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During a meeting on February 9th in the Orthodox Armenian monastery of Saint Karabet in Baghdad, although the news leaked only on 13th, the main religious leaders of the Christian churches of the country established the “Council of the leaders of the Christian communities of Iraq" and appointed Secretary General mgr. Avak Asadorian, bishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Iraq, and his deputy mgr. George Casmoussa, Syro-Catholic bishop of Mosul. In fact the Council had already met in March 2009, but the one of February 9th was actually the first operational meeting. “The aim of the meeting – explains to SIUR the Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk, mgr. Louis Sako, who was in Saint Karabet – is to form a corps of Christian religious leaders to have one voice, one common position, even on a political, social and, hopefully, pastoral level too. We have big challenges ahead of us, which we must face together. Migration, dialogue with Muslims and even the next polls of March 7th are just a few of them. The meeting had a powerful ecumenical flavour”. A position that was also corroborated by the Chaldean vicar patriarch, mgr. Shleimun Warduni, who, speaking with the website Baghdadhope, added: “the meeting was based on dialogue between the parties involved, exchanges of views about the principles that should inspire us in the future, first and foremost that of the unity between the churches. Every effort made by the church leaders in this sense is welcome. In this respect, we mentioned the wish, which we know is shared by the majority of Christians, to be able to unify the sacred celebrations, such as Christmas, and hopefully this will be accomplished in the future". People attending the meeting came from 14 religious communities, including the Chaldean, Latin, Assyrian, Syro-Orthodox, Syro-Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholic, Presbyterian and Coptic Orthodox. Guests included the Chaldean Patriarch, card. Mar Emmanuel III Delly, the patriarch of the Ancient Oriental Church, Mar Addai II, eleven bishops and four delegates of the Latin, Protestant, Evengelical and Presbyterian churches.

© SIR - 15 february 2010