Canon Andrew White of The Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle-East (FRME) has declared that the attendance at his church in Baghdad, Iraq is booming, as more and more seek God to cope with the extreme difficulties in their lives amidst car bombings, kidnappings and poverty.
Also regarded as the 'Vicar of Baghdad', Rev White has worked in the Middle-East region since before the Gulf War, and the FRME is the only evangelical body in the world, which is running both the religious track of the Middle-East Peace Process, as well as working on the complex search for peace in Iraq.
Canon White is the leader of St George’s Church in Baghdad, where earlier this year in September, the entire lay leadership of the church are feared dead after going missing. Canon White said he had been told on 13 September that the Anglican team was attacked while returning from Jordon on the notoriously dangerous road linking the Iraqi cities of Ramadi and Fallujah.
Ministering to those seeking refuge in God, Canon White preaches in Baghdad every month as he travels back and forth to the UK among other places in the world.
Among his congregation are Western Protestants as well as Iraqi Assyrian Christians, and over the past three years the number of Iraqis attending his services has grown to about 900, reported the British Anglican priest.
Terrorist group al-Qaeda has seen Canon White as such a threat that they have placed a ransom to be paid for any that would kill him.
Canon White, who is 41, said, “People turn to religion when they are desperate.”
Under Saddam Hussein, White explained that he found a more secular society where tensions between religious groups seemed non-existent. However, he told how over time he began to realize that divisions were there, and the reality was that Iraqis were previously simply too terrified to speak their true minds.
Tensions, discrimination and distrust have risen up over the past years in Iraq, and Canon White explains that the tendency has been for those targeted because of their religion have turned to it all the more.
Al-Qaeda sent Rev White a letter last year issuing a warning to leave Iraq immediately saying that it would offer US$30,000 to anyone that would kill him.
Members of Canon White’s church in Baghdad currently have to be taken by bus to the Green Zone for services.
On expressing his shock about the rise in religious extremism in the country, Canon White said, “They really think they're doing the work of God, and that's why we've got big problems. Religion when it goes wrong, it goes very wrong. It puts people in danger. And when somebody thinks that God is telling them to do something, how do you change them?” according to AP.
In conclusion, White said that the country needed religious leaders of all faiths to enter into talks and be willing to discuss their differences. He also said it required politicians with the will to govern with a spirit of unity.
Daniel Blake
Christian Today Correspondent