wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Iraqi church trashed; Kirkpatrick urges Bush to

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Note #8588 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04549
December 15, 2004

Iraqi church trashed; Kirkpatrick urges Bush to pursue new security strategy

In Mosul: 'What robbers couldn't take they destroyed'

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVLLE - The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is urging President Bush to
seek an alternate approach for bringing stability to Iraq following recent
vandalism to a Presbyterian church there.

Noting an increase in kidnappings, high civilian and military death tolls,
inhumane conditions and attacks on Iraqi churches, Kirkpatrick told Bush in a
letter dated Dec. 10 that the Presbyterian Church has been watching with
"grave concern the chaotic situation in Iraq."

He asked the president to "alter the course of your policy" and take "swift
steps" to bring about the "necessary transformation to which all the people
of Iraq aspire, beginning with giving your immediate attention to the
security situation for all Iraqi citizens."

Kirkpatrick sent the letter after PC(USA) officials learned last week that
one of its partner churches in Iraq, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of
Mosul, had been trashed earlier this month.

"What robbers could not take they destroyed," Kirkpatrick wrote.

On Monday, Kirkpatrick emailed a letter of support to the congregation in
Mosul.

"Indeed, we feel a deep pain when we watch the news every day and learn about
the horrors endured by the Iraqi people throughout your country," Kirkpatrick
wrote to Dr. Mazen M. al-Saqa, a physician and lay leader at the Evangelical
Presbyterian Church of Mosul.

Vandals destroyed the church's Sunday school classroom, a boardroom, and a
clinic that helps the needy, according to al-Saqa in an e-mail describing the
incident. Heaters and a photocopier were among items stolen.

Kirkpatrick said the United States has an obligation as the occupying
military power to provide security for the civilian population and should
have the "moral courage to acknowledge now that the war it has launched last
year has been unwise."

Kirkpatrick asked the president to turn to the United Nations to seek its
"immediate intervention, to restore law, order, civility and peace and to
complete the work of creating a viable, constitutional, fully representative
democracy."

There are currently five Presbyterian churches in Iraq, with a new
congregation being developed in Baghdad.

However, according to published reports Iraq's small Christian community of
about 650,000 - some 3 percent of the population - has increasingly been
targeted by insurgents since the fall of Saddam Hussein's secular regime.

Coordinated car bombings, four in Baghdad and one in Mosul, killed at least
12 Christians in August; five Baghdad churches were bombed on Oct. 16 at the
start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least eight people were killed
in two church bombings in the capital on Nov. 8 and a car bomber attacked
police guarding the hospital where the wounded had been taken. On Dec. 7
gunmen bombed two churches in Mosul, an Armenian church and a Chaldean
church.

More than 40,000 Christians are believed to have left Iraq since the invasion
by the United States and its allies in February 2003, reports say. Many of
the Iraqi refugees fled to Syria, Jordan and Europe, among other places.

"Such attacks and the deep fear they have generated, plus the growing sense
among the Christians of Iraq that the prospects of meaningful representation
in a new government are exceedingly gloomy, have caused thousands of them to
flee the country," Kirkparick wrote to President Bush. "Many speak, with
great lament, of an Iraq that will be immanently devoid of Christian presence
altogether."

The full text of Kirkpatrick's letters to President Bush and to the
Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Mosul (a copy of which was sent to Yousif
Al-Saka, general secretary of the Evangelical Presbyterian Assembly of
Churches of Iraq:

December 10, 2004

Dear Mr. President:

I write on behalf of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.), the all-inclusive governing body of this denomination of some 2.5
million American Christians, who hold partnership relations with close to
two-hundred reformed, evangelical and ecumenical churches and church bodies
in eighty-five countries around the world.  Our General Assembly has spoken
in successive years expressing concern for the people of Iraq, one of the
countries where we have had a historic relationship with its Evangelical
(Presbyterian) Church for more than a century and a half, and a significant
working relationship with other Christian churches (Chaldean Catholic, and
Arab, Assyrian and Armenian Orthodox) for decades.

We have been watching with grave concern the chaotic situation in Iraq as it
has continued to worsen since you declared last April that the war had ended.
The high death toll of our own American troops and of Iraqi civilians, the
kidnapping of women, children, national and foreign civilian workers,
diplomats and others, horrific beheadings, destruction of entire communities,
and deplorable humanitarian conditions have been devastating to the people of
Iraq.

Several churches have been attacked, some during Sunday worship.  We have now
received word from one of our own partner congregations, the Evangelical
Church of Mosul, that this church has been horribly vandalized - what robbers
could not take, they destroyed.  Such attacks and the deep fear they have
generated, plus the growing sense among the Christians of Iraq that the
prospects of meaningful representation in a new government are exceedingly
gloomy, have caused thousands of them to flee the country.  Many speak, with
great lament, of an Iraq that will be immanently devoid of Christian presence
altogether.  In a part of the world where Christians lived in relative peace
and security with their majority Muslim neighbors prior to the U.S. invasion,
this is a great tragedy.

We fear for Iraq, and for its people, both now and in the future. We also
feel that the United States, the present occupying military power, should be
held responsible for both the present and the future. For the present, under
international conventions, it has the obligation to provide security for the
civilian population.  This is not happening, Mr. President.  As for the sake
of the future of that country and its entire people, the United States should
have the moral courage to acknowledge now that the war it has launched last
year has been unwise, and to turn to the United Nations vigorously seeking
its immediate intervention, to restore law, order, civility and peace and to
complete the work of creating a viable, constitutional, fully representative
democracy.

We call on you, Mr. President, to alter the course of your policy and to take
swift steps to bring about the necessary transformation to which all the
people of Iraq aspire, beginning with giving your immediate attention to the
security situation for all Iraqi citizens.

You can be assured of our constant prayers that you may be granted the
required wisdom and courage to face the urgency of choosing a different path,
recognizing that the memory of history will honor those who, with humility,
seek the ways of peace.

###

December 13, 2004

Dear Dr. Mazen and the Mosul Congregation:

Warm Christian greetings from your sisters and brothers of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.).

It was with great distress that we received word from our colleague, the Rev.
Linda Knieriemen, of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids,
Michigan, about the break-in in your church, and about the great loss and
damage it caused.  Indeed, we feel a deep pain when we watch the news every
day, and learn about the horrors endured by the Iraqi people throughout your
country.  In our own helplessness, our troubled spirits turn to the Living
God and cry for help, that the violence and destruction may cease, and that
peace, calm and stability might begin to flow.	Our hearts turn to you and
hold you close.

The horrible damage and loss suffered by your church has prompted us to write
to President George W. Bush and appeal to him to seek an alternative approach
to handling the situation in Iraq.   We are gravely concerned for our
Christian brothers and sisters who are fleeing the homeland in great numbers,
but also for the safety, security and stability of the entire country.	For
it has not been long ago that Christians lived side by side with their Muslim
neighbors in harmony and peace.  Our prayer now is that the peace of God that
passes all understanding keep you firm and strong in your faith, to
experience anew the powerful words of the divine promise "I will never forget
nor forsake you;" to continue your witness to the love of God among your
neighbors, and to preserve you in the safe arms of the God of all mercy and
compassion.

Please be assured that as we pray for you always, we pray too for our sisters
and brothers of the other beloved Evangelical churches in Kirkuk, Baghdad and
Basrah, with whom we share the mutual bonds of affection, care and support,
as well as your neighbors of the other Christian denominations and other
faith communities.  May the grace, mercy and peace of God prevail in your
hearts and in your land.

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