Pentecost Sunday, June 3, 2001

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Beirut, Lebanon, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ whom we celebrate today in the coming down of His Spirit upon His Church. I believe that this occasion is very relevant to what happened last month in Baghdad, Iraq, when about 400 Christians gathered in solidarity with the Iraqi people in their suffering through a decade of sanctions imposed by the United Nations, and now held in place by the United States and England.

I am not going to speak about the effect of the sanctions at this point, since I have done so on previous occasions. I prefer to speak about the powerful witness demonstrated in this gathering, as 280 Christians came from around the world to join Iraqi Christians in showing the love and care of Christ and manifest His hope to the people of Iraq. These people flew thousand of miles from the U.S., Europe, Australia, the Far East, Africa and the Middle East, gathering together in Amman, Jordan. And then, because no flights are allowed into Iraq, they made a thousand-kilometer journey to Baghdad by car and bus through the desert.

The conference, "The Church in the Service of Peace and Humanity," was prepared by a committee from the churches in Iraq (Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant) and the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Selected clergy and lay-leaders were asked to present papers on topics such as

• Genesis, creation, and the Garden of Eden
• Iraq, the homeland of the prophets
• Christian and Islamic creativity in Iraq, the land of spiritual fertility
• World churches and their role in breaking the sanctions

The conference also included field visits to places like the Al-Amerieh Shelter, where 408 persons (mostly women and children) were killed by U.S. bombers on Feb 13, 1991, and a children’s hospital, where outdated equipment and critical shortages of medicines, due to the sanctions, contribute to the deaths of over 5000 children each month. Several trips were organized to the Biblical sites in Iraq such as Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, Babylon, and Nineveh, along with other historical and archaeological sites and several ancient, functioning monasteries that were founded in the earliest years of Christianity.

I would like to share with you what, for me, were the highlights of this gathering:

• First, the simple fact that over 50 U.S. Christians defied their government (which forbids travel to Iraq) in order to stand in solidarity with the Iraqi people and alongside their fellow Iraqi Christians—a powerful Christian witness.
• Second, to have Christian from many different churches, denominations, and countries connecting with each other, and, in turn, engaging in dialogue with local Muslims concerning a humanitarian cause is a great interfaith achievement.
• Third, a common theological issue of confession and forgiveness was presented by two of the speakers, one a Muslim, and the other, a Christian. Sheikh Dr. Raad al-Kaylani, who, in regard to the sanctions, said that the Iraqi people stand ready to forgive those who have sought to destroy them with the sanctions, and quoted Jesus’s words to the woman taken in adultery, "Go and sin no more." Ms. Marilyn Borst, the executive director of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding, emphasized the need to confess the extent to which the U.S. government has acted unjustly toward the Iraqi people, and called for the lifting of the sanctions and the building of new bridges of friendship. For me, this was evidence of the Holy Spirit working through these two people to promote reconciliation.
• Fourth, I was proud to be one of many Presbyterians there from the U.S., Europe, Korea, and the Middle East. At the opening session, the Rev. Dr. Gary Burge, a Presbyterian pastor and a professor at Wheaton College, brought greetings on behalf of the Presbyterians and cited a letter of support from the moderator of the PC(USA). After the conference, we visited each of the five Presbyterian churches in Iraq (located in Baghdad, Mosul Kirkuk and Basrah), and through our worship and fellowship, we felt the presence of the Holy Spirit bringing us together in a wonderful way.

I would like to encourage and challenge you all to write to your representatives, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and UN General Secretary Kofi Anan, and ask for the lifting of the sanctions imposed on the Iraqi people. Let the words of the prophet Amos inspire you:

Seek good and not evil, but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream (Amos 5: 14 and 24).

As on that day of Pentecost, may the Holy Spirit empower us all to do God’s will as we work for justice and righteousness in His name.

Yours in His love and service,

Nuhad Tomeh

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.137