Snipers deployed on the rooftops around Holy Cross church in the heart of Damascus on Sunday as dignitaries from Middle East churches arrived for the enthronement of Greek Orthodox leader Yuhanna X Yazigi.
Guests bearing official invitations were whisked through metal detectors at the door, but their chauffeurs were prohibited from parking, and throngs of devotees had to watch the liturgy on a giant screen outside.
Only Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, on a historic visit from neighbouring Lebanon, and Catholic Patriarch Gregory Laham represented their churches in person.
Other denominations sent representatives, a member of the organising committee told AFP outside the church in the city’s Qasaa district.
Presidential Affairs Minister Mansour Azzam, a key adviser to Bashar al-Assad, was among ministers representing the embattled government at Yazigi’s enthronement as Patriarch of Antioch and All the East.
The ceremony comes just a day after warplanes raided southern districts of the capital, the latest chapter in the nearly two-year conflict in which the United Nations says that more than 60,000 people have been killed.
Many Syrian Christians have distanced themselves from the revolt, which morphed into an insurgency amid a harsh crackdown on peaceful protests, but others have taken Assad’s side, fearing a rise of Islamism or an Iraq scenario.
Lebanese Christians, on the other hand, are deeply divided between pro- and anti-Assad camps.
Rai, who has denounced states that supply money and weapons to both the Assad regime and its opponents, is the first Maronite patriarch to visit Syria since Syrian and Lebanese independence seven decades ago.
In a sermon after his arrival on Saturday evening, Patriarch Rai said: “Reforms are necessary, but should not be imposed from the outside. They must come from within through dialogue and agreement.”
Religious dignitaries in Syria for enthronement
