Displaced by war, Lebanon's Christians mark Easter far from homes, churches

It was not how the Rev Maroun Ghafari had envisioned this Holy Week for years he had held Easter sermons in his predominantly Christian village of Alma alShaab in southern Lebanon near the border with IsraelThis year he is preaching from a Beirut suburb beside a cardboard cutout depicting his church in Alma alShaab now caught in the crossfire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fightersSince hostilities erupted last month between Israel and Lebanons Iranbacked Hezbollah militant group in the shadow of the wider USIsraeli war on Iran over 1400 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million have been forced to flee their homesAmong those displaced from the wartorn south are thousands of Christians They now find themselves far from their ancestral churches in Lebanon where Christians have maintained a strong presence through centuries of Byzantine Arab and Ottoman conquest and plenty of modernday crisesChristians are estimated to make up around a third of Lebanons population of roughly 55 million people With 12 Christian sects the country is home to the largest proportion of Christians of any nation in the Arab worldDespite being far from the strikes in and around their villages in southern Lebanon they were reminded of the war by the deep rumbling of Israeli jets and the sounds of deadly airstrikes over Beiruts southern suburbsHuddling in a church hoping for protectionChristian villagers who stayed behind in southern Lebanon ignoring Israels blanket evacuation warnings for the area have increasingly hardened into enclaves surrounded by fierce clashesAnd though villagers in Alma alShaab had been uprooted before in the 2024 IsraelHezbollah war this time around they were adamant they wouldnt leave even as airstrikes came closer and closerThe villagers huddled in their church for protection as Israeli warplanes pounded large swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon while Israeli troops stepped up a ground invasion and Hezbollah kept firing rockets at IsraelIn his annual Easter homily Patriarch Beshara alRai of Lebanons Maronite Church blamed both Hezbollah and Israel for the suffering wrought by the warThe country is going through a critical situation due to Iranian interference through Hezbollah and Israeli aggression he said Our hearts bleed for the victims of the conflict imposed on LebanonGhafaris brother 70yearold Sami Ghafari was among the villagers who sought refuge at the church in Alma alShaabBut he dashed out briefly on March 8 to tend to his garden and was killed by an Israeli drone strike His killing prompted the remaining villagers including his brother to pack up their belongingsThe UN peacekeepers in the area a force known as UNIFIL that has monitored the region for nearly five decades evacuated them to the northern suburbs of BeirutWe wanted to stay but it was always possible that one of us could be targeted or killed at any moment the Rev Maroun Ghafari told The Associated Press from St Anthony Church in the northern Beirut suburb of Jdeideh where the displaced from Alma alShaab came to worship on SaturdayEveryone is tired and we see that war brings nothing but destruction death and displacementMissing the smell of homeFor many Lebanese Christians its a tradition on Holy Saturday the day between Good Friday which commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus and Easter Sunday which marks his resurrection according to the Gospels to visit the graves of their loved onesThis year displaced Christians could only reflect from afarNabila Farah dressed in black for the Saturday service at St Anthony Church was among the last to leave Alma alShaab She still feels heartbroken a month laterYou miss the smell of home the lovely traditions and customs the sounds of the bells of three churches ringing she said reminiscing about her village As much as we experience the Easter atmosphere here it will never be as it is over thereThose who remain face other challengesMarius Khairallah a priest in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre where much of the Christian community has hunkered down says that he and his congregants are staying put not out of stubbornness but out of a sense of mission to remain alongside their fellow faithful as witnessesA significant number of parishioners have been displaced or are absent he said Yet churches still open their doors Prayers are still raised even with fewer voicesWorries are mounting among Christians in the area as the Lebanese army which seeks to stay neutral in the IsraelHezbollah war pulls out from parts of southern Lebanon leaving them exposed to Israeli forces pushing deeper into the territorySt Antonys main priest the Rev Dori Fayyad used his Good Friday sermon to take solemn note of the wars widening toll on the southern Lebanese Christians as the faithful recited prayers in Arabic and Syriac a dialect of the Aramaic language spoken by JesusToday you understand what the cross means not as an idea not as a concept but because you are going through it he told the fully packed pews the crowd so thick that dozens had to stand or crouch on the back stairsSome wiped away tears as Fayyad named one by one the southern churches illustrated in the cardboard cutouts next to the pulpitThese churches in these villages are not only places of worship he said They are silent witnesses to suffering and to faithThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever