Dear Friends in Christ,
Many of us have been following with alarm the persecution of Christians in various countries of the Middle East and Africa. Concern has been expressed within our diocese by priests and laity of the need for us to have a diocesan response to this current crisis.
At our Diocesan Council Meeting last week all concurred that as Bishop I would appoint an upcoming Sunday to be set aside for specific prayer and intercession for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are in the midst of this persecution as well as a day for fasting on their behalf. I have appointed September 14th as a Sunday for such diocesan wide intercession. It is the Sunday nearest to Holy Cross Day which is transferred this year to be observed on Monday, September 15th.
[b]FINALLY[/b], there is a Christian leader drawing attention to the abomination occurring in the Middle East. Weeks before James Foley was murdered, reports and [I]images[/I] of ISIS beheading 5 year olds – and displaying their heads on pikes in a park, of all places – began to surface…and there has been almost no discussion about this. Where is the outrage?
Coincidentally enough, the following “urgent prayer request” from a Samaritan’s Purse missionary in Iraq was forwarded to me by my mom a little while ago:
Dear Prayer Warriors,
This is urgent news from Samaritans Purse This was sent to me for prayer from Chaplains with Rapid Response Team. Pray & pass to others. Dear Friends, Just a few minutes ago I received the following text message on my phone from Sean Malone who leads Crisis Relief International (CRI). We then spoke briefly on the phone and I assured him that we would share this urgent prayer need with all of our contacts. “We lost the city of Queragosh (Qaraqosh). It fell to ISIS and they are beheading children systematically. This is the city we have been smuggling food too. ISIS has pushed back Peshmerga (Kurdish forces) and is within 10 minutes of where our CRI team is working. Thousands more fled into the city of Erbil last night. The UN evacuated it’s staff in Erbil. Our team is unmoved and will stay. Prayer cover needed!” Please pray sincerely for the deliverance of the people of Northern Iraq from the terrible advancement of ISIS and its extreme Islamic goals for mass conversion or death for Christians across this region. May I plead with you not to ignore this email. Do not forward it before you have prayed through it. Then send it to as many people as possible. Send it to friends and Christians you may know. Send it to your prayer group. We need to stand in the gap for our fellow Christians.
In His name,
Gerry and Charles
ORnurseDude, It is a shame that so few Christian Church leaders have spoken about ISIS slaughter of Christians and I am glad that Bishop Lawrence has spoken out on behalf of our fellow Christians who are being persecuted in IRAQ and Syria. I was also glad to see that Archbishop Foley Beach has posted a call to prayer for persecuted Christians on the ACNA (Anglican Church in North America) website and that they also provide a service of prayers titled “A Time of Prayer for God’s Suffering People” which is a great help to me when praying for our Christian sisters and brothers who are being persecuted by ISIS.
This is a great lead from Bishop Lawrence and the Diocese of South Carolina. I will certainly join in these prayers on Sunday and Monday.
A few prayers for the persecuted church may be found at [url=http://anglicanprayer.wordpress.com]Lent & Beyond[/url].