THE Archbishop of Canterbury spoke of the persecution and decline of the Christian community in the Middle East, when he took part in a conference at Lambeth Palace last week.
Speaking at an event organised by BibleLands, Dr Williams linked the exodus of Christians from the region with the military action in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The military policies of the West in the last few years have firmly cemented in a great deal of the Middle East the notion that Christianity is a foreign, aggressive, and Western presence.
“I regret it is a real tragedy that this ongoing crisis has yet to be the focus of policy declarations, or indeed recognised, by some of our Western governments.”
Dr Williams mentioned how many in the West, even at government level, were unaware that Christians had lived in the Middle East since the time of the Early Church. He lamented how the terms Arab and Muslim had become interchangeable, despite the fact that there were many Christian Arabs.
The migration of Christians from the region threatened to make those who remained “museum pieces”, who would be left exposed to increasing violence, he said (News, 18 April).
Dr Williams called on people in Britain to wake up to the plight of Christians in the Middle East. They “are living through a time of change more dramatic and more costly than anything that has been seen for 1000 years and more.
“If the Holy Land, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt are not to become theme parks as far as Christianity is concerned, then Christians need to keep their responsibility and awareness keen. We run the risk of a monochrome Islamic Middle East, dominated by forms of Islam unfriendly to the rest of the world.
“For centuries, Christian communities have been a vital part of the cultural and political health of the Middle East. The region deprived of that will become more unstable, more open to fanaticism, and less able to deal with the problems of the world.”
Other speakers at the conference included the Maronite Archbishop of Haifa and the Holy Land, the Most Revd Paul Sayah, and Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK.
|
back to News
previous story
|
next story 
back to top
