Scottish Catholic Observer

THE urgent need to help persecuted Christians in the Middle East could not be clearer given reports that the Church in Iraq could be on the verge of dying out within five years. With the United Nations stating in June that refugee

numbers had risen to an all-time high of nearly 60 million, one of the key drivers of displacement is persecution of religious minorities, notably Christians.

Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their Faith 2013-15, published in October by Aid to the Church in Need, concludes that if the exodus of faithful from Iraq continues at existing levels, the faithful could all but disappear by 2020. A faster rate of decline is noted in Syria whose faithful have reportedly plummeted from 1.25 million before the war began in 2011 to barely 500,000 today. The report describes the ‘religiously motivated ethnic cleansing’ of Christians by Islamist terror groups especially in Iraq and Syria but also in parts of Africa. Examining countries of core concern in the Middle East and elsewhere such as China, Egypt, Eritrea, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Sudan, and Vietnam, Persecuted and Forgotten? draws on eye-witness reports from ACN teams visiting key countries and information provided by priests, bishops and Sisters. The report concludes that since 2013 the situation for Christians has worsened in 15 of the 19 (close to 80 percent) core countries under review.

Although Persecuted and Forgotten? lays bare the distressing facts of persecution, the report points to the work that can be done to help Christians survive oppression—emergency help (food, shelter, medicine, schooling) as well as pastoral support for clergy and lay people.

What will you do to champion and provide for the Church in need?

Victoria and Gazella: An amazing story of faith, fortitude and friendship

Testimonies from victims of suffering are also included in Persecuted and Forgotten? When people in the Nineveh village of Karamlesh escaped invading ISIS (Daesh) forces in August 2014, neighbours

Victoria and Gazella, both aged 80, were left behind. Not knowing what had happened, they walked to Mass the following morning in the normal way and found deserted streets. They got to St Addai’s and found the church locked. Only then did they realise something was badly wrong. Daesh’s reputation preceded them; when the Islamists captured Iraq’s second city of Mosul two months earlier they told Christians and other minorities to convert, pay the Jizya Islamic tax or face being killed. 500,000 people fled for their lives.

Standing outside St Addai’s that August morning, Victoria and Gazella resolved to return home and shut themselves in. For four days, the women dared not leave their homes.

“Prayer sustained us,” Victoria recalled, but their supplies were

dangerously low and the two frail widows desperately needed food and water. They had to venture out in search of supplies. A few days later, Victoria and Gazella were discovered by Daesh. They were

frogmarched to a hill on the edge of Karamlesh where they took their place alongside 10 other Christians also rounded up by Daesh. These last Christian inhabitants of the village were asked to renounce their faith.

“You must convert,” they were told. “Our faith can promise you paradise.”

But Gazella spoke up: “We believe that if we show love and

kindness, forgiveness and mercy we can bring about the Kingdom of God on earth as well as in heaven. Paradise is about love. If you want to kill us for our faith then we are prepared to die here and now.”

The Daesh commanders had no response and the Christians were freed.

They made their way to safety in the Christian quarter of Ankawa, Erbil in Kurdish northern Iraq, where ACN met them. Today Victoria and Gazella are still neighbours, sleeping side-by-side on mattresses, in a room provided by the Church, with food and medicine provided by ACN. A Christian area, Ankawa’s population swelled from 40,000 to more than 70,000 within a few days. Gazella and Victoria joined the estimated 120,000 displaced Christians who had fled Daesh, tired from their ordeal but grateful that God had granted them the strength they had prayed for.

Aid to the Church in Need was the single-biggest contributor of aid in the earliest months of the crisis as Christians poured into Kurdistan from Mosul and the Nineveh plains. Thanks to the generosity of benefactors, the charity has given more than £3.5 million in aid—food, water, blankets, medicine, and accommodation. More than £1.8 million has funded the construction of pre-fabricated schools. Syria is also a priority country for ACN. Aid to the Church in Need has been supporting suffering Christians of Syria since war broke out in 2011. By September 2015, £6.13 million (EUR€8.6 million) had been approved for humanitarian and pastoral aid projects.

If you would like to read more stories and about the deepening plight of Christians then please visit the Persecuted and Forgotten? webpage: www.acnuk.org/persecuted

Thank you

Perhaps it is hard for us to imagine what it must be like to flee your home when terrorists threaten to kill you because of your Christian faith. Yet, the witness of persecuted Christians such as Gazella and Victoria is a challenge and inspiration to us all.

On the recent ACN pilgrimage to Egypt, Coptic Catholic Bishop Joannes Zakaria of Luxor told the 37 pilgrims: “Thanks to the

benefactors of Aid to the Church in Need in Britain—for we are very poor but feel very strong. Thank you to ACN for all you do—for we have hope, hope in the Church, for we believe in God. Please pray for us, for peace and for all the peoples of this country and the Middle East.”

This is just one of many messages which we are privileged to hear and receive. Through the charity and indeed love of our supporters, Aid to the Church in Need reaches out to reflect the love of Christ in the midst of darkness, despair and affliction—enkindling faith, hope and charity.

This Advent, as we prepare the way for Christ in our hearts and homes, May I ask you to keep a special place in your heart for our
suffering brothers and sisters in Christ?

— To find out more about Aid to the Church in Need and the persecuted Church please consider praying for persecuted Christians. Follow us on Twitter: @ACN_Scotland or give us a call: 01698 337 472