Scottish Catholic Observer

DURING Advent, we prepare for the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, which we celebrate at Christmas. If you are fortunate enough to spend Christmas with family, in your own homes and able to attend church freely you will be in a much better position than the Christians of Iraq and Syria.

The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need is supporting Christians suffering from the attacks of the extremist group calling itself the Islamic State both inside and outside of Iraq and Syria.

Iraq

In Iraq, Christians have been driven out of their ancestral homes and the future of the Church in the country hangs in the balance as never before. Before 2003, there were up to 1.5 million Christians living in Iraq. Now, local bishops have estimated that fewer than 300,000 remain.

Aid to the Church in Need has provided more than £3 million in emergency help for internally displaced Christians in Iraq—one of the largest aid schemes in the charity’s history.

ACN has also allocated over £43,000 of humanitarian aid for Christian refugees from Iraq who have fled to neighbouring Jordan. This will support around 200 families from Iraq’s Mosul region who have been taken in by the Catholic parish of Mary, Mother of the Church in Jordan’s capital Amman.

Parish priest Fr Khalil Jaar told Aid to the Church in Need: “The people arrived here with nothing. They therefore urgently need anything that could in any way be useful, such as shoes, clothing, blankets and medicine. Daily meals also need to be provided for about 200 families. No one can say for how many days or months they will be living in our parish.”

In addition to meeting everyday necessities, the parish is also caring for the psychological needs of the children and their parents, Fr Jaar said.

He explained that the Christians who fled Mosul to escape the Islamic State have experienced terrible things. The priest continued: “In the summer the Muslim extremists who conquered Mosul gave Christians the choice of either converting to Islam, paying a tax or risk being executed. The result was a mass exodus of Christians to the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

“A man told me how they were inspected at an ISIS checkpoint as they fled Mosul. Everything was taken from them, money, passports, jewellery and watches. Their three-year-old son was not even allowed to take his milk bottle with him.”

Syria

In Syria, more than 100,000 Syrians have lost their lives in the escalating conflict between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule.

Some 50,000 Christians fled the city of Homs in at the beginning of the conflict—in at least some cases they left their homes after members of an Islamist militia group fighting with the opposition went door-to-door in the Christian quarter and ordered them to leave their homes. The city was besieged from May 2011 until May 2014 when forces loyal to President al-Assad retook the city.

“After the lifting the siege off the old city of Homs some families went back to their houses after repairing them but they are only about five per cent of the total number of families,” Syriac Orthodox Bishop

Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh of Homs and Hama said.

Bishop Selwanos also informed ACN that the families whose houses have been damaged have not recieved any recompense from the government or international body.

But, the Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Homs and Hama added that, due to the support offered by ACN, his diocese was able to provide support with rents, ‘medication, and supplies for schools.’

ACN Scotland

ACN Head of Operations in Scotland, Lorraine McMahon, said: “Our brothers and sisters in the Middle East need our help like never before. Iraqis have experienced much conflict and political turmoil but this year the Islamic State threatens to undermine the very existence of Christianity in this region.”

Ms McMahon added: “As we approach Christmas, please remember all those who suffer for witnessing to Christ.”

Offering practical help is essential to the work of Aid to the Church in Need and that is why the charity is responding to the growing crisis in the Middle East by providing temporary accommodation for refugee families, medical care and food.

As a cold, harsh winter begins, temporary accommodation is absolutely vital, especially for displaced families in Erbil, Iraq, who might not

survive the freezing temperatures if they continued to live outdoors with only a flimsy canvas covering to keep them warm.

This year the charity will also be giving Christmas gifts for some of the children in Iraq and Syria who were forced to leave their homes.

Prince Charles

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has described the threats faced by Christians in the Middle East as ‘an indescribable tragedy.’ He made the comments last month, in a message at the launch of ACN’s Religious Freedom in the World Report—2014. The report can be read at www.religion-freedom-report .org.uk

Prince Charles added: “It is an indescribable tragedy that Christianity is now under such threat in the Middle East, an area where Christians have lived for 2,000 years and across which Islam spread in 700 AD, with people of different faiths living together peaceably for centuries.”

Christmas Day 2014

This is a time of great hardship and pain for Christians in the Middle East. Please will you pray with us on Christmas Day:

Lord, the plight of your people in the Middle East is grave. And the suffering of the Christians is terrible and frightening.

Therefore, we ask you, Lord to save your people from all fear and violence; grant them patience and courage to continue to witness to their Christian

values with faith, hope and charity.

Lord, peace is the foundation of life; give them peace and stability; help them to live with one another without fear and anxiety, with dignity and joy.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, the Light of this world. Amen.

— For information about Aid to the Church in Need and ways in which you can support persecuted Christians visit: www.acnuk.org or call Lorraine McMahon at ACN Scotland on: 01698 337470 or e-mail: [email protected]