| St. Mark's Global Partners
Canon Andrew White - Ministry
of Reconciliation in Iraq and in Israel/Palestine
November 2005 Photo
September 11, 2008
The Day We Will Never Forget
Dear Friends,
Today is the 7th anniversary of the day we will never forget.
The atrocities of 9/11 will never be forgotten, when thousands
of normal people of every faith and tradition were killed in
the USA . In the twin towers in New York , the Pentagon in DC
and in Pennsylvania . Most years I have attended the memorial
in the Palace in Baghdad . This year our memorial was very simple
and very profound. It was not in the Palace but in a back room
in the Al Rasheed hotel in Baghdad . Most of the people there
were not American but Iraqi: the members of St George's Church
that attend our weekly meeting with our US friends from the
Embassy Chapel. We sang, had an act of remembrance and a time
of silence. Here we were in the midst of Iraq remembering this
terrible tragedy as mainly Arab Christians.
Our meeting today was wonderful. There were so many people.
Our Church is now so large we really do not know what to do.
I now go to the Church on Saturday and Sunday. We have to tell
people to only come to church once; it is very difficult but
the problem is that when they built our church in 1936 they
did not think that the Church would ever be so big, or even
predominantly Iraqi.
Yesterday when writing my next book I thought back to the first
service after the war in 2003. I preached on one verse from
Haggai which is on the wall of Coventry Cathedral.
The later glory of this house shall be greater than the former
says the Lord and in this place I will give peace.
I remember the service so well but yesterday it dawned on me
that the verse had indeed been fulfilled. The Lord is present
in his Glory and it is the greatest it has ever been, the church
is the biggest it has ever been. Despite the turmoil and terror
outside and the sounds of shooting and bombs it is indeed a
haven of peace. The fact that the church is so large is a problem
to so many of the other churches because there membership is
very small. I have tried to get people to go back to their original
churches but they will not. They say "this place is full
of love. We are taught the Bible and cared for." This is
true, this is what we aim to do, but it really is not difficult
to love these people so much.
We then heard about how the clinic was developing. It was so
encouraging. People spoke of how they are being treated free
for the first time ever. It was really encouraging to hear about
how many non-Christians are coming to the clinic and how they
cannot believe the service they are receiving. We have a new
pharmacist. She has spent the last two years in America . She
spoke of how she was certain G-d made her return. She said she
had one desire which it to be able to use her skills and training
for G-d and that is exactly what she is doing.
Meanwhile all the other work has been continuing I will tell
you about that another day. I leave next week for the UK . I
always say that we never have the money for the Church next
month and we pray and it comes. At the moment we have nothing
for the Church and Clinic we really need your prayers for next
month's money: it now costs us so much over $60,000 a month.
As the numbers increase so does the cost.
Blessings from Baghdad
Andrew
Click on the link below to be connected to the News section
of the FRRME website where you can listen to Andrew's interview
with Michael Buerk on Radio 4's The Choice programme.
http://www.frrme.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=27&Itemid=81
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