ST MARY’S Church in Burley-in-Wharfedale, welcomed the Bishop of Bradford, the Rt Rev’d Toby Haworth on Sunday.

The theme was praying for Aleppo and the congregation were joined by Johnny Hanna, a Syrian Christian from Aleppo and who runs the Pizzaone take-away in Burley.

Johnny presented a snapshot of the situation in Aleppo and shared the story of pastor Abdullah, whose Church provides for families of all faiths and especially for those families whose family members have been killed by ISIS because they are Christians.

He told the congregation that when his wealthy father left Syria, he lost everything but he said: “I still have my faith in my heart…I carry my Jesus from Syria to here”. Johnny encouraged everyone to always have hope. “If we pray we can move all the world, we can open all the doors," he said.

Bishop Toby challenged the congregation to think about what their response should be. “The leaders of the world know exactly what is happening and yet they have decided that it will continue, because it is worth their while to let it continue,” he said and continued: “Even though life isn’t as it should be, we believe in something different…when we bring our feelings, our reality into God’s presence, something changes. Jesus is in the business of making the sad things come untrue, mending God’s broken world.”

The congregations from the two main morning services at St Mary’s had opportunities to light candles to remember those caught in Aleppo and Johnny led a very moving and soulful version of the Lord’s Prayer in Arabic.

The Rev Alastair Kirk, Vicar of St Mary's, Burley-in-Wharfedale said: "Talking about Syria and the seemingly intractable challenges is something we rarely stop to grapple with and yet Bishop Toby encouraged us to be honest with our own feelings of anger and pain, to recognise the injustice of the past, to seek God and to expect that God will eventually bring resurrection out of death and destruction – in Syria and in our own lives."