Dear Friends,

Well, Christmas is coming and the time to rejoice and share the joy of exchanging gifts. This year, we would like to offer you the opportunity to send some presents that will make a world of difference.

We have carefully selected a range of gifts that will help us transform the lives of those in need. Each gift will be wholly used to provide for a person in Iraq or the Palestinian Authority. Gifts are priced from just $7 (£4.70) and we will acknowledge each purchase with an individually signed certificate of thanks for you to present to your loved ones at Christmas.

Below is a list of gift choices:

1. A day for an old person in the Armenian Old People’s Home in Baghdad $13 (£8.70

2. Provision of medicines for Houssan Clinic Palestine $12 (£8.00)

3. Supplies to cover the cost of a patient visit to the clinic in Baghdad $7 (£4.70)

4. Supplies to cover the cost of a visit to the Dentist in Baghdad $12 (£8.00)

5. Resources to run St George’s Church in Baghdad for a day $702 (£468.60)

6. Provision of food for a family in Baghdad for a month $32 (£21.35)

7. A week’s insulin supplies for Joseph, a young diabetes sufferer in Palestine $100 (£66.62)

8. A Christmas Present for a child in Baghdad $12 (£8.00)

9. Running St George’s Church Baghdad for 1 hour $102 (£68.00)

10. Daily school provisions for the children of the Iraqi Human Rights Minister in exile in Lebanon for their personal security $43 (£28.70)

11. Provision of food for Ethiopian Jewish emigrants in Israel which costs $28 a week for each person.

From these eleven options I hope there is something you can choose this year. Please see the link below to our website donations page for the order form where you can print off and post the form or return it to us by email.

Donations Page:

http://www.frrme.org/index.phpoption=com_content&task=view&id=2&Itemid=3 

Alternatively you can pay online on the above donations page and then please email us at office@frrme.org to inform us of your purchase so we can ensure your gift is correctly designated. Please bear in mind that your address details need to be included plus the name of the person that you would like to appear on the certificate.

Blessings to you and all those you love at this special time of year,

Canon Andrew White

President

FRRME & Rector of St George’s Baghdad

For more information on the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East please visit our websitewww.frrme.org

Tags: Christmas Gifts, FRRME

Remembrance Day in Iraq

“I have been to the Church of the future” Lord Hylton.

It was a pleasant, warm, sunny day in Baghdad. The Iraqi army turned up to my trailer. They had come to take us to church. With me was my Iraqi director along with Lord Raymond Hylton, the chairman of our board. He had taken great risks to give up his comfortable seat in the House of Lords and travel with me for two weeks to the most dangerous place in the world. We were seated in the usual armored vehicle going through the countless checkpoints until we were finally out of the IZ (international zone, formally known as the Green Zone). Once outside we were met by further Iraqi military, this time with soldiers in front and behind us in open backed vehicles with guns pointing in all directions. The sirens started screeching, we sped fast down the wrong side of the road and in no time at all we were in St George’s Church compound. For me this was just another normal trip to church in the usual abnormal manner.

Lord Hylton was welcomed by some of the children like a long lost friend. He had spent time with them in London when they visited the House of Lords, so to them he was simply their friend. The service began as usual with the words from Communion: “Allah hu maana.” The Lord is here. The people shout the response “his Spirit is with us.” Wonderful singing in Arabic and Aramaic follows, the liturgy is sang as well in these languages, the sermon given by me and then the Eucharist. The services are always long, always filled with joy, yet at every meeting people will tell of the pain they have suffered that week. The church is bursting at the seams. Despite having church on Saturday and Sunday, with the encouragement that people only come once, the church is still filled to overflowing. There are not enough seats for everybody so they stand for several hours at a time.

Apart from the wonderful worship there is also an outstanding report from the Church’s dental and medical clinic. Vast numbers of people are seen and treated each day totally free of charge. The users of the service cannot believe they receive this treatment without payment. The vast majority of the patients are not even Christian. After the service we visit the clinic and view its outstanding facilities. We see the excellent pharmacy well-stocked with drugs thanks to International Health Partners in the UK. We hand over the latest medicines we have been given to bring. We speak to Sherahzade the pharmacist. She tells us how she knows she is doing the work of the Almighty and how she loves it.

We eventually return to the IZ in the same way we came. Later in the trailer Lord Hylton shows me an article he has written. It begins with a line I will never forget: “I have been to the Church of the future.” Here in Baghdad in probably the most dangerous street in the world is the Church of the future? It is a church I love so much but I had never realized it was the Church of the future. What Lord Hylton was saying was so true. Here denominations do not matter. Here people from every denominational background came together to
worship the living God; a people who have lost everything and realize that Jesus is everything. The whole methodology of Church is totally different. People do not just come to church to worship, it is their everything. They come here to get their food, clothes, blankets, health care, meet their friends. Here church is everything. I am reminded of the words of one of our Children “I learned here that Jesus was everything and he would provide all our needs and He has and He has made me happy again.”

From Lord Hylton and a young person called Fulla I have learned this week what church is really about. It is about the presence of the Almighty in the most difficult circumstances. It is not about denominations or labels, it is about the Church Universal. The one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church being everywhere even in the most dangerous place in the world, serving and showing the love of Jesus. I realise that most people can’t and never will come to this church of the future but so many people are part of it. Whether in Baghdad or Balham (my former parish) we are part of one Church. We could not do what we do if it were not for the love and support of the churches, individuals and one agency - the Mothers Union - that enables us to serve the broken hearted.

The following day my other congregation meets as it does most weeks with the people of St George’s. The reunion is always emotional. They hug and kiss each other. The children surround the other members of their church family. They put down their rifles and large guns. They hold hands and sing together. They are
nearly all American soldiers but they see themselves as one together. They truly love each other. There is no differentiation that one appears to take from the other. If you speak to them both you will see that they both give and receive. The British Army turn up. Though not great in number here in Baghdad they have made a generous collection of money for St George’s. It is given to Faiz our lay pastor. It will give to those who have lost everything. One of the little girls runs up to me “Abouna Abouna [Father Father] I have had the best day of my life.” I ask her how and she points to the US Soldiers and says “they took us to play and swim in their pool, and gave us pizza and t-shirts and we sang together and it was the best day of our lives.” I look at them all and suddenly I too see the Church of the future, it is one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.

Canon Andrew P B White
Anglican Chaplain to Iraq and President of the FRRME (www.frrme.org)

Tags: Abouna, communion, Faiz, IZ, Lord Hylton

Dear Friends,

Sorry I have not been able to write since I have been back in Iraq. I have been even more busy than usual and added to this, have had all my normal meetings. I am also working hard to finish my next book but nowhere near as hard as my editor Huw Spanner. Adding to this problem, our emails here have barely been working; I even do not know if and when this will get to you.

Church at the weekend was wonderful as usual. Chaplain Causey is leading the worship in the Anglican/Episcopal/Lutheran service and it is great. Dawn was commissioned as a lay leader of the chapel on Sunday. It is the first time we have had a Lutheran helping us. General Porter has also joined us. This is wonderful, he is the new senior British General here. I reminded him that he may be a General but I also knew his mother. So he reminded me that he has known my wife since she was 8, so a lot longer than me. It is wonderful having a British Christian General in our congregation and fully on board.

Things at St George’s are wonderful and the church continues to grow. The Clinic is also going very well. I now have to go to Church on Saturday and Sundays simply so we can fit people in.

We continue to work on all our projects out here, particularly the upcoming Iraqi Inter-Religious meeting.

Blessings from Baghdad,

Andrew

Tags: Church, lay leader, meetings, next book, Updates

The procession of the congregation with olive branches of peace.

The congregation marches around the church before entering St. Georges Church.

Tags: Andrew, olive branches, peace

Due to high inflation and the ongoing violence and the damage done to the local economy, the only way the church can continue offering these life-saving services is from the help of other churches in the West. Contact us today to see how you can help make a difference in the Middle East right now.

CCRR
PO Box 470902        +1 704 975 2314
Charlotte, NC 28247    office@centerforconflictrelief.org

Tags: donations, Help, PO Box