Good News:
I am pleased to be able to report that, since the Fatwa was issued in Copenhagen by the High Council of Religious Leaders in Iraq, there have been no further attacks against Christians. We are no longer getting the daily reports of the Christians massacred and their homes being ransacked. For now, the Christians of Iraq are safe again.
It is difficult for people to understand how one meeting in Copenhagen could do this but it did. We need to wake up and realise that religion does have huge significance in politics, violence and terrorism in this region. Several Ambassadors from around the world have asked me to meet with them to discuss how they too might come on board. When something works so clearly and so quickly, many want to be part of it.
Various Christians have been asking how we did it. I replied it is only by the grace of G-d and the prayer of our people. By our people I mean all our church here in Baghdad and all of you our friends who prayed so hard about our meeting in Copenhagen.
As Archbishop William Temple said, "When I pray, coincidences happen and when I don't, they don't." We needed a mighty miracle and we ask for your prayer that we will get the funding in place to have the next meeting soon before the violence reappears. We believe in miracles.
The Long View from the Prophet Nahum:
This weekend's services at the embassy and the church were truly wonderful. We have been looking at Nahum and Matthew chapter 5. The short book of Nahum is one of the most depressing in scripture. It is about the total destruction that will come to Nineveh because they have not kept to the teachings of Jonah. The wicked Assyrians had caused terrible suffering to the Hebrew people.
With all passages in the Bible it is essential to look at the history and the context before applying it to your own situation. All the sermons I have read and heard on the Book of Nahum are all about the wrath of G-d, but for us here, it just makes us think about His Grace and love. Let me explain why.
Nahum's town of El Kush is here, in the north of Iraq. In the centre of the town is an ancient synagogue, which surrounds the tomb of Nahum.
Not only are all our people from Nineveh, but they are all Assyrians. This ancient people who were once wicked and who once persecuted the Hebrew people, has now been Christian for the past 2,000 years.
So as I look around my people, and read Nahum's words, I see an incredible sign of G-d's grace and love. These once evil Assyrians are now the longest standing followers of Jesus in the World.
The miracle is that the descendants of the Al Qaeda of their day are now the longest standing followers of Jesus in the world. If G-d can do this he can deal with the violence around us.
Grace love and peace,
Andrew
Canon Andrew White
