By Premier
Cara Bentley
Iraq's first ordained Anglican vicar tells Premier he never doubts that God is good because evil is done "through what our hands do".
Cara Bentley
Iraq's first ordained Anglican vicar tells Premier he never doubts that God is good because evil is done "through what our hands do".
There are nearly 20,000 ordained ministers in the Church of England; in Iraq there is just one.
That
one Anglican vicar is Rev Faez Jirjees, who, aged 53, is the parish
priest at St George's Church in Baghdad where Canon Andrew White used to
work.
Christians make up about one per cent of the population in
Iraq but many of them fled when Islamic State (IS) were at their most
brutal.
Despite being bombed several times, St George's Church in the capital
has, for a long time, bucked the trend by being a hub for interfaith
relations, providing healthcare to Christians, as well as Shia and Sunni
Muslims through its clinic, dentist's, pharmacy and laboratories.
The
church also hosts a nursery, primary school and a 'hope centre' that
helps train young people with vocational skills for jobs.
Rev
Jirjees' parents dedicated him to become a priest as a child and he
served in the Anglican church close to his house as a boy.
He
explained that part of his calling to ministry was meeting Rt Rev
Michael Lewis, Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf several times, who he found
extremely kind towards others.
However, being a church leader was something he forgot about for a few decades.
"I
did the normal college and education and I started working and got
married and I forgot about being a priest but I went back to this field
when I was 40 years old."
On a trip to the UK, Rev Jirjees, the
first Iraqi to be ordained by the Anglican church, told Premier what the
hardest things about being a Christin in Iraq were.
"Lack of trust," he replied.
"First
of all, a lack of trust because of what happened with ISIS and
Christians cannot go back to their homeland because they are afraid that
the same thing would happen again.
"Second, there's a lack of
trust in the government because Christians are sure that the government
is not doing anything and are not introducing any kind of services.
These two reasons are good enough to mean Christians start leaving the
country."
He explained through a translator that since 2003 no
government has been able to hold together the different religions and
cultures of the country peacefully.
"My hope is that religion and
politics...that we make a separation between these two and the country
becomes a secular country with a secular government - that will motivate
Christians to live in that country."
"I believe a secular
government could look at everyone equally and they will not be looking
at everyone - whether he is from this religion or another religion."
When asked if he ever doubts that God is good, he replied: "Never, the opposite - that brings us closer to God.
"Because God is always good and all these evil things do not come through God - it always comes through what our hands do."