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RSSNow, More Than Ever
See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.
Revelation 21:3-4
In the news this week: two terrible car bombings right in the heart of Baghdad. 150 dead, more than 600 wounded, terrible damage to property. Among the buildings extensively damaged was St. George's, the Anglican Church in Baghdad. It could always have been worse: nobody was in the church when it was struck. But the medical clinic in one of its buildings suffered a body blow: much of its equipment was destroyed in the blast. Expensive and hard to replace in wartime Iraq, the equipment was part of one of the city's more hopeful enterprises: it offers free medical and dental care to hundreds of Iraqi men, women and children each week.
Canon Andrew White, vicar of St. George's and president of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, does not even think of closing up shop. "Some people ask me whether days like today make me want to give up,” Canon White said. “We have seen much of what we have worked for destroyed. But the truth is, it is days like today that remind us why our work in Iraq is absolutely essential.”
Episcopal Relief & Development agrees. That hundreds of clients, of all sects and ethnicities in Iraq, derive such life-saving benefit from one of our churches paves the way for peace there. Episcopal Relief & Development will assist St. George's and the Foundation in replacing its lost equipment as soon as a plane can get it there, so that its vital peacemaking work can go on.
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To help rebuild the medical clinic at St. George's in Baghdad, visit www.er-d.org or telephone 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5219. The new Gifts For Life Catalogue from Episcopal Relief & Development is out, too: you can view it online or request a paper copy, and let your Christmas "shopping" take a different form this year. My husband and I always give each other Gifts for Life for Christmas -- we are at the point in our lives at which one wants to lighten up, not accumulate, and nothing is more fun than leafing through the catalogue on Christmas morning and deciding what to "buy."
