Christianity in Iraq: A Small But Respected and Multi-Faceted Population

By Fred Strickert

When the Eucharist is celebrated in Iraq, there is a special bond with the original Last Supper meal in the Jerusalem Upper Room. Christians partake of the same Eucharistic loaf that was broken by Jesus himself in the midst of suffering.

According to an Iraqi tradition, the disciple John kept a small piece from that first communion bread. When it came time to bake a commemorative loaf for a later celebration, it was added into the ingredients. Subsequently, a piece of dough was saved at each baking for the next loaf, and so on, so that a real continuity exists with the apostolic church and two millennia of ecclesiastical history.

After two thousand years of continuity, many Iraqi Christians wonder how long the chain will remain unbroken. Today a serious threat looms over the church in that part of the world. Some fear there will be no more Eucharistic bread when the wheat runs out and hunger prevails as a result of sanctions. Others fear that they will simply be bombed into extinction. Still others see the day when the grains of wheat are scattered to the four corners of the earth along with emigrating Iraqi Christians who find it impossible to continue in the very land where Abraham and Sarah were born.

Few Westerners know much about Christianity in Iraq. Many have heard in passing about a Christian presence in Baghdad. Some have seen television news reports with images of Christmas trees or old stone church buildings. Some even are aware that Christians play a role in the Iraqi government, including Tariq Aziz, deputy prime minister. Yet who are the Christians of Iraq? What is their story?

A Church’s Apostolic Roots

Today there are nearly half a million Christians in Iraq, about 5 percent of the country’s population. They comprise a variety of churches: Assyrian Orthodox and Assyrian Catholic; Syrian Orthodox and Syrian Catholic; Armenian Orthodox and Armenian Catholic; Greek Orthodox, Latin Catholic, and Protestant denominations.

Here the Eastern rites prevail. However, there is an unusual twist to their story. For years they were cut off from orthodoxy, deemed heretical by the ecumenical councils. Yet following the great schism of 1054 between Rome and Constantinople, the majority have taken the lead in bringing about reunification with Rome and the papacy.

The language used in prayers is Aramaic, the language of Jesus and the disciples.

The Assyrian Church in the East claims its origins from the preaching of the Apostle Thomas. Yet little is known about the early centuries until they offered protection to Bishop Nestorius of Constantinople who had been condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. Rejecting the view that the incarnate Christ was a single person, both God and man, he proposed the idea of two distinct persons. While members of the Assyrian Church never adopted the position of Nestorius, they were nevertheless given the name Nestorians, which continues until today.

The Nestorians were always missionary-minded and started churches throughout Arabia and India. While European Christianity turned inward during the Middle Ages, it was the Nestorians who traveled into Asia to China and Japan. The Assyrian Church is characterized by its simple worship. Churches display only a plain cross above the altar and refrain from using paintings and sculptures in worship. The language used in prayers is the ancient Aramaic, making the Assyrian church one of the few places where the language of Jesus and the disciples has been preserved. Today, however, the Assyrian Church is only a remnant of its former greatness, numbering perhaps only 50,000 members.

Unlike its mother church, the Assyrian Catholic church has become the largest church in Iraq today. After contact with Latin missionaries, it broke off from the Nestorians to form its own patriarchate and establish union with Rome in 1553. Led by the Patriarch of Babylon, its followers have been given the popular name Chaldeans. Because of their recognition of papal supremacy, the Chaldeans are known as uniates. Yet they have been allowed to retain the ancient languages and rites and to be led by an indigenous priesthood.

A similar pattern can be found among other branches of the church. The Syrian Church (with leadership in Damascus) is also known by the popular name Jacobites for the 6th century Bishop Jacob Baradaeus. Their theology has been characterized as monophysite because of the debate which took place at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 ad.

There orthodox Christianity adopted the view that Christ was of two natures in one person. The Jacobites, however, profess only a single divine nature for Christ. They express this even today by using only a single finger when making the sign of the cross. Like the Nestorians, the Jacobites also divided several centuries ago so that Syrian Catholics have union with Rome.

Likewise Armenian Orthodox and Armenian Catholics have been present in Iraq since fleeing the Turkish massacres of the early part of this century. Traditional Greek Orthodox and Latin Catholics are but a tiny minority in Iraq, as are Protestant churches, which made their beginning through Presbyterian and Reformed missionary efforts of the 19th century.

Problems of Christians Today

Since the spread of Islam in the seventh century, Christians have had minority status in Iraq. In some respects, their heritage serves well the dialogue with Islam, a role that carries great potential for the beginning of the third millennium. Because of high levels of education, Christians have found themselves in positions of trust and respect among large segments of the Iraqi population.

This is not to say that the situation for Iraqi Christians is totally stable. There have been major shifts in population in the 20th century, primarily from the northern villages to the urban life of Baghdad. In 1939, over 70 percent of the Christian population lived in about a hundred villages in the northern regions, including their major seminary in the northern city of Mosul. Now, because of difficulties among the Kurds, the numbers have shifted so that Baghdad is the primary Christian center.

Iraq is also facing a steady exodus of Christians. Already in the middle part of this century it was estimated that perhaps 300 families were emigrating to the U.S. or Canada each year, partly because of economic and educational opportunities. The numbers increased during the conflict with Iran during the 1980s. Since the Gulf war of 1991, however, one-third of Iraqi Christians have left.

Today Iraqi Christians are exposed to suffering no less than that of their Muslim compatriots. Perhaps the psychological effect is even greater because of the role of Western Christians in bringing about prolonged sanctions and continued bombing attacks.

The Papal Visit

It is not surprising that Pope John Paul II declared last summer his intention to make a visit to Iraq in the year 2000. A desire to visit historic sites related to the birthplace of Abraham, a longing to demonstrate solidarity with uniate Christians, and his concern and compassion for suffering humanity, all serve to place Iraq at the top of the pope’s agenda.

It turns out that Cardinal Etchegaray, the chief planner for the Vatican’s 2000th anniversary celebrations, is also the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. So the groundwork for this papal visit was being laid at the same time that Etchegaray was in Baghdad in June to investigate and deplore the impact of sanctions on the general populace.

Thus Catholic clerics have taken a lead in the West in calling attention to the plight of the Iraqi people. “In a regime like the one we live in,” explains Chaldean Catholic Patriach Raphael I Bidawid of Baghdad, “the people are not the protagonists of politics but suffer the choices made by their leaders.”

As unilateral military threats have appeared more imminent over the past year, this concern took the form of public letters to President Clinton and Secretary Albright by seven U.S. cardinals and by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, urging U.S. officials to use restraint and to seek a broader base for diplomacy.

Thus no one seemed more disappointed than Pope John Paul by the pre-Christmas bombing raids by the United States and Britain. In a Christmas-week message to the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, he addressed the situation:

“The holiday atmosphere renders even more intense the suffering for all that has happened in these days to the Iraqi people, in the face of whose drama no one can remain indifferent,” the pope said.

“To my deep sorrow, the situation of that people is united bitterness in noting how often are disappointed the hopes rooted in the validity and force of international law and the organizations called to guarantee its application.”

John Paul then reiterated his contention that war can never solve problems. “Thus, more than ever, it is the Iraqi people who must be at the center of concern of all those, in Iraq and elsewhere, who have the duty to resolve the crisis.”

When asked if the pope interpreted U.S. actions as aggression, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican’s second-ranking official, replied, “Either it’s a war of defense or a war of aggression. There’s no middle ground.”

What about plans for the papal visit to Iraq in the year 2000? Will the pope make the trip? “We hope so,” said Sodano. “It’s in our prayers.”

Condemnations of Sanctions and Bombing in Iraq

The Roman Catholic Church is not alone in speaking out against the December bombing campaign and expressing support for the people of Iraq.

The Middle East Council of Churches called Operation Desert Fox a “clear example of an impatient and unclear policy without making any effort to engage in bilateral or multilateral direct diplomacy with the Iraqi government.”

The MECC statement concerned itself also with the plight of the Iraqi people: “Now, with the sanctions still in place, a more swift death and destruction of lives and property is sure through military strikes. The unfortunate victims will be civilians, especially women, children and the elderly.”

MECC General Secretary Riad Jarjour offers a sobering reminder: “We are more acutely aware of their rights as the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights.”

The World Council of Churches’ Eighth Assembly, meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe in December, also chose to issue a statement on the situation which “reaffirmed that…nations give up the spirit, logic, and practice of war as a solution to world problems” and which decries “the application of double standards by the nations, by which such attacks as these, which ignore the will of the civilian population of Iraq, are allowed.”

In the United States, Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), with historic ties to Protestant missionary efforts in Iraq, wrote to President Clinton, “Before pressures build for yet another attack, I urge that our government embark upon a different path that may better lead us to peace…These are difficult days, Mr. President, for you, for the Republic and for the Iraqi people. Let me assure you that all are daily remembered in the prayers of our people and our churches.”

Christmas in Baghdad

Churches in Baghdad were overflowing with the prayers coming from Iraqi Christians on Christmas Day. So reports New York Times writer Stephen Kinzer, who interviewed representatives of several denominations.

Church council member Georges Sada noted that his Presbyterian congregation had chosen to cancel all parties this Christmas season. “You can’t be very happy when people are being killed, when people are depressed and suffering,” he said. “We feel we should share the sadness of our people, and only worship.”

So Father Gabriel Marie began services at the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption as only one in Baghdad could fully appreciate: “Thanks be to God that we have survived the bombing.” Although times are tough, Father Marie reminded his congregation that “no bomb is powerful enough to kill the spirit of Christianity.”

“If we cry, it is no solution,” Father Nadeer Dakko told his congregation at Mother of Sorrows Church. Membership there now numbers over 5,000, many of them refugees from villages in northern Iraq. This congregation combines numerous social programs of humanitarian relief with a message of hope: “If we make war, it is no solution. We can only make peace within ourselves.”

Key to that hope is the old tradition that the bread of the Christmas Eucharist binds them with a 2,000-year Christian heritage in Iraq.

Dr. Fred Strickert is professor of religion at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.