From Jerusalem to Baghdad Allah Hu Maana THE LORD IS HERE HIS SPIRIT IS WITH US Since I first started visiting Iraq in 1998 I had been to St George’s Anglican Church. There was nothing alive in the building apart from the odd bird. Everything had been looted from the church there was not even a single pew left. So all we had was a marble font. Obviously there was no real market for fonts. The church had been active as an expat place of worship until the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991. Saddam would not even allow the church to function because it was always known as the English church. The church was indeed the English Church as the property and land does indeed belong to the British Embassy so officially it is indeed Britain. The Church was officially established in 1864 when missionaries from Christ Church Jaffa Gate went to Baghdad. There they started a ministry which eventually became St George’s Baghdad. As I travel around the world so often people come and tell me that they used to go to St. George’s when they were in Baghdad working all of them before the 1991 war. For me the fact that the Church was established by Christ Church Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem is also very important to me. Christ Church functions under the patronage of the CMJ the Churches Ministry amongst Jewish people. I am also very involved there and just happen to be the Vice President of CMJ. In many ways my ministry life also begun in Jerusalem and has ended up in Baghdad. I would never have thought this would have happened. I still so love Jerusalem as well as Baghdad. I thank that the Lord that almost every month I am back in the beloved City. So give thanks for the historical link between the two. The former Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf, Clive Handford had decided just before I started going to Iraq in 1998 to put in place a caretaker to look after the church. Hanna (John) was appointed. The fact was when I arrived he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. General Georges Sadda who was in essence my main assistant at the time decided to try and give Hanna duties to care for our derelict compound. He kind of understood and at least started to clean the church up so by the time we had our first visit to the church of the group with the Bishop in 1999 the church was at least clean and tidy. From my first visit to Iraq I always went to the church and prayed. I would pray one day may the church come alive again Lord. By the time of my second visit along with the Bishop of Coventry as well as well as the Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf and Bishop Peter Price we were ready to have our first service in the church for many years. So we celebrated Holy Communion and there I was praying “one day Lord, one day may we come alive again”. It was nothing less than a prayer for resurrection. The only thing I ever heard the Lord say to me over all those years was “Resurrections” My God is rather good at resurrection! As if linked to resurrection the one phrase of liturgy that would always come to me in the church was part of the Eucharistic Prayer “The Lord is here His Spirit is with us”. After five years of visiting the church the war happened. Immediately my work was very much CPA related but I could not forget the church. I told all people at the CPA HQ that next week we would be opening St George’s Church. Justin was with me on the first visit after the 2003 war. We planned the service he would celebrate communion and I would lead and preach. We invited Archbishop Mar Addi the leader of the Assyrian church to re-consecrate the Church which he agreed to do. The British CPA head Ambassador John Sawers read one of the lessons along with one of the US army Generals. We managed to buy enough plastic garden chairs so at least there was a place for people to sit. The reading for the day that I chose was significant for me it was from Haggai Ch 2 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts. Haggai 2:9 This passage was set in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral and over the years of being in Coventry. God was saying to me continually, these words meant so much to me why I did not know. Suddenly it seemed to be so relevant and indeed prophetic that God was telling me that the glory of this derelict ruined church would be greater than it had ever been before. Greater than when it was new? Greater than in its vibrant days of past. This was indeed what the Lord was saying. I don’t think one always realises the significance of what our Lord often says to us we just do not think and expect big enough. The next week we had a similar congregation, and the next week and then the violence outside of the Secure Green Zone started to get worse. As it did so the opportunities for people to leave the Green Zone to worship radically started to diminish. As this tragically began to happen our original people still worshiped with us but in the chapel of the Republican Palace in Saddam’s former thrown room. As this happened and the church was less affiliated with the coalition so more Iraqis started coming, not just one or two but there was almost a hundred more each week suddenly we had a viable Iraqi church people from every Iraqi denomination. There were no Anglicans among them they were from every existing Iraqi denomination: Chaldeons, Assyrians, Armenians, Syrian Orthodox, Assyrian Catholics and Presbyterians. At no time did we ever try and convert them to Anglicanism or imply that there church was not real what we made clear was that we were simply Christian and we recognised their immense historical heritage. I realised I had a lot to learn not least about the Christian heritage of Iraq and about its liturgy. It was a steep and exciting learning curve. So I developed a liturgy that was in essence Anglican but contextualised in Iraqi Christian culture added to this were the elements of liturgy that had been so significant to me in the church over the years that I had been in the empty church. The most significant being the words “Ala Hu Ma Ana The Lord is here His Spirit is with us” To this day every service start with those words. I declare in Arabic “The Lord is Here “ and everybody responds “His Spirit is with us”. So this was the beginning of our Iraqi church. The head if the British Mission to Baghdad was a wonderful experienced diplomat called Christopher Segar. He headed up what was called the BOB House (British Office Baghdad) which in essence functioned as the British Embassy in Baghdad. Christopher became far more than just a good diplomatic colleague he became a real friend. To this day 11 years after the war he is still one of our trustees and a close friend and colleague. It was Christopher who helped us find all the people we need in our early days. We were fine with the church because General Georges Sada was with me all the time since I started visiting Iraq in 1998. I needed another figure with a diplomatic background who could work closely with me and translate for me. Christopher found me just the right person called Ambassador Sadoun Al Zubadi. He had been Iraq’s Ambassador to Indonesia, had a Phd from Birmingham University in England and was an expert in Shakespeare, thus knew Stratford Upon Avon well. The home town of William Shakespeare which just happened to be in the Diocese of Coventry. What Christopher did not tell me was that he had been the senior translator for Saddam Husain. So Saddam’s senior translator became my senior translator. I soon found out a lot about Saddoun and knew full well that if Saddam wanted him he got him. MORE TO COME TOMORROW
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 20:01:56 +0000