Archbishop Warda's visit to London

An Archbishop from northern Iraq visited London this week. 

Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil arrived on Monday the 9th January. The Archbishop's first engagement was in addressing the  Houses of Parliament. At the event the Archbishop shared his  concerns about the future of Christians who escaped from Mosul and Nineveh. In 2003 Iraq was home to over 1 million Christians and now less than 300,000 remain. It is a country threatened and suffering at the rise of the Islamic State. The event at the House of Lords was sponsored by human rights campaigner Lord David Alton of Liverpool. 

As you will be aware from previous blog entries the cause of Christians in Iraq has been championed by HRH The Prince of Wales who has spoken out on their plight and provided donations to support the work of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) and Iraqi Christians in Need (ICIN).

ACN  is prioritising work for Christians from Iraq. One of the projects we are sponsoring (thanks to our wonderful benefactors) is temporary PVC homes and gifts for children, including warm clothes, colouring books and pens and devotional items. 

Another reason for Archbishop Warda visiting the UK was to thank UK benefactors of charities ACN and ICIN which have provided emergency help.

On Wednesday the 11th January the Archbishop recorded a short message for Scotland. In his message he thanked individuals in Scotland for their solidarity with persecuted Christians around the world.

For those lucky to be in London this week the Archbishop also preached at Mass at Westminster Cathedral on Wednesday, 11^th February and gave a talk in the Cathedral Hall afterwards.

During the talk the Archbishop asked the audience to pray for the Christians of Iraq and to help his people remain in their homeland and not be driven out by the Islamic State.

Yours,

Michael

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