RIP

From ACN

Your prayers are urgently requested as breaking news comes in of the killing of 45 people from an ancient Christian town in Syria - including two teenagers and three of their grandmothers, who were thrown down a well.

The family were 18-year-old university student Ranim (pictured left), school pupil Fadi (right), aged 16, their mother, Njala, 45, and grandparents, Mariam El-Sheikh (pictured centre) aged 90, as well as Matanios, aged 85, and his wife, Habsah 75.

The atrocity, the worst against Christians since Syria's conflict began in March 2011, broke when rebels seized the town of Sadad and held 1,500 families hostage. A week later, Government forces retook Sadad.

Syria's Patriarch Gregorios III, who last month launched ACN UK's Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their Faith 2011-2013, told ACN: "How can somebody do such inhumane and bestial things?"

The Patriarch is determined to keep hope. He recently told ACN: "If we are now the Church of the Martyrs, we will be the Church of the Resurrection in the future. Christ is Risen - we will remain."