10th May, 2010

CHRIS HERLINGER

Ecumenical News International

US National Council of Churches' officials have asked their national authorities to take steps to protect Christians in Iraq as well as members of other threatened minority groups due to continuing violence and political uncertainty.

Leaders from the biggest ecumenical agency in the United Sates sent a letter on 26th April to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and to the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

The NCC officials asked Clinton and Gates to urge Iraqi authorities and commanders of US-led forces in Iraq to take steps to minimise violence affecting the beleaguered Iraqi Christian community and others who continue to face threats and acts of violence.

They noted that in recent years "thousands of Christians have been forced to flee their homes because of their fear of violence."

The letters urged the United States to work with Iraqi authorities to help protect Christians and other minority groups; provide humanitarian assistance to those displaced; and encourage the preservation of religious and ethnic diversity in Iraq.

"Christians in Iraq have suffered more than a dozen violent deaths so far this year, including a three-year old child in Mosul who died on 27 March after a bomb, placed next to his family's home, exploded," said the letters, signed by the Rev Michael Kinnamon, the NCC general secretary, and the Rev Peg Chemberlin, the body's president.

"Our concern is now particularly acute because it is possible that tensions will increase as various political forces continue to vie for power following the recent elections," the letters said. "We fear that a growing climate of mistrust and animosity will further threaten the fragile Christian community."

Twenty-one US church officials co-signed the NCC letters, including Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, legate of the diocese of the Armenian Church of America and immediate past president of the NCC; Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; and Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

In recent years, US and Iraqi church officials have noted Christianity's deep roots in Iraq and surrounding countries and have issued a number of statements relating to the perils of the exodus of Iraqi Christians because of sectarian violence.

An estimated 800,000 Christians once lived in Iraq - about three per cent of the country's population. But that number is believed to have dropped dramatically since the 2003 US-led invasion. More than two million refugees are believed to have left Iraq in recent years.

Despite these high numbers, London's Daily Telegraph newspaper recently termed the campaign of violence directed against Iraqi Christians as the most under-reported story from Iraq since 2003.