I was saddened to read this on the BBC’s website:
A vicar who has been working to secure the release of five British hostages in Iraq has fled the country after being denounced as a spy. Canon Andrew White, who ran Iraq’s only Anglican church, left Baghdad amid fears for his safety. The five Britons’ abductors reportedly threatened to kill them unless the vicar stopped trying to find them. The captives, four security guards and a consultant, were abducted on 29 May, from the finance ministry in Baghdad. They were seized by insurgents disguised as Iraqi police.
‘Serious threat’
Canon White left Baghdad after pamphlets dropped in Shia areas of the Iraqi capital reportedly branded the vicar as “no more than a spy”. An unconfirmed report in London-based newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi said the leaflets accused Mr White of trying to broker deals against the kidnappers.
The vicar, who was based at St George’s Church in Baghdad, arrived back in Britain on Wednesday morning. The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, of which Mr White is executive director, confirmed he had left Iraq because of a “serious security threat”.
In Baghdad, the British Embassy confirmed that the vicar, who was previously based at Coventry Cathedral, had been working on the release of the five British hostages. Mohammed Shokat, head of the political section at the British Embassy, confirmed Mr White’s departure, saying: “He has left Iraq because of a security threat.”
The ministry Andrew has been engaged in is incredibly delicate and dangerous. He has been responsible for the release of countless hostages in Iraq, and almost always the news of his work has to be kept quiet. Earlier this year the Iraqi lay pastor of St George’s was kidnapped and threatened with execution, and Canon White was able to obtain his release, though at the cost of moving the pastor and his family to a new ’safe house’. On the website of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East Andrew has this description of the St George’s:
St George’s Baghdad is the only Anglican Church functioning in Iraq. Apart from my involvement, it’s entire large and growing congregation is Iraqi. It is undoubtedly a church in one of the most dangerous places in the world, now surrounded with barbed wire and concrete barricades. It is a place where all of our original church leaders have been killed in 2005, yet new leaders have stepped forward and St. George’s continues to be a wonderful gathering of people of true faith.
Our thoughts are with Canon White, his colleagues, and those on whose behalf they labour.
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