When extremist groups occupied Iraq’s Nineveh Plains in 2014, they destroyed several churches and damaged Christian relics. Believers in Mosul are marking 10 years since ISIS took control of the city, forcing thousands to flee in fear.

Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil grimly recalls that over 13,000 Christian families had to escape to Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. Mosul was liberated in 2017 following a fierce battle, which left most of the city in ruins. Around 9,000 families have returned to the Nineveh Plains with the aid of international charities that helped reconstruct their homes.

Dr John Newton, from Aid to the Church in Need, who took part in finding the crosses, said they would be a dramatic memorial of the suffering of northern Iraq’s Christians: “These crosses are a very timely addition to the exhibition. It was exactly a decade ago that Daesh started its genocidal campaign of conquest in northern Iraq, attempting to eradicate Christians, Yazidis and others from their ancient homelands. And yet the cross is a perennial symbol of hope shining through suffering. One of the damaged items comes from Teleskuf, where Daesh devastated St George’s Chaldean Church – and yet by the end of 2017, Daesh had been driven out, St George’s had been repaired and Christians had started returning to the town.”

Lucien de Guise, the curator of the exhibition in Westminster, emphasized the importance of these war-torn artefacts: “The remnants of Iraqi crosses are especially welcome as they convey the power of the crucifix in a different way due to their degraded condition. Christ’s suffering for humanity becomes even more apparent when his body is reduced to just an arm or a pair of feet. What’s concealed really can be more expressive than what’s revealed. These loans from ACN are also a reminder of how that suffering has continued among the people who were among the earliest to follow the message of Christianity. They are crushingly poignant. It’s also rare to have access to works from places where they are still filled with meaning.”

Source: https://premierchristian.news/