Monday, March 2, 2009

Damascus: Patriarchal See of the Antiochian Orthodox Church

(Washington, D.C., March 2, 2009) -- Something remarkable is taking place tonight in Damascus, the capital of Syria.

More than 1,100 senior Syrian government officials, journalists, business leaders and religious leaders -- Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox and evangelical Christian -- will preview a motion picture entitled "DAMASCUS," written, produced and directed entirely by Arab Christians. The film, part documentary and part narrative drama, tells of how Saul of Tarsus, a persecutor of Christ's followers, became a follower of Jesus after a miraculous encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.

Events in Paul's life are dramatized by famous Syrian Muslim actors playing the parts of Jews and Jewish followers of Jesus.

After the premiere, the film is expected to be launched throughout Syria and the rest of the Muslim world. Sources indicate senior Catholic leaders in the Vatican recently reviewed the film and were favorable.

Syria's government has never been controlled by Radical Islamic jihadists. Still, it has long stifled activities by Arab Christians to teach others about their faith. It is not clear what the Assad government's motives are for supporting the release of "DAMASCUS", but it is an encouraging development.

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