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  • Christians respond to church bombings in Iraq

    Ekklesia, UK
    Aug 2 2004

    Christians respond to church bombings in Iraq

    Middle Eastern church leaders have condemned attacks on Iraqi
    churches and called for solidarity following bombings at churches
    yesterday.

    According to some news reports, at least 11 people were killed and
    dozens injured as bombs exploded at four churches - two of them
    Syrian and two, Armenian Orthodox - and a monastery.

    Two churches in the Karada District in central Baghdad were bombed.
    Local reports there said that two or four people were killed and
    several injured when a car bomb exploded outside the Syrian Catholic
    Church. The reports also said that several people were injured in a
    similar car bomb attack on the nearby Armenian Catholic Church. Two
    churches in the Al Dura suburb of southern Baghdad, and a church in
    Mosul in northern Iraq, were apparently attacked at the same time.
    The attacks mark the first time Iraqi churches have been targeted in
    this way.

    Members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Iraq, Sheila
    Provencher and Greg Rollins, were worshipping at St Raphael's
    Catholic Church when the first bomb exploded at 6:25 pm at the
    Armenian church about a quarter mile away from them. At that moment
    in the service, there had been a time of silence, and the priest then
    continued with the next words of the regular liturgy, "Lamb of God,
    who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us."

    Two other CPT members Peggy Gish and Doug Pritchard were worshipping
    at St Yousef's Chaldean Church in the same neighbourhood as the
    Armenian and Syrian churches. Gish said, "When I heard the first
    explosion, I wondered if it was
    an attack on a church, and I prayed immediately for whoever might
    have been involved." As people were leaving the service at 6:50 pm,
    the second blast occurred at the Syrian church three blocks away.
    Parishioners were quickly hurried out of the area by the Chaldean
    church's security staff who then blocked off the road.

    While walking away from the church, Gish and Pritchard asked worried
    residents for details. One family pulled them inside their home and
    shared their recent experiences.

    The young woman of the family wept and said, "My father was killed
    recently because he sold alcohol. Because of that, I was too afraid
    to go to my church today. Now it has been bombed. I don't know if my
    friends there are alive or dead. Saddam was a killer. Now there are
    many Saddams."

    Speaking today at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order
    plenary commission meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, bishop Nareg
    Alemezian of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Catholicosate of Cilicia)
    said: "This is the first time Christian churches have been targeted.
    We condemn this attack and we are very concerned about it."

    Metropolitan Dr Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, from the Syrian
    Orthodox Church of Antioch, urged Christians and Muslims to work
    together for peace. "Solidarity is very important, both inside and
    outside the region, both among Christians and between Christians and
    Muslims," he said.

    Gregorios stressed that "the WCC and others should encourage anything
    that brings Christians and Muslims together, not only in theological
    dialogue but also in the dialogue of life and work."

    "I address my appeal to the Arab world, which can support any plan
    for peace, and also to the Iraqi people themselves - if they are not
    in solidarity, how then can they solve these problems?" he asked.

    Alemezian called on international and local people to work for peace.
    "This is not just a problem for Syrians and Armenians," he said. "The
    situation in Iraq is not isolated. It is related to the general
    political situation in the world.

    "We have a conflict, and we have to solve it - the US, the UN, all
    parties involved in the creation of this situation, but also local
    people and faith communities."

    Both leaders stressed the good relations between Christians and
    Muslims in Iraq prior to the bombings.

    "Christians are an integral part of the society they are living in,
    they are not newcomers, they are not there for any superficial
    reason," said Alemezian. "Middle Eastern Christians are the people of
    the land where Christ was born," he added.

    They both stressed the dangers posed by pressure on the nearly
    1million Iraqi Christians leading to increased emigration.

    "The diminishing number of Christians in Iraq is a terrible thing,"
    said Gregorios. "The same picture is replicated in other countries
    like Turkey, Iran, and Palestine. We are losing our people."

    Could a situation arise, they said, where there were no Christians in
    the Middle East and no Muslims in the West? This would be "dangerous
    for everybody," said Metropolitan Gregorios. "This is very important.
    It's not good for humanity."

    So far, no one has claimed responsibility for these coordinated
    attacks.
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