Prayer service to highlight plight of Christians in Middle East

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  Correspondent
  
  
  

  A vocal opponent of the international community’s response to the plight of Christians living in the Middle East will be among the featured speakers this week at a prayer service at Saint Anthony’s Hellenic (Greek) Orthodox Church.

  Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos, chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis (Diocese) of Chicago, has called the situation "a genocide," most recently in a Feb. 12 Wall Street Journal op/ed piece.

  In addition to the suffering Christians in the Middle East, local leaders from various Christian traditions will remember all people suffering throughout the world, including those who endured loss during this winter’s flooding, said the Rev. George Pyle, Saint Anthony’s pastor.

  Gov. Bruce Rauner has been invited to attend, but a spokeswoman in his press office could not confirm his participation.

  Bishop Demetrios, who is second in command in the diocese that covers Illinois and all or parts of five other Midwestern states, has forcefully urged international and U.S. government leaders to more directly address the persecution and dwindling numbers of Christians in the Middle East.

  According to Open Doors USA, a watchdog group that advocates for Christian groups and tracks Christian persecution, more than 7,100 Christians were killed in 2015 for "faith-related reasons." Experts contend that the Christian population in the Middle East will be halved from 12 million in 2011 to 6 million by 2020.

  John Ackerman, a spokesman for the Chicago Greek Orthodox diocese, said that Bishop Demetrios, in addition to trying to get leaders to label the acts as "genocide," is hoping they will enact the "Responsibility to Protect" resolution that was drafted at the 2005 United Nations World Summit.

  It says that while nations have the duty to protect their citizens from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, the international community should use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means to ensure populations are protected.

  "Genocide is happening again before our very eyes," Ackerman said. "It’s time to call the situation what it is."

  Thursday’s prayer service comes nearly a year after 21 mostly Coptic Orthodox Christians were beheaded by Islamic State forces in Libya. The Coptic Orthodox Church, the largest in the Middle East, is distinct from the Eastern Orthodox Church, though the two are, said Ackerman, "brothers of faith."

  Ackerman said he’s also buoyed by a recent meeting between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Cuba, especially because the rise of Christian persecution in the Middle East and Africa was one of the issues that brought them together. The two churches have been split over a variety of issues since the Great Schism of 1054.

  Pyle said Bishop Demetrios and Rauner had been trying to get together for some time in Springfield. Pyle said he and some of his parishioners were especially moved by seeing Rauner tour some of the downstate areas hit by the recent flooding and wanted to incorporate that into the prayer service.

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