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With archive image of the London Oratory School School Cantorum (© Weenson Oo/picture-u.net)
An online devotional service for Holy Week – enriched by some of the finest sacred music – is being offered for people wishing to unite their prayers with those of suffering Christians in Iraq.

The London Oratory has joined forces with the London Oratory School’s Schola Cantorum to record a Way of the Cross service in support of Iraq’s persecuted Christians helped by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). 

The virtual service, which can be viewed here, celebrates the strong relationship which the church, the school and its schola have forged with Christians in Iraq, who continue to suffer in the aftermath of the 2014-16 Daesh (ISIS) genocide. 

Charles Cole, the Director of the Schola Cantorum, came up with the idea for the online service in response to Pope Francis’ visit to Iraq earlier this month, when he met many of the Christians helped by ACN. 

Visiting the Nineveh Plains, the Pope went to the Great Al-Tahira, in Qaraqosh, Iraq’s largest church, which was desecrated by Daesh and rebuilt with help paid out by ACN (UK). 
Mr Cole said: “The annual service of Stations of the Cross for ACN is an important date in our calendar through which we aim to unite in prayer and sacred music with the suffering Church around the world. 

Introducing the programme, Neville Kyrke-Smith, National Director, ACN (UK), quotes Pope Francis, who during his Iraq visit, told the faithful:

“The Church in Iraq, by God’s grace, is already doing much to proclaim [the] wonderful wisdom of the Cross by spreading Christ’s mercy and forgiveness, particularly towards those in greatest need.

Now, ACN is prioritising aid to enable Christians to return home to their village of Batnaya, in the Nineveh Plains, which was flattened during the conflict. 
ACN is helping to repair a convent, a kindergarten, a parish hall and a library.

Your kind gift of £25 – or whatever you can afford – will go towards ACN’s work to help rebuild the Christian village of Batnaya, in Iraq’s Nineveh Plains – the convent, the library, the parish hall, the kindergarten.
 
Watch the service here (Available until just after Easter).
Read more here 
HELP US SUPPORT THOSE IN NEED
Iraq Appeal
Help build a convent and school
Desecrated, bomb-blasted and abandoned, Batnaya was one of the Christian villages in the Nineveh Plains worst affected by violence and extremism... But even here hope is rising from the ashes of persecution. Read more here.
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Ideas to celebrate your Easter faith
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To order or for more information on these recordings, or to see our full range of Music CDs please visit here.
Have a look at our Lent & Eastertide products at our shop here.
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