Various links on bloggers and what the Church is doing:

An eye-witness account from Lebanon, via an Antiochene Orthodox priest here.

Fr. Jim Tucker (who provided that first link) has links to several bloggers in Lebanon.

Maronite bishops issues a statement:

An immediate ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors; condemnation of the Israeli invasion but also of the policy of kidnappings; backing for the government and an invitation to all parties to search for unity of intent; unity with the Pope for the day of prayer for peace in Lebanon, slated for tomorrow. These were the points of a statement issued by the Maronite bishops at the end of an urgent meeting called by Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, who has returned to Beirut. Meanwhile, yesterday, it was decided to hold an international, high level meeting next week in Rome to discuss ways of putting an end to hostilities in Lebanon and Israel on the basis of the G8 document.

Melkite Catholic bishops issue SOS

Today, in midst of a general conflagration between the resistant movements in Lebanon and the Israeli authorities, Elias Chacour, the Melkite Catholic Archbishop of Akka, Haifa, Nazareth and all of Galilee, urgently appealed to the organization Aid to the Church in Need for help.

“The whole Galilee region is practically paralysed,” the archbishop wrote, “(there are) no jobs, no circulation, and people stay at home waiting for deliverance and sometimes receiving a rocket or a cachucha instead.”

The archbishop pointed especially to the Galilean villages of Jish, Buqaia, Fasuta, Tharsheeha, Miilya and also Haifa and Shefa’amr, where he said, “people were hit directly or indirectly, some are hospitalised.”

Archbishop Chacour further explains, “most of the Jewish brothers and sisters have shelters against bombs which the Arab villages have not.” “Others,” he said, “escape to Tel Aviv, which is not possible for us Arabs.”

Although all of these people need support, especially those directly suffering damage to their homes or personal injuries, Archbishop Chacour specifically requested help for 30 families under his care. These Arab Christians are denied any compensation from the State of Israel. “I never imagined that a day (would) come that I (would) have to make an appeal,” he wrote, “a kind of SOS for us Christians in Galilee. We wish to wipe away the tears of the children and parents in these difficult times.”

An article from the Sun-Sentinel down in Florida, speaking to Lebanese Christians living down there.