To Our Beloved Parishioners, As Greek Orthodox Christians we have witnessed over the centuries the oppression of our Orthodox Faith at the hands of the Turks. For Four Centuries the Turks denied the basic freedoms God has provided by suppressing the Hellenic Language, attempting to rewrite the Hellenic History and Culture and attempting to smother the Holy Orthodox Faith. The Turkish Government has denied the slaughtering of 2 million people during the Armenian Holocaust, the ethnic cleansing of 1.5 million Greeks from Asia Minor, the illegality of the invasion of Cyprus and the constant oppression of Orthodoxy by the persecution of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, has once again showed the world its utter disdain for our Orthodox Faith and for humanity.
As you may have read, a Turkish Court ruled in favor of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s attempt to turn Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque. Hagia Sophia was the center of the Orthodox Christian world for 900 years when it fell into the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople. In the 1930’s Hagia Sophia was turned into a museum where it became a symbolic representation of ecumenism between Orthodoxy and Islam. Because Erdogan has taken this unprecedented action of returning Hagia Sophia to a mosque at the objection of the United States, the United Nations and the rest of the civilized world, Turkey, again, finds itself the pariah of the world.
We ask that you contact your representatives in Washington, DC and ask that they speak out strongly against Erdogan’s attempt to return Hagia Sophia to a mosque. Attached to this email is a draft for you to format for either your family or as an individual. Please send the letter to Senator Menendez, Senator Booker and Congressman Norcross at the following addresses: Congressman Donald Norcross
2437 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
10 Melrose Avenue – Suite 210
Cherry Hill, NJ 08003
Senator Cory Booker
717 Hart Senate
Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
One Port Center
2 Riverside Dr., Suite 505
Camden, NJ 08103
Senator Robert Menendez
528 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
208 White Horse Pike, Suite 18
Barrington, New Jersey 08007
Thank you.
