Pray for the people of Iraq

http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/the-christian-centre-of-iraq-has-been.html

A plea from Canon Andrew White, Vicar of Baghdad:

'Dear Friends,

Things are so bad now in Iraq, the worst they have ever been. The Islamic terrorists have taken control of the whole of Mosul which is Nineveh the main Christian stronghold. The army have even fled. We urgently need help and support.

The area is the heartland of the Christian community. Most of our people come from Nineveh and still see that as their home. It is there that they return to regularly. Many Christian’s fled from back to Nineveh from Baghdad, as things got so bad there. Now the Christian centre of Iraq has been totally ransacked. The tanks are moving into the Christian villages destroying them and causing total carnage. The ISIS militants are now moving towards Kirkuk, major areas to the Oil fields that provide the lifeblood of Iraq. We are faced with total war that all the Iraqi military have now retreated from.'

BEN HUBBARD on AUG. 23, 2014 commented in his New York Times article

that 'Sunnis and Shiites tend to view many of the country’s most pressing issues through profoundly different lenses, making compromise difficult. Shiite leaders speak of ISIS as a terrorist threat that must be battled with all available means. Some have even accused Sunni leaders of providing political cover for the extremists.'

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— ¹² remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵ by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Pray and act as the Holy Spirit leads You.
Click on the above link for more info.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/world/middleeast/response-to-attack-reflects-iraqs-sectarian-divide.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news