An Australian Bishop who was attacked and stabbed during a live-streamed church service returned to the pulpit this past weekend.
Preaching with an eye patch, Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel spoke about the event and forgave the assailant.
“In the name of Jesus, I love you. I forgive you and I will always pray for you,” said Bishop Emmanuel during the sermon. “My dear, you are my son…and will always be my son.”
He went on to say that he wishes nothing but the best for his attacker.
“I pray that my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, will enlighten your heart and enlighten your soul to realize that there is only one God who art in heaven.”
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The stabbing was captured during a live stream of the church service on Monday, April 15 at the Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Sydney, an independent congregation in the East Syriac tradition.
The attacker, a teenage boy, was seen lunging at Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel before others jumped in to help him.
The boy was held inside the church for hours before being taken to hospital to be treated for injuries to his hand.
A second person, one of the parish priests, Father Issac Royel, was also injured and targeted.
Police in Australia are labelling the attack as an act of terrorism.
This article was originally published at CHVN Radio.
Journalist Colleen Houde is a news writer and on-air host at CHVN in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
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3 Responses
This bishop was physically attacked and injured, in what may have been an attempted murder, but did not condemn his attacker or respond in anger.
Quite a contrast to the midwestern megachurch pastor who threw a speaker off the platform because of verbal criticism, and later spent 40 minutes of a Wednesday night prayer meeting calling on people to shun the celebrity guest speaker.
That’s a very interesting observation!
He lost his eye. Yet he can forgive and love his attacker. He is living what Jesus preached.