Syrian Christians

I began today to use the Acts of the Apostles for Scripture meditation.  I started with the end of chapter 15 where St. Paul begins his second missionary journey in Antioch.  With Syria so much in the news, it's good to remind ourselves how important that country was in the very earliest days of Christianity.  In fact, it was there that the followers of Jesus were first called Christians. I suppose, though most of the Arabs fleeing Syria now are Muslims, many of them are Christians.
In the first parish where I was pastor I took communion to several Arabs whose families had been in this country since the early 20th century.  One old woman used a prayer book which was in Arabic.