Archbishops seek asylum for refugees from northern Iraq

Posted on August 14, 2014 
Filed under Anglican Communion, Australian dioceses

press-conf“Archbishop Philip Freier, has urged the Federal Government to accept as refugees some of the Christians facing unimaginable suffering in northern Iraq.

Dr Freier, who was inaugurated as Primate of Australia at a service at St Paul’s Cathedral on Wednesday evening (August 13), praised the government for its “rapid response in providing aid to the displaced thousands in Iraq”.

He told a press conference that he had written to the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Abbott, and Immigration Minister, Mr Scott Morrison, asked them to emulate France in offering asylum to those facing forced conversion or death.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who gave the sermon at the inauguration service, told the conference that what was happening right now in northern Iraq at the hands of the ISIS jihadi fighters was “off the scale of human horror”.…”

– Story (and photo by Kit Haselden) from the Diocese of Melbourne.