Horrified worshipers watch as bishop is stabbed at Sydney church

Horrified worshipers watch in person and online as a bishop is stabbed at a Sydney church

Security officers stand guard outside an Orthodox Assyrian church in Sydney.

By Mark Baker and Rod McGuirk

April 15, 2024 1:04 PM PT

SYDNEY — Horrified worshipers watched in person and online as a 15-year-old boy stabbed a bishop and a priest during a church service in Sydney on Monday evening before the congregation overpowered him, police said.

A crowd of hundreds gathered outside the Orthodox Assyrian church, hurling bricks and bottles, injuring police officers and preventing them from taking the teen outside, officials said.

There were no life-threatening injuries. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and priest Isaac Royel, the teen and at least two police officers were hospitalized, Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Andrew Holland told journalists.

The church in a message on social media said the bishop and priest were in stable condition and asked for people’s prayers. “It is the bishop’s and father’s wishes that you also pray for the perpetrator,” the statement said.

The Christ the Good Shepherd in suburban Wakeley streams sermons online. A video on social media shows a male dressed in black approaching the bishop at the altar and stabbing him repeatedly in the head and upper body. Members of the congregation scream and rush to stop the attack.

Holland commended the congregation for subduing the teen before calling police. When asked if the teen’s fingers had been severed, he said the hand injuries were “severe.”

More than 100 police reinforcements arrived before the teen was taken from the church in the hours-long incident. Several police vehicles were damaged, Holland said.

“A number of houses have been damaged. They’ve broken into a number of houses to gain weapons to throw at the police. They’ve thrown weapons and items at the church itself. There were obviously people who wanted to get access to the young person who caused the injuries to the clergy people,” he said.

Authorities did not immediately report a motive for the attack. Australians were still in shock after a lone assailant stabbed six people to death in a Sydney shopping mall on Saturday and injured more than a dozen others.

Holland suggested the weekend attack heightened the community’s response to the church stabbing.

“Given that there has been incidents in Sydney the last few days with knives involved, obviously there’s concerns,” he said. “We’ve asked for everyone to think rationally at this stage. We spoke to community leaders and members of the community to speak to their local people, to try and keep people calm.”

The premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, described the scenes as “disturbing” on social media and urged the community to remain calm and “stick together.” Religious leaders expressed shock and condolences.

Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone, leader of the neighboring municipal government, described the bishop as a community leader. “This is a very emotional situation. Obviously the community is very upset,” Carbone told Sky News.

Christ the Good Shepherd had been preparing for Palm Sunday later this month.

The bishop, described in local media as a figure sometimes seen as divisive on issues such as COVID-19 restrictions, was featured in national news last year.

A video posted in May 2023 by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. about a campaign targeting the LGBTQ+ community showed the bishop in a sermon saying that “when a man calls himself a woman, he is neither a man nor a woman. You are not a human, then you are an it. Now, since you are an it, I will not address you as a human anymore because it is not my choosing, it your choosing.”

Baker and McGuirk write for the Associated Press. McGuirk reported from Melbourne, Australia.