His Majesty King Charles III has attended a special Advent service at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Mayfair, central London, co-hosted by the Catholic Charity that supports persecuted Christians, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
The service took place on Tuesday, 17 December, and celebrated the courage and perseverance of the Christian Communities of the Middle East and the diaspora, and reflected on the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Mosul and the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq by Daesh (ISIS).
After the service, The King was introduced to representatives of the London-based Iraqi Christian diaspora, including individuals who suffered persecution and forced displacement when Daesh seized the Nineveh Plains.
His Majesty also met with a cross-section of Farm Street parishioners and those they support.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, President of the Bishops’ Conference, gave the concluding prayer at the service, while His Excellency Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, the Papal Nuncio to the UK, gave the final blessing.
Dr Caroline Hull, national director at ACN (UK), said:
“Throughout their long history dating back to the 1st century, the Christians of Iraq have been no strangers to suffering. But little could prepare them for the terrors that would be inflicted both on them and so many other communities in recent years.”
Dr Hull added: “Since his time as Prince of Wales, The King has shown profound and unstinting compassion, going out of his way to hear the personal stories of the afflicted faithful.”
ACN has supported the rebuilding of churches and homes in the Christian town of Qaraqosh and other settlements in the Nineveh Plains, and also helped establish the Catholic University in Erbil in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Dr Hull said: “The journey towards restoration and renewal has been a long and sometimes painful one – and there is still a long way to go towards full recovery.
“But that they have achieved so much and completed the work so quickly is a tribute to the compassion, the care and concern their friends and benefactors have shown them. Such help came at a time when they sorely needed it.”
