Archbishop of Canterbury gives sermon on "special" persecution of Christians while in Jerusalem

[EmperorScorpious]

[quote]The archbishop of Canterbury has spoken of the suffering and persecution of Christians and others in the Middle East, saying he has heard voices of anger, fear and insecurity while on a 12-day trip to the Holy Land.

Justin Welby was preaching to a packed congregation at St George’s Anglican cathedral in Jerusalem on Sunday morning before being installed as an episcopal canon later in the day.

In his 10-minute sermon, he said [B]Christians in the region had belonged to a “suffering church for centuries. Sometimes life has been better, sometimes it is less bad. But the nature of suffering is that when it is happening it is all-consuming.”[/B]

In the conflict zones of the Middle East, he said, every part of life was dominated by suffering. [B]“That is true whether you are a Christian or not but in this region in addition to the suffering of war, conflict and the tragedies of death and injustice, Christians especially are experiencing persecution, are especially threatened.”[/B]

Referring to visits last week to the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, which is home to 80,000 Syrians, and to Gaza and the Galilee, he said that, even on a brief visit to “probably the most complicated region of conflicts in the world”, suffering and injustice was evident.

“Whether it is the utterly disrupted lives of the refugees we met in Zaatari refugee camp last week, or the tears of the Iraqi Christians later that day, seemingly forgotten by the world, one sees endless heartbreak.[/quote]

[url]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/07/archbishop-of-canterbury-justin-welby-suffering-middle-east-christians[/url]