Iraqi Christian Crisis

October 29, 2014

Posted Thursday 14 August 2014

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s latest statement on the situation in Iraq talks about it being “off the scale of human horror”.

ABM has sent $5,000 from its Global Rapid Response Fund to the ACT Alliance appeal for Northern Iraq, to support Christians and other groups fleeing their homes, and the communities who are hosting them. We are also looking to send further funds to the Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf where the Church is working alongside Kurdish authorities and Christian churches, especially in and around the town of Erbil, to provide emergency food and accommodation to those in most need.

Please click the “Donate” button to show your support and give to the “Iraq: Global Rapid Response Fund”.

On the 14th August, Archbishop Justin Welby said: 

“Ever since the war to end all wars ended in 1918, humankind have been saying “never again”, then we wring our hands as genocide unfolds in some distant corner. But what is happening right now in northern Iraq is off the scale of human horror.

“In a globalised world where even distant nations are our “neighbour”, we cannot allow these atrocities to be unleashed with impunity. And while the behaviour of the ISIS jihadis in Syria and northern Iraq is particularly savage, it is also part of rising and increasingly serious persecution of Christians and other groups in many countries.

“These [jihadi] groups are, rightly, rejected by the vast majority of Muslims. The struggle being faced is one for a world that can cope with diversity, and disagree without destruction. ISIS, Boko Haram and their equivalents seek only destruction for their own ends.

“The international community must document the human rights abuses in northern Iraq so that the perpetrators can later be prosecuted.

“As Anglican leaders, we cry to God for peace and justice and security throughout the world, and especially for Christians and other minority groups suffering so deeply in northern Iraq.”

Archbishop Justin’s other statements can be found on his website at http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/