Churches for Middle East Peace "Stand with Iraqi Christians" Webinar (5/10/2023)

Office of Public Witness partner Churches for Middle East Peace presents: Meet: Stand with Iraqi Christians May 10, 2023 2:30-3:45 PM ET

Register

Churches for Middle East Peace (CEMP), The Episcopal Church, and Stand With Iraqi Christians (SWIC) host two leaders of the Anglican Church in Iraq while they are in the United States. The Rev. Canon Faiz Basheer Jerjes, MBE, and Sinan Hanna Karakash will speak on contemporary challenges for Christians in Iraq and their ministries with Internally Displaced People and refugees (respectively) in response to ISIS's 2014 invasion and destruction. Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon, CMEP Executive Director, will facilitate the conversation. Please join us on Zoom at 2:30pm (EST) on May 10th, 2023.

Speakers: The Rev. Canon Faiz Basheer Jerjes, MBE. In 2004, Father Faiz joined St. George’s Episcopal Church in Baghdad once it reopened after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. From 2006 he began working toward reconciliation among the diverse religious and ethnic groups in the city, establishing St. George’s as a center for the promotion of human rights. In 2007 he helped found a clinic inside St. George’s compound to offer free medical services to the surrounding community without regard to religious or ethnic background.  Sinan Hanna Karakash. Since 2014, Sinan has worked primarily to assist Christian refugees who fled the invasion of ISIS. In March 2015,  Sinan became Project Manager for the Christian Missionary Alliance, a large multinational mission-focused church. In 2016, Sinan began working as Country Director for International Christian Concern. This ministry, working collaboratively with other NGOs, including SWIC, has helped hundreds of Christians throughout Iraq through crisis relief, training, and small business development. In 2017, Sinan moved from Erbil to Baghdad and has spent part of his time working with Canon Faiz, while continuing his ministry on the Nineveh Plains.  Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon is the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). Cannon holds an MDiv from North Park Theological Seminary, an MBA from North Park University’s School of Business and Nonprofit Management, and an MA in bioethics from Trinity International University. She received her first doctorate in American History with a minor in Middle Eastern studies at the University of California (Davis) focusing on the history of the American Protestant church in Israel and Palestine and her second doctorate in Ministry in Spiritual Formation from Northern Theological Seminary. She is the author of several books including the award-winning Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a Better World and editor of A Land Full of God: Christian Perspectives on the Holy Land. Her work has been highlighted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Chicago Tribune, Christianity Today, Leadership Magazine, The Christian Post, Jerusalem Post, EU Parliament Magazine, Huffington Post, and other international media outlets.