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Ransacked, penniless Anglican church in Baghdad struggles on
Episcopal News Service
Issue:
Section:
2003-119-3
Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2003
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Hanna Tuma, caretaker of the Anglican church of St. George the Martyr, Baghdad, is back with his family after being abducted by armed looters in the aftermath of the war.
A handful of broken, dust-covered communion wafers is 'all the looters left behind,' said Tuma. The church was built at the end of the First World War in memory of British troops fallen in combat. The safe that had contained the communion chalice was opened with a grenade. The stained-glass windows are broken, lights stolen and a leftover Christmas tree uprooted next to a smashed crib.
It was April 19 when the thieves descended on the compound, the eve of Easter and four days before St. George's Day. Tuma was in the church hall, which doubles as his home, when 20 armed men burst in and threw him to the floor. Hands and feet bound and with a revolver stuck to his head, he watched the looting of his modest home. After the house, the thieves went for the church. It was two days before passers-by heard shouting and came to set him free.
Thus far, at least, no sectarian clashes have been reported in Iraq, but several Christians in the predominantly Muslim city of Basra were shot dead for selling alcohol. 'If the influence of extremist groups increases in the future,' said the Latin-rite Archbishop of Baghdad, the Most Rev. Jean Benjamin Sleiman, 'I don't know what kind of future can be envisioned.'
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| © 2004, The Episcopal Church, USA. Episcopal News Service content may be reprinted without permission as long as credit is given to ENS. |
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