Archbishop of Canterbury Says Tears Of Iraqi Christians Have Been 'Forgotten By The World'
The Head of the Church of England talked about the persecution of Middle Eastern Christians in his Sunday sermon at Jerusalem's St. George's Anglican cathedral. Archbishop Justin Welby is in the middle of a 12-day humanitarian visit to the Holy Land to lay the foundation for a long-term relationship with the region.
In his 10-minute preaching before a packed congregation, Welby talked about his trips the previous weeks in Jordan, Gaza and Galilee — places that he described as "probably the most complicated region of conflicts in the world" where suffering and injustice were evident, the Guardian reported.
"Whether it is the utterly disrupted lives of the refugees we met in Zaatari refugee camp last week, or the tears of the Iraqi Christians later that day, seemingly forgotten by the world, one sees endless heartbreak," Welby said. "Sometimes life has been better, sometimes it is less bad. But the nature of suffering is that when it is happening it is all-consuming," he added.
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Since arriving on May 1, the Archbishop of Canterbury has met with Jordan's King Abdullah. He also visited the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and the holy sites of all three monotheistic religions in Jerusalem's Old City. He also made a stopover to Gaza and visited a Christian school in Galilee.
Welby was shocked by the physical devastation in Gaza, the "collective trauma" of its people, and their fear about the future. At the same time, he was inspired by the resilience and heroism of "doctors at the hospitals, from patients and above all groups of women, but also the ever-looming fears."
Gaza used to have 3,000 Christians, but the number has declined to 1,300 in recent years as many have fled the harsh conditions. While the existence of Christians is tolerated by the Hamas terror group that rules the strip, they have been subjected to persecutions and forced conversions.
