Thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled their homes as militants from the Islamic State (also commonly known as ISIS) swept through areas of eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq, killing or forcing out ethnic and religious minorities, confiscating property and destroying religious images.
Religious leaders have condemned the actions of ISIS, and are calling on the United Nations and governments to help refugees and internally displaced persons in the region. They have also called for Christians around the world to pray.
“We stand with the Christian minority in Mosul, Iraq at this time of great anxiety and fear,” Canadian church leaders wrote in a statement dated Aug. 1. “We hold them in our prayers. They will not be forgotten.”
Christian residents of the city of Mosul in northern Iraq fled their city when they were issued an ultimatum in late July: they must convert to Islam, pay a tax or jizya, or face death. Many left with only the clothes on their backs.
The World Council of Churches issued an urgent call to the UN for an immediate response to the killing of Christians and others, and sent letters on Aug. 7 to its 345 member churches asking for prayers for people killed and displaced on the Plain of Nineveh in northern Iraq.
Iraqis fleeing from ISIS militants are joining the hundreds of thousands of refugees already in the region. Many Syrians fled to Iraq to escape the civil war raging in their country, where Christians also fear for their safety.
Presbyterian World Service & Development has launched an emergency appeal to provide aid to people displaced by violence in Iraq, Syria, Gaza and South Sudan. Presbyterians can donate through their church, online or by contacting the PWS&D office.
“As the world’s attention has moved to the Ukraine, to Israel/Palestine, to airplane disasters, to the ebola outbreak in West Africa, Syria has dropped from the radar, but the fighting still goes on,” said Rob Shropshire, who works from the national church offices to provide support to congregations sponsoring refugees.
The Syrian Civil War has been ongoing since early 2011. The UN has appealed to the international community for 100,000 resettlement spots for Syrians. According to UN figures, there are almost three million registered refugees and over 30,000 persons awaiting registration.
Some churches are helping by sponsoring refugees to Canada. St. Andrew’s, Ottawa, sponsored a family of five Iraqi Christians. They were among many Christians who received threats or experienced persecution following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The family fled their homeland to neighbouring Syria and, although they were UNHCR refugees who had been referred to the Canadian government for resettlement, they found themselves stuck when civil war broke out in Syria and their file was suspended.
“For the family it was very difficult,” said Terry Collins-Williams, chair of the church’s settlement team. They were living in an apartment in Damascus with a lot of uncertainty, no employment, and no education for their children.
The family finally arrived in Canada on April 8, four years after the church began the sponsorship process.
Two months later, the session of St. Andrew’s agreed to start another sponsorship, this time for Syrian refugees. It’s “indicative of the support and even enthusiasm for refugee sponsorship in the congregation,” Collins-Williams said.
The Canadian Department of Citizenship and Immigration has given the Presbyterian Church 15 spaces to sponsor Syrian refugees through private sponsorships. Syrian refugees to be brought in under the Blended Visa Office Referred refugee program—approximately 100 in 2014—are also in need of sponsorships. These are people who have already been approved to travel and the government will assume half the cost of resettlement. Unlike private sponsorships there is no limit to the number of blended cases that can be sponsored. Both the cap and program only apply to churches outside of Quebec, however.
Churches in Quebec can work with Action Réfugiés Montréal, a 20-year-old ministry of the Presbyterian Church and the Anglican Diocese of Montreal, to sponsor refugees to the province. It has 25 spaces for refugees sponsored by Presbyterian congregations or groups.
Although private sponsorships of referred refugees don’t normally take four years as it did for St. Andrew’s, Paul Clarke, executive director of Action Réfugiés Montréal, said sponsors should expect a lot of “hurry up and wait.”
“The other thing that we have to keep in mind with any refugee situation, but I think especially with the Syrian, is trauma,” Clarke said. “My expectation is for someone who comes from those kinds of areas, you get [to Canada] and the likelihood of a breakdown is high because you’re finally out of that dangerous situation.”
Church members should learn about signs of trauma and be prepared to get help for someone who seems to be experiencing it, Clarke said.
According to Rob Shropshire, the emotional connection does not usually end when the 12-month financial commitment does. “Often the relationship between the sponsor and the refugees continues,” he said.
For churches that may not be financially able to sponsor a refugee, but still wish to help, they can group with others in their area or within their presbytery to sponsor an individual or family, or form an ecumenical partnership with other churches. They can also donate their time, household items, or help fundraise to support the work of another church that is undertaking a sponsorship. Churches or individuals can also support Presbyterian World Service & Development, which, through the ACT Alliance and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, has been providing basic food items, hygiene kits, shelter and clothing to those displaced by conflict.
“We’re not doing it out of charity, we’re doing it out of solidarity,” Clarke said. “It’s not because we’re being nice; it’s because these are human beings and there’s a solidarity we have in walking the road with them and welcoming them to Canada.”
Photo by Gail Orenstein/NurPhoto/REX (4074619a)
