On the Solemnity of St. James the Great – our patron. Fr. Mark Greenaway-Robbins, July 27th, 2014.
From a news report posted yesterday: “A week ago the Christians in the city (of Mosul) were told they had until July 18th to convert to Islam, pay a special tax, leave, or, in the words of a statement by the jihadists, they would have ‘nothing but the sword.’ But then the jihadists changed their mind: paying the tax was no longer an option and all Christians were told on July 18th that they all had to leave by the next day— or be killed. Most fled.
But Canon Andrew White - dubbed "the bishop of Baghdad" for his work at St George's (Anglican) church in the capital, said they were trapped in the desert or on the streets with nowhere to go. "Things are so desperate, our people are disappearing," he told BBC Radio 4's Today. "We have had people massacred, their heads chopped off. Are we seeing the end of Christianity? We are committed come what may, we will keep going to the end, but it looks as though the end could be very near." http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/07/26/christians-iraq_n_5622948.html
This sounds reminiscent of the treatment of James, the disciple of Jesus and patron Saint of our Parish: “About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword.” (Acts 12.1-2.)
Today we have been able to gather for Christian worship without fearing for our safety. The experience of our sisters and brothers in Iraq, at this very moment, is very different. They know what James experienced in way most of us cannot imagine.
Yet many of us come to Mass occasionally on a Sunday and yet we think of ourselves as regular parishioners. Recently, I explained to a former parishioner of mine, from another diocese, how