By Joe Snell | April 18, 2024
Mar Mari Emmanuel, the Assyrian Bishop who was stabbed during a bible sermon in Sydney on April 15, said he is recovering quickly and forgives his attacker.
In an audio message posted to his church’s YouTube channel, Emmanuel advised his community to act Christ-like.
“The Lord Jesus said never return evil with evil but return evil with good,” Emmanuel said in a four-minute address. “We need to cooperate with the police directives, whether it be at a state level or a federal level. We pray for our country, our beloved country Australia… above all we are Christians and we need to act like it.”
“I forgive whoever’s done this act and I say to him, ‘You are my son, I love you, and I’ll always pray for you. And whoever sent you to do this, I forgive them as well.’”
Emmanuel was stabbed at the altar of his church during a live streamed service. A man dressed in black charged the altar and swung an object that appeared to be a knife at the priest yelling in Arabic. The congregation moved forward to protect the Bishop.
Emmanuel and another priest are in stable condition, the church said in a statement posted on social media.
Two injured worshippers also suffered non-life threatening injuries and were treated on site by paramedics.
Officers said they arrested a 16-year-old at the scene. The motive for the attack is still unknown. Police declared the stabbing as a “terrorist incident” because of elements of “religious motivated extremism.”
Immediately after the stabbing, hundreds of people gathered outside the church to protest the stabbing. Riot police were called to disperse the crowd.
Christ the Good Shepherd Church is located in Sydney’s western suburbs. It’s home to a large population of Assyrians as well as other migrant communities. Many residents here recently fled religious persecution in their indigenous homeland of historic Mesopotamia, parts of modern-day Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. This attack on the Bishop evoked years of deep-seated violence and sparked fears of renewed persecution.