A new wave of Iraqi Christians has fled to northern Iraq or abroad amid a campaign of violence against them and growing fear that the country’s security forces are unable or, more ominously, unwilling to protect them.
I do love Jerusalem, and I do want peace with her walls. But my prayers don’t stop there; this psalm leads me on a journey that circles the world, touching down in other places, especially those I know and love, where strife threatens the peace and prosperity of their peoples.
My father was a Forward Observer for the 590th Field Artillery Battalion, a unit of the 106th ‘Golden Lions’ which fought in the WWII Battle of the Bulge. In dad’s war journal, written after he returned, are the following entries: December 16, 1944: All hell breaks loose. The next entry is dated April 4, 1945: We are freed.
Humanitarian agencies are seeing promising signs of regaining space and acceptance from Taliban insurgents while attacks against NGO workers have reduced significantly over the past six months.
The Anglican Archbishop of Southern Africa, the Most Reverend Thabo Makgoba, addressed the conflict in the Middle East at a United Nations meeting this week:
“Most importantly, the search for long-term peace in the region could be robustly encouraged. Along with many other people of faith across this country, I will stand with you in a decision to move American policy in this direction.” – Katharine Jefferts Schori
The Rev. Donald Heckman, director for external relations of Religions for Peace International wrote this Memorial Day essay for the Huffington Post:
On May 4, 1970 a campus protest against the Vietnam War took an ugly turn when National Guard on the scene opened fire, killing four students and wounding nine others.
“Not only liberating a continent, but saving a people — a people who the Nazis had tried to exterminate, millions of whom perished before you were able to get to them — and then you helped preserve the memory.”
The effort to bring back Jewish houses of worship in Egypt comes as the country’s culture minister looks to distance himself from anti-Semitic remarks made last year.