Middle East Daily Update 31 December 2014

Middle East Daily Update 31 December 2014

Dear friends, 2014 has been an exceptionally traumatic year for the people of the Middle East, our team on the ground have heard so many tragic stories. As 2014 draws to a close we wanted to summarise what we have encountered and how we have begun responding to the crises and outline our plans for 2015. In Amman, Jordan we have been working with local churches supporting Iraqi refugees mostly from Ninevah. There are hundreds of families who have fled to Jordan, many of whom have received no or limited assistance. As refugees they are unable to seek employment and have to wait months to hear whether they will be moved. In the meantime they are relying on charitable support, but this only goes so far and we have found many families that have not eaten for days in order to pay the rent. Many of the children have been out of education for 6 months or more. A great deal of our time has been spent in Israel/Palestine following recent troubles both in reconciliation and relief. We have been providing aid to Gaza through the Adam Centre which is part of the reconciliation work between Israel and Palestine. We have also been supporting the Church in Bethlehem in providing for the welfare of Christian Palestinians, and the Joseph Storehouse Foundation assisting disadvantaged people in Israel. At St George's, Baghdad our work through the school, clinic and food relief programme continued and with many displaced Iraqis moving to Baghdad has increased. Many Iraqis have been displaced to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq where we have been providing relief such as food, blankets, bedding, and mobility aids. In 2015 we are supporting the construction of an IDP camp in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and in Baghdad. In Israel/Palestine we are partnered with Mosaica working towards a resolution to the conflict. In Amman we are seeking funding for a school and clinic for the Iraqi refugees, premises have already been located and urgent financial support is needed. We found despair, we brought hope and now through your love please help us. Wishing you a very happy new year, Terry Jones and Daniel Packwood

Canon Andrew White's Christmas Update

Dear Friends,

It is the most beautiful time of the year. A time of light, food, parties, fun and presents. We must not forget how much it means to children. The other day I was in Toronto. There were children all around me. There was snow on the ground and a log fire burning. It was reminiscent of everything you could imagine about Christmas. Despite being in Church one of the parents told her child "If you are not good, Christmas will not happen". So the little boy no more than 6 said, "What if we are not good won't Jesus be born". With me the preacher sitting there the parents did not dare answer.

The fact is that Christmas has one reason only, that Jesus was indeed born. Throughout history from the Jewish tradition there was the profound belief that one-day the Messiah, the anointed one of God would be born. He would be the one who would lead people to their heavenly father God. He would be the one who would change peoples understanding of God forever. He would be the one known as the King of Kings.

Yet he was not born of the right stock, he was born of an unmarried mother who was no more than a refugee. She gave birth to her son in a grotty stable, in a grotty little town just outside of Jerusalem called Bethlehem. Not a very grand start for the person who would change history. From the day he was born history was divided into before him BC or after him AD. Those who follow that refugee child now call themselves Christians.

Christmas is also a time when you assess what has happened over the past year. For me this year has been so hard because I am not the vicar in a leafy Parish in the Hampshire/Surrey boarders where my family live. My parish is Baghdad in Iraq. The nation where the Christians have been dismissed from their hometowns in there hundreds of thousands. They have fled in their masses to the very North of Iraq fleeing the onslaught of the terrorist group known as ISIS. There for weeks my staff team have fed and clothed, provided mattresses and cradles for the thousands and thousands of internally displaced people.

Here in their refugee camp, the Christians with no Christmas like us in the West have placed a refugee tent for Jesus and there in the camp is a tent for another person who was also a poor refugee who had nothing.

This Christmas as we celebrate what we have, let us not forget that we too are celebrating the birth of a refugee who had nothing but gives us everything. As we delight in what we can give to people this Christmas let us not forget what this Christmas is really all about the time when this refugee child comes to all of us as the one who leads us to God and offers us the most wonderful gift possible this Christmas. Christmas is all about relationship with our ultimate creator.

I will never forget the day in Baghdad when we had some visitors. They had come to see what it was really like for Christians in Iraq. They were so surprised by how happy the thousands of people were in our congregation. "How can you be so happy when you are surrounded, suicide bombs, mortar's rockets and such violence". One of our young people answered the statement. "You see when you have lost everything, Jesus is all you have got left".

All you have got left is the love of that refugee child. That to us in the Middle East is all that matters this Christmas. The terrorism has got so bad in Iraq that I have had to leave. So I have moved to the other place where I work Bethlehem. That little town where Jesus first came. Two thousand years after he first came he is still everything to the people, He is still everything to our Christians in Iraq and he can still be everything to us. You see when Christmas is over, when you have had all your presents and food, Jesus is all we have got left.

So Christmas is a time when we should never loose the meaning of this Christ Child who came to us so that by simply trusting in him we will have a life filled with hope and purpose and love. He is still with us 2000 years after he first came. This Christmas let us not forget that he so loves us that we must love him and in response our life will be changed forever.

Wishing you a happy and blessed celebration on the birthday of our Lord. 

 
Canon Andrew White

Middle East Update 2 December 2014 Happy and Blessed Christmas Canon Andrew White from Bethlehem and Baghdad

Dear Friends, As we approach Christmas I bring you blessings from Bethlehem and Baghdad. Bethlehem where I am most of my time now because it is deemed too dangerous for me to be in Iraq at the moment and Baghdad that I still see as my home and the place I love more than any other. I may not be there but our team still are working flat out to bring hope to our many thousands of Christians who have been forced from their homes at this time. Every day they are providing food, accommodation, clothing, and disabled aids to those in great need. Last year we could have never dreamt that we would be facing this level of crisis – with our people being hounded from their homes, our people being massacred and having nowhere to go for real safety. I want to thank you for all the help you gave us at this most terrible of times. With your assistance we have been able to help meet the needs of those who have nothing. The story may be out of the news now but the crisis continues. We are having to provide for the needs of those not just in Iraq but also those who have fled to neighbouring countries. Last week we were in Jordan with some of our desperate people. About to be forced out of their totally derelict homes because they could not pay the rent, no school for their children and their husbands and father having been kidnapped or killed by the terrorists in Iraq. Our job has been to provide them all the help and support they need and we can only do it with your help. Meanwhile down the road in Bethlehem it may seem peaceful and pleasant for the pilgrims and tourists but there is a very different side to this little town. We have been greatly privileged to form links with the wonderful evangelical Church in Bethlehem led by Naim and Stephen Khoury. The church is so alive with the glory and Spirit of G-d. It has a vibrant children’s and youth ministry and an extensive evangelism program. Whilst the mosques are proclaiming their words from their minarets this church is proclaiming the word of G-d from its loud speakers. 13 times this church has been blown up and had attempts to destroy it, but they will not stop allowing the love of Jesus from Bethlehem to be heard in Bethlehem. Will you give back to the Middle East something this Christmas as we give thanks for what we have received from there when Christ was born? Everything you give will go to those who need our help this Christmas here in the Middle East where our Lord Yesuah came. Wishing you a happy and blessed celebration on the birthday of our Lord. Canon Andrew White

Bishop Davies dedicates 2015 as a ‘Year of Vocations’ in the Diocese of Shrewsbury

Bishop Mark Davies has dedicated 2015 to be a “Year of Vocations” in the Diocese of Shrewsbury.
The theme of the Catholic Church’s new year, which began with the First Sunday of Advent, was announced in a pastoral letter “on the universal call to holiness” read at Mass in every church and chapel of the Diocese on Sunday November 30.
The year complements the “Year of Consecrated Life” opened by Pope Francis but it is also aimed at encouraging lay Catholics to better understand their own vocations, especially the vocation to marriage.
The year will also see the opening of a centre in Shrewsbury Cathedral for the discernment of vocations for men who are considering the priesthood or consecrated life.

In his letter, the Bishop of Shrewsbury reminded the faithful that all of the baptised have a vocation to be saints, and that for most people this road to perfection would involve carrying out daily activities with charity – such as parents spending time with their children and listening patiently to them – supported by prayer and the sacraments.
“In the Church, no one has a second-class vocation,” Bishop Davies said. “Every one of us is, by baptism, called to become nothing less than a saint.”
“Being comfortable or popular is not the goal of the Christian life – holiness is,” the Bishop said.
“This call to holiness lay at the heart of the Second Vatican Council’s call for renewal in the Church.”
The Bishop extensively quotes Pope Francis who, he says, wants “to remind us that at home or in work or at church; in marriage or in the priesthood; in every moment and in every state of life, ‘a door is opened on the road to sainthood’”.”
“Our path to holiness is to be found, then, amidst the apparently little things of every day,” Bishop Davies continued.
“Pope Francis gives us some very practical examples: avoiding malicious gossip in a conversation is a definite step, he said, towards becoming a saint.
“Exhausted after a hard day’s work but being willing to sit with your children and listen patiently to them, this too is a step towards holiness.
“Making time for prayer each day even when we are tired: this is a sure step towards holiness.  Being ready for Mass on Sunday, and at times making a good Confession, which Pope Francis says, ‘cleans us up’, are vital steps towards holiness.
“He adds that thinking of Our Lady and taking up the Rosary to pray, this is yet another step towards holiness.  Meeting someone in need, making time and being willing to help, are real steps towards becoming the saint we are called to be.
“In other words, the call to holiness is not found up in the clouds or in our dreams.  The call to become a saint is right in front of us every day.”