There were 300 in 2003. But then, with Saddam Hussein gone, the efforts to impose Sharia began in earnest. "Christians, churches dwindling in Iraq since start of war 10 years ago," by Perry Chiaramonte for FoxNews.com, March 21
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By Elizabeth Kendal
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) 203
Special to ASSIST News Service Tuesday, March 26, 2013
A call to follow our Lord and pray for spiritual unity (John 17:20-26)
AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- Spiritual unity is not the same as unification. Believers will always interpret Scripture differently, observe different traditions and prefer different styles. Spiritual unity rises out of the recognition that all who are in Christ are one flock with Christ as Shepherd, one body with Christ as Head, one people filled with one Spirit and one family with God as Father.
Whilst spiritual unity may develop as a fruit of persecution, this is not automatically the case. If there has been a history of competition, conflict or suspicion between fellowships or denominations, then divisions may actually widen during persecution as groups long hostile towards each other compete for favoured status or limited resources in a desperate, fear-based struggle for survival.
Furthermore, an escalation in persecution may even serve to widen the divide between persecuted and free Christians. Paul experienced this during his second imprisonment in Rome when the churches of Asia deserted him (2 Timothy 1:15,16). The scene is repeated today, both locally and globally. Locally, free Christians might not want to risk their own security through association with the persecuted who may be regarded as criminals or targets. Globally, free Christians might not want to be burdened and challenged by the knowledge of Christian suffering. Onesiphorus should be our mo! del, for he was 'not ashamed' of Paul's chains.
On t he night he was betrayed, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane: 'I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.' (From John 17:20-26 ESV.) Yet as we have seen, despite spiritual unity being a spiritual reality (we are one) it is not automatically practised and persecution does not automatically produce it. The default position of human nature is self-interest and self-preservation. Unless we commit to following truly the model of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, then our innate disposition towards self-interest and self-preservation will always work to short-circuit our best intentions, leaving the Church divided against itself (Mark 3:24).
Today, from the Middle East west across North Africa; north through Syria into Iraq and Iran; and east through to Afgha! nistan and Pakistan, the Church is facing a trial unlike a nything that has been seen in our lifetime. The stage is being set for regional ethnic and sectarian blood-letting. It is shaping up to be a multi-dimensional conflagration from which local Christian minorities will struggle to survive. Meanwhile, a variety of anti-Christian ideological and totalitarian forces are flexing their muscles across Asia and making deep inroads into Africa and the West. We need to understand the times (Luke 12:54-56) and align with the will of the Father, the work of Christ and the movement of the Holy Spirit. We must practise the spiritual unity Christ prayed for in the garden some 2000 years ago, that the Church might fulfil her role as a sign to the world that the Gospel is true.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT --
The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq says that the number of Christian houses of worship there has dwindled alarmingly in the decade since the U.S. invaded and ousted Saddam Hussein from power. There are just 57 Christian churches in the entire country, down from more than 300 as recently as 2003, Patriarch Louis Sako told Egyptian-based news agency MidEast Christian News. The churches that remain are frequent targets of Islamic extremists, who have driven nearly a million Christians out of the land, say human rights advocates.The "experts" did not note, and may not know, that this intolerance is rooted in Islamic law, which mandates the subjugation of non-Muslims (cf. Qur'an 9:29). Christians who had enjoyed more or less equal rights in Saddam's Iraq, which did not enforce Islamic law, had to be shown their place. And they were.
“The last 10 years have been the worst for Iraqi Christians because they bore witness to the biggest exodus and migration in the history of Iraq,” William Warda, the head of the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization told the news agency.
Many Christians live in the provinces of Baghdad, Nineveh, and Kirkuk, and Dohuk and Erbil, which are both in the autonomous region of Kurdistan. Warda said some 1.4 million Christians lived in Iraq prior to Hussein's ouster. Under the democratically-elected government that now oversees the war-torn, but oil-rich nation, Islamic extremists have been able to operate more freely.
“More than two-thirds [of Christians] have emigrated,” Warda noted.
One byproduct of regime change in the Middle East, whether at the hand of the U.S. military and its allies or demonstrators in the streets, has been a decline in tolerance for other religions, say experts. Only one Catholic church remains in Afghanistan, and it must be heavily protected. In Egypt and Libya, where demonstrators overthrew dictators in recent years, Christians have come under heavy persecution, say concerned advocates....
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7. Easter: unity essential for survival and witness |
By Elizabeth Kendal
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) 203
Special to ASSIST News Service Tuesday, March 26, 2013
A call to follow our Lord and pray for spiritual unity (John 17:20-26)
AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- Spiritual unity is not the same as unification. Believers will always interpret Scripture differently, observe different traditions and prefer different styles. Spiritual unity rises out of the recognition that all who are in Christ are one flock with Christ as Shepherd, one body with Christ as Head, one people filled with one Spirit and one family with God as Father.
Whilst spiritual unity may develop as a fruit of persecution, this is not automatically the case. If there has been a history of competition, conflict or suspicion between fellowships or denominations, then divisions may actually widen during persecution as groups long hostile towards each other compete for favoured status or limited resources in a desperate, fear-based struggle for survival.
Furthermore, an escalation in persecution may even serve to widen the divide between persecuted and free Christians. Paul experienced this during his second imprisonment in Rome when the churches of Asia deserted him (2 Timothy 1:15,16). The scene is repeated today, both locally and globally. Locally, free Christians might not want to risk their own security through association with the persecuted who may be regarded as criminals or targets. Globally, free Christians might not want to be burdened and challenged by the knowledge of Christian suffering. Onesiphorus should be our mo! del, for he was 'not ashamed' of Paul's chains.
On t he night he was betrayed, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane: 'I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.' (From John 17:20-26 ESV.) Yet as we have seen, despite spiritual unity being a spiritual reality (we are one) it is not automatically practised and persecution does not automatically produce it. The default position of human nature is self-interest and self-preservation. Unless we commit to following truly the model of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, then our innate disposition towards self-interest and self-preservation will always work to short-circuit our best intentions, leaving the Church divided against itself (Mark 3:24).
Today, from the Middle East west across North Africa; north through Syria into Iraq and Iran; and east through to Afgha! nistan and Pakistan, the Church is facing a trial unlike a nything that has been seen in our lifetime. The stage is being set for regional ethnic and sectarian blood-letting. It is shaping up to be a multi-dimensional conflagration from which local Christian minorities will struggle to survive. Meanwhile, a variety of anti-Christian ideological and totalitarian forces are flexing their muscles across Asia and making deep inroads into Africa and the West. We need to understand the times (Luke 12:54-56) and align with the will of the Father, the work of Christ and the movement of the Holy Spirit. We must practise the spiritual unity Christ prayed for in the garden some 2000 years ago, that the Church might fulfil her role as a sign to the world that the Gospel is true.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT --
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the Holy Spirit will move powerfully through the hearts of all persecuted believers this Easter, to awaken those who are anxious and frightened to the spiritual unity they have w! ith their Christian neighbours because of their union in Christ.
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believers will stand firm in faith together, the dross of fear, suspicion and self-interest burnt away, encouraging and assisting each other with selfless courage and generosity across ethnic and denominational lines.
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the Holy Spirit will move powerfully through the hearts of all free and prosperous believers this Easter, that God's love may flow through their hearts, filling them with brotherly love, selfless courage and unreserved generosity so they will seek out and assist the persecuted, across ethnic and denominational lines.
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the sacrificial love of God (as demonstrated through the cross) and the life-giving power of God (as demonstrated through the resurrection) will be displayed in and modelled by the Church as she rises supernaturally above self to give of self sacrificially and generously.
LINK http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com.au/
