IRAQ: IRAQI CHRISTIANS MARK GOOD FRIDAY WITH PRAYERS FOR RESURRECTION OF PEACE AND NORMALITY IN THEIR WAR TORN COUNTRY

Record ID: 646684

  • Title: IRAQ: IRAQI CHRISTIANS MARK GOOD FRIDAY WITH PRAYERS FOR RESURRECTION OF PEACE AND NORMALITY IN THEIR WAR TORN COUNTRY
  • Date: 18th April 2003
  • Summary: (W4) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (APRIL 18, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. EXTERIOR OF BAGHDAD ANGLICAN CHURCH 00.05 2. TILT DOWN FROM ROOF OF CHURCH TO CONGREGATION 00.15 3. MAN LEADING SINGING 00.24 4. CLOSE UP WOMAN SINGING 00.29 5. WIDE OF CHURCH 00.36 6. PEOPLE SINGING 00.40 7. MINISTER AT PULPIT 00.45 8. CLOSE UP OF BOY SINGING 00.50 9. WOMAN SINGING 00.56 10. PEOPLE SITTING DOWN 01.01 11. PEOPLE RECEIVING HOLY COMMUNION 01.20 12. PEOPLE LEAVING SERVICE 01.30 13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) REVEREND IBRAHIM HANNI SAYING: "We are praying to God that everything in Iraq goes back to normal and that peace comes to the whole of Iraq. On Sunday we will pray again for peace." 01.51 14. PEOPLE OUTSIDE CHURCH GREETING EACH OTHER 02.02 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 3rd May 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA2ND3IE8U82506XJ1RWQAKRECV
  • Story Text: Iraqi Christians have marked Good Friday with prayers
    for a resurrection of peace and normality in the war-torn
    country where they enjoyed relative religious freedom under
    Saddam Hussein's secular rule.



    Baghdad's streets were busy on Friday (April 18) as
    Christians marked the suffering and death of Jesus. But many
    shops remain closed for lack of power, many buildings have
    been ransacked by looters or are blackened by fire and water
    supplies are still disrupted.

    So far, churches -- like mosques -- appear to be off
    limits to looters and there are no signs that Christians were
    deliberately targeted in the chaos that engulfed Baghdad after
    U.S. troops arrived.

    But many Christians worry that the collapse of Saddam's
    government and the advent of democracy in a Muslim majority
    nation could spell an end to the relative religious freedom
    they enjoyed under the secular Baath Party.

    Some fear a backlash from those who considered them allies
    of Saddam.

    Iraq's Christians say their roots go back to the first
    century when the apostle Thomas evangelised Iraq, then
    Mesopotamia.

    But today, there are only an estimated 700,000 Christians
    in a country of some 26 million people, most of whom are
    Muslim.



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