breathe across Gaza, the Holy Land, Lebanon, Syria, and the wider Middle East.
To make a charitable contribution to the Order and its efforts in the Holy Land and Middle East, please use the yellow “Donate” button in the top menu. If you are interested in joining the Order as a member, please click on the menu item entitled “Join the Order.”
