By Baghdadhope
Source: Ankawa.com
From February 9 to 12 some representatives of Iraqi churches met in Lebanon and focused on the presence of the Christian community in Iraq, the need to continue the dialogue between it and the Islamic one, and the need for the Western churches not to encourage its emigration.
The participants, the bishops of the Syriac Orthodox, Armenian Catholic and Catholic Chaldean churches, coordinated by the Secretary General of the MECC (Middle East Council of Churches) focused on three particular aspects of the matter:
1. The challenges for the Iraqi Christian community, especially those related to security and migration within the country and abroad.
2. The role that the Christian community can have in the process of national reconciliation based on respect for pluralism and the principle of citizenship.
3. The revitalization of the dialogue between Christians and Muslims to promote coexistence between the parts.
Christians, the article reports, as children of Iraq will and should enjoy all the rights of full citizenship. That is why the call to them is to remain in the country and participate actively in its reconstruction. The church in the West, for its part, should not encourage the emigration of the community because the solution of the problems the country is not in the escape of its human energies, but in building a better and safer future.
From February 9 to 12 some representatives of Iraqi churches met in Lebanon and focused on the presence of the Christian community in Iraq, the need to continue the dialogue between it and the Islamic one, and the need for the Western churches not to encourage its emigration.
The participants, the bishops of the Syriac Orthodox, Armenian Catholic and Catholic Chaldean churches, coordinated by the Secretary General of the MECC (Middle East Council of Churches) focused on three particular aspects of the matter:
1. The challenges for the Iraqi Christian community, especially those related to security and migration within the country and abroad.
2. The role that the Christian community can have in the process of national reconciliation based on respect for pluralism and the principle of citizenship.
3. The revitalization of the dialogue between Christians and Muslims to promote coexistence between the parts.
Christians, the article reports, as children of Iraq will and should enjoy all the rights of full citizenship. That is why the call to them is to remain in the country and participate actively in its reconstruction. The church in the West, for its part, should not encourage the emigration of the community because the solution of the problems the country is not in the escape of its human energies, but in building a better and safer future.
Final statement from a meeting of representatives of the churches in Iraq by World Council of Churches