The chairman of Iraq’s High Religious Council is an English Anglican clergyman with multiple sclerosis. As the US pulled out of the country, he may yet be the cornerstone of Iraq’s future.
The so-called Vicar of Baghdad, Canon Andrew White was named in commendatory references ten times in a debate in the UK’s House of Lords on Christians in the Middle East on 9 December. This month (January) he will be awarded the US’ True Freedom Prize, his 14th award for peace-making.
His church is the only Anglican church in the Iraqi capital today – the most dangerous city on earth – and serves all regardless of faith or ethnicity, symbolising a potent germ of social cohesion.