Christians in Iraq under threat

A piece by Deborah Haynes - the Times Journalist based in Iraq - details the plight of Iraqi Christians, once persecuted by Saddam's regime for being Kurdish, and now driven from Baghdad to the border region with Turkey.

Christians in Iraq are under constant threat from insurgents. Just last week, after the release of two priests working in Mosul, two more Christians were taken hostage.

They continue to persevere however. The vicar of Baghdad, Canon Andrew White, holds Alpha Courses in Saddam Hussain's palace.

"It was Thursday night here in Baghdad and time for the Alpha Course, the most wonderful and systematic introduction to the Christian faith that now takes place in well over 100 countries around the world.  100,000’s have come to faith through the course. I had the privilege of serving as an assistant minister in the Church of St Mark’s Battersea in London, an early daughter church of Holy Trinity Brompton in London, where the course was founded. When I started doing the course there were only three in the country; now it is an international phenomena and one of the greatest means of evangelism in the world today. There is therefore no surprise that the course also takes place here in Baghdad, in the former palace of Saddam Hussain." Canon Andrew White is President of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East.

Joanna Sugden