The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Cardinal-Patriarch
Louis-Raphael I Sako, Patriarch of Babylon, joined other ecumenical
guests and VIPs at the official opening of a new Anglican school in
Baghdad. The Anglican School of the Redeemer – al-Fadi – was officially
opened on Saturday (29 September) by the Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf,
Michael Lewis. The bishop also opened a newly re-sited and refurbished
Hope Resource Centre.
The new school will enable St George’s Church in Baghdad
to offer primary-level education to children after they have completed
their time at the existing Redeemer Kindergarten. It has been planned
for a number of years.
Like the Kindergarten, the Primary School will serve all the local
community. Some 90 per cent of the Kindergarten’s 150 children are from
Muslim families. “The parents greatly value the safe environment of
learning, the subjects offered in the school, including simple things of
behaviour and values”, the Anglican Chaplain in Baghdad, Father Faiz
Jerjees, said in February 2017.
“Children are able to relate what they learn in school to everyday life
experience, and the parents are very happy to see the positive
development of their children.”
Speaking earlier this year in a video by the NGO Stand With Iraqi
Christians, Father Faiz said the school was focused on “not just
language, not just to teach them Arabic or English; but we want to also
[teach] them how to live together, how they can learn together, eat
together and love each other. This is very important for the future in
Iraq.”
