On Thursday 2nd December, in the church of St. Stephen of the Dominican convent, on the initiative of the ecumenical association Sabeel, Arab Christians of Jerusalem met to pray together for the Christians of Iraq and for peace in the country. At the same time, they made their prayer the occasion to enter together into the time of Christmas.
Friar Feras Hejazin, the Latin parish priest of Jerusalem, ensured the Franciscan presence.
Each of the texts chosen was read by the representatives of different Churches, but all united in the same desire for peace. It was Monsignor William Shomali, Auxiliary Bishop of the Latins in Jerusalem who gave the sermon.
At the end of the homily, the gathering became even more intense when the prayer continued in candlelight, in memory of the victims of the attack on 31st October in the Syro-Catholic cathedral and of all the Christians who have been assassinated.
On 30th November, another Iraqi Christian was killed in the city of Mosul. This umpteenth murder brings the number of murdered Syriac Christians to eight after “the massacre of All Saints’ Day”.
In protest against this wave of violence perpetrated on the Christian minority, the representatives of the Christian communities have withdrawn from the conference on co-existence and social tolerance, organized by the Iraqi Ministry for Human Rights. In the meantime, the Christians of Iraq continue to flee en masse from their country, making the future of the Christian presence in the homeland of Abraham, the father of all believers, and in the land evangelized by St. Thomas, even more uncertain.
Mab
Friar Feras Hejazin, the Latin parish priest of Jerusalem, ensured the Franciscan presence.
Each of the texts chosen was read by the representatives of different Churches, but all united in the same desire for peace. It was Monsignor William Shomali, Auxiliary Bishop of the Latins in Jerusalem who gave the sermon.
At the end of the homily, the gathering became even more intense when the prayer continued in candlelight, in memory of the victims of the attack on 31st October in the Syro-Catholic cathedral and of all the Christians who have been assassinated.
On 30th November, another Iraqi Christian was killed in the city of Mosul. This umpteenth murder brings the number of murdered Syriac Christians to eight after “the massacre of All Saints’ Day”.
In protest against this wave of violence perpetrated on the Christian minority, the representatives of the Christian communities have withdrawn from the conference on co-existence and social tolerance, organized by the Iraqi Ministry for Human Rights. In the meantime, the Christians of Iraq continue to flee en masse from their country, making the future of the Christian presence in the homeland of Abraham, the father of all believers, and in the land evangelized by St. Thomas, even more uncertain.
Mab