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| Man Of The Year 2006
The Reverend Canon Andrew White
updated June 2008
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA BAGHDAD, IRAQ (ANS) -- The Reverend Canon Andrew White, affectionately known as The Vicar of Baghdad, says the situation for Christians in Iraq is "clearly worse" than under the Saddam Hussein regime, toppled by US and Coalition forces in 2003.
The Rev. Canon Andrew White, Vicar of Baghdad "The situation now is clearly worse" than under Saddam, White replied.
"There's no comparison between Iraq now and then," he told Pelley. "Things are the most difficult they have ever been for Christians. Probably ever in history. They've never known it like now."
"Wait a minute, Christians have been here for 2,000 years," Pelley remarked.
"Yes," White said.
"And it's now the worst it has ever been," Pelley replied.
In the opening sequence of his report, Pelley remarked that from the time of Jesus, there have been Christians in what is now Iraq. The Christian community took root there after the Apostle Thomas headed east in the year 35.
"But now," said Pelley, "after nearly 2,000 years, Iraqi Christians are being hunted, murdered and forced to flee -- persecuted on a biblical scale in Iraq's religious civil war.
Pelley comments: "You'd have to be mad to hold a Christian service in Iraq today, but if you must, then the vicar of Baghdad is your man. He's the Reverend Canon Andrew White, an Anglican chaplain who suffers from multiple sclerosis and from a fanatical determination to save the last Iraqi Christians from the purge."
White invited 60 Minutes' cameras and correspondent Scott Pelley to an underground Baghdad church service for what's left of his congregation. White's parishioners are risking their lives to celebrate their faith.
"The room is full of children, it's full of women, but I don't see the men. Where are they?" Pelley remarked.
"They are mainly killed. Some are kidnapped. Some are killed. In the last six months things have got particularly bad for the Christians. Here in this church, all of my leadership were originally taken and killed," White explained.
"All dead. But we never got their bodies back. This is one of the problems. I regularly do funerals here but it's not easy to get the bodies," said White.
Many Iraqi Christian churches are destroyed or abandoned, Pelley explained.
Pelley continued: "The congregation is smuggled in and out of this secret sanctuary. Even letting 60 Minutes come to the service was a terrible risk. White is among the last Christian ministers here, a savior with crosses to bear. Larger than life, stricken with MS, and by his own reckoning, driven a little bit mad."
White was first sent to Baghdad by the Archbishop of Canterbury nine years ago, well before the Christian persecution, the CBS correspondent remarked.
Pelley said that to understand the history of Iraqi Christianity, start with the Last Supper. One saint sitting to the right of Jesus in Leonardo Da'Vinci's paiting is the Apostle Thomas, who took the gospel and headed east after the death of Christ.
In modern times, under Saddam, Christians were treated much the same as Muslims; Saddam's right hand man, Tariq Aziz, was Christian, Pelley said.
"Before the war," said Pelley,"it's estimated there were about a million Christians in Iraq. They were a small minority, but free to worship, free to build churches, and free to speak the ancient language of Jesus, Aramaic. But, after the invasion, Muslim militants launched a war on each other and the cross."
On Sunday, Aug. 1, 2004, five churches were bombed. The Iraqi Christian community, which had survived invasions by Mongols and Turks, was driven out under American occupation.
No one can be sure, said Pelley, but White estimates most of Iraq's Christians have fled or been killed. Those still here are too old, too ill or too poor to run.
"Why are you feeding them all?" Pelley asked Canon White.
"Because, this is the only decent meal they'll have in the week," White explained.
"They can't afford food. So we're just moving from every other week to every week because they've got nothing," he said.
Nothing for many, not even their families, Pelley commented. The 60 Minutes team was confronted with one of many stories of depravity as the congregation left.
"Outside the church service this gentleman put these pictures in my hand. I can't show you the pictures. They're just too much. They're pictures of his children. His daughter who was 15 years old. And his son who was about four years old. They've both been shot in the head," Pelley said.
The man's children were killed, the father said, because he ran a liquor store. Liquor stores are typically Christian businesses there, legal, except under the Islamic street justice that rules since the invasion.
"So I hear stories of shootings, death, torturing, kidnapping, mutilation. I hear it all," White told Pelley.
The people with those stories once lived in a neighborhood called Dora, where Christians, Sunnis, and Shiites had lived together.
60 Minutes wanted to see what happened there so the TV crew took a ride with U.S. Army Colonel Rick Gibbs. His men picked up Pelley and the team under a rusting relic of Saddam's tyranny, a parade archway made of two enormous swords, and from there they headed to ethnic cleansing's "ground zero."
"We have 13 churches. None of them are operational," Col. Gibbs said.
Asked if this was the worst neighborhood in town, Gibbs said, "It's the toughest neighborhood in town."
Gibbs commands the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division out of Fort Riley, Kan. In Dora, he set up a combat outpost in an abandoned Catholic seminary.
Pelley remarked: "I was at a secret church service yesterday. A man came up to me and handed me some photographs of his children. They'd been shot to death. Somebody had come by their house and murdered his children because they were Christians."
"What are you seeing?" Pelley asked Gibbs.
The colonel responded: "I don't see a lot of that anymore. But when we first arrived we saw lots of that. We have 500 a month. That's what we were tracking. It would not surprise my soldiers to walk down a street on a patrol and see three or four bodies laying in the street with a bullet behind their head."
U.S. forces do not protect the churches, Pelley explained, adding that there's a hands-off policy for all religious sites.
Col. Gibbs says there's another reason.
"The Christians do not what us to guard the churches openly," he said.
Why wouldn't the Christians want Gibbs and his soldiers to protect the churches? Pelley wanted to know.
"They feel that if we are overtly protecting the churches that someone underground covertly will come in and murder the Christians because they're collaborating with the U.S. forces," Gibbs explained.
The CBS reporter said there seems to be less violence now in part because of the surge of U.S. forces but also because the purge of Christians from Dora is largely complete. Gibbs says Islamic militants are on the run now.
"We hear that through our intelligence sources on the ground people telling us they're running that's how we knew to come down here with our next big fight to keep getting after them," Gibbs said, as shots could be heard in the background. "And that's what you hear over there is us in that fight trying to go get them."
60 Minutes wanted to see one church that had been destroyed but Gibbs couldn't take them there -- roadside bombs blocked the way. So he walked the TV crew over to a church next to his combat outpost. Because of the proximity, it hadn't been looted. In fact, it hadn't been touched by anyone for a very long time.
"This is one of the abandoned churches of Dora," Pelley remarked inside the church. "It looks like it was left suddenly and completely. There's a fine coat of dust over everything in the church. It was all left just as it was. One of the reasons these churches have been abandoned is in this letter, a letter that went out to the neighborhoods of Dora about a year ago. It reads like this: 'To the Christian, we would like to inform you of the decision of the legal court of the Secret Islamic Army to notify you that this is the last and final threat. If you do not leave your home, your blood will be spilled.' And in case there was any chance that anyone would not get the message, the letter ends like this: 'You and your family will be killed.'"
Pelley talked to a young man, a Baghdad Christian, whose name he could not use. He told Pelley that after the invasion, posters appeared near his home.
"They were like telling us that Christians were against Islam, that we're infidels, that women shouldn't drive and a woman that doesn't wear a scarf would get her head cut off," the man told Pelley. "And I thought, 'What, are we going back to the Middle Ages?'"
He told 60 Minutes his family began going to Mass in shifts. Asked why, he told Pelley, "If like the church gets bombed on like one of the Masses, so like half of the family will be there and half will be safe."
Ultimately, the church was bombed.
Asked what has become of the people he used to worship with in that church, the young man told Pelley, "I simply don't know. A lot them are in Syria. I don't know any of 'em that stayed in Baghdad."
His family, unharmed, fled to neighboring Jordan. But most Christians ran north to Syria where they've filled a Damascus neighborhood. Knock on any door and you'll find a story.
"They threatened this young girl," one woman told 60 Minutes. "They want her to become a Muslim. The boy is in danger of being kidnapped. My other boy is in danger of being kidnapped because we're Christians."
Pelley talked with another woman was on a bus outside Baghdad, when gunmen boarded and demanded to know her husband's faith. "They told him, 'How come you have not embraced Islam yet?' He said, 'To each his own religion,'" she recalled.
"He told him 'I am a Christian.' He told him to get off the bus," a child added.
They never saw him again.
Pelley reported that Christian refugees are now swept up in an exodus of historic proportions. The U.N. estimates more than four and a half million Iraqis of all faiths are running from the war. The United States has promised to help, but so far about 2,000 Iraqis have been allowed into the U.S., less than one tenth of one percent of all the refugees.
Those who remain in Iraq are bound together by a particular kind of faith known only to those under siege, Pelley said.
Why is this happening? he asked Canon White.
"It's happening because religion has gone wrong," White told Pelley. "And when religion goes wrong, it kills others."
"The Muslim religion has gone wrong, is that what you're saying?" Pelley asked for clarification.
"It has. And in the past, Christianity has gone wrong," White says. "And what I say to people very clearly is that the history of Christianity is no better than the history of Islam."
"Some of your parishioners must ask you, 'Why is God allowing this to happen to us?'" Pelley asked.
"To them I say, 'God is with you and he is with me and I am with you and I'm not going away,'" White replied.
Since 60 Minutes first reported this story in December 2007, the purge of Christians in Iraq has continued.
In February, gunman ambushed, kidnapped and eventually murdered Iraqi Archbishop Paul Faraj Rahho.
Canon Andrew White is still ministering to what's left of his congregation.
**This story was based on a transcript of the 60 Minutes program that aired on CBS TV, June 29, 2008. It has been adapted for use by this news agency.  IRAQ
Naperville IL Meeting
May 31 2007
Cannon Andrew White about latest kidnapping
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA BAGHDAD, IRAQ (ANS) -- Canon Andrew White is one of the great heroes of the church. He's an Anglican clergyman in Baghdad, who has seen his flock murdered and forced into exile by Muslim extremists, and he says Christians there are worse off now than under Saddam's rule and are probably suffering more than any time in history. Now millions of viewers in the United States can see White, known as
Canon Andrew White in full "There's no comparison between Iraq now and [under Saddam]," says White. "Things are the most difficult they have ever been for Christians - probably ever in history," he tells Pelley, referring to the nearly 2,000 years of Christian history in the area. That's because White estimates that 90 percent of Iraq's Christians, once thought to number over a million, have either fled or have been murdered by Islamic extremists during the religious civil war.
That includes his own church leaders and most of the men of his parish. "They are mainly killed. Some are kidnapped," says White. "Here in this church, all of my leadership were originally taken and killed." Their bodies were never recovered. "This is one of the problems. I regularly do funerals here, but it's not easy to get the bodies," White tells Pelley.
Andrew White leads worship in Baghdad "I don't see a lot of [Christian murder victims] anymore," says Army Col. Rick Gibbs. "But when we first arrived, we saw lots of that. It would not surprise my soldiers to walk down a street on patrol and see three or four bodies lying in the street with a bullet behind their head," says Gibbs.
At the height of the violence, churches were bombed and the Army did not guard them, Gibbs says. "[Christians] feel that if we are overtly protecting the churches, that someone underground covertly will come in and murder the Christians because they are collaborating with the U.S. forces," Gibbs tells Pelley.
It all started after the invasion, says a young Christian who did not want to be identified. "[Muslim extremists] were telling us that Christians were against Islam, that we're infidels, that women shouldn't drive and that a woman who doesn't wear a head scarf should get her head cut off," he says. "I thought, 'What are we, going back to the Middle Ages?'"
It's all happening because religion can go wrong, says White. "When religion goes wrong, it kills others. [Islam] has [gone wrong] and in the past, Christianity has gone wrong," he says.
What makes Canon Andrew White life and ministry so extraordinary and inspiring is that he suffers from Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a chronic, long-term condition that affects the central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord. MS is an autoimmune disease, which means that the body's immune system mistakenly attacks itself, targeting the cells, tissues, and organs. Because of his condition, White is forced to walk with a stick.
Over recent years, Andrew White has acted as negotiator in many areas of conflict, including the siege at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the bloody riots between Christians and Muslims in northern Nigeria. He has been awarded several significant prizes for his peace work, including the International Sternberg prize and the ICCJ Prize for Sustained Intellectual Contribution to Jewish-Christian Relations.
Andrew is married to Caroline, who is a lawyer, and has two young sons.
For more information on his 60 MINUTES appearance, contact: Kevin Tedesco at 212 975-2329 or by e-mail at: Kev@cbsnews.com.
Called the Vicar of Baghdad The Reverend Cannon Andrew White
is a man you need to meet ..
.. And he is my friend.... PEACE is not easy to achive it is state of mind and one must have it to bring it . By Interview and Article Theresa Forkins-Phillips
During our conversation Rev Andrew White did mention the faith and repose of The now Late Former President Ford. He mentioned his staff who happens to be working with him during his course of Peace Keeping In Iraq." A man of Great Faith." Rev Andrew is the reason I would like to see an Adopt a Chaplain program started Chaplains in the Military are non combatant they train for warfare yet carry no weapons. Rev. Andrew carries two weapons with him daily. Love and Peace. This ordinary clergy man is Not Ordinary in any way! He works with bullets ringing past his ears daily, he has seen devastation, starvation, death and unrest. He as also received death threats, Rev Andrew has been involved in negotiations for release of captives while still trying to win an angry mans soul to Jesus who happens to be his friend. Reverend White knows full well what it is like to suffer in his own body (He suffers from MS.). He knows that the mission is more important than the missionary. He has sacrificed his own body, and the freedom to "play" with his two boys every day. TO BE A PEACE MAKER. Andrew was in London when we chatted today and anxious to go back to Iraq. He loves the people and he loves the region he is in Gods Country when he is there. Rev Andrew is Love!
A father of two boys and married. How does he do it? He does it1 Because his Love for God is immense and 2 he is willing to do it.. One word I hear in my heart is this: Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called sons of GOD! Matt. chapter 5 verse 9
I'd say this is Andrew
 with Andrew in Naperville IL Below is a small BIO on him. Like I said, Not an ordianry man.
If I would rewrite it I would do it an injustice so in his own words here is the
MAN OF THE YEAR::
THE REVEREND CANNON ANDREW WHITE
VICAR OF BAGHDAD HUSBAND FATHER FRIEND..
The Rev’d Canon Andrew P B White DOB 29.06.64 Born in London Educated: St Thomas’ Hospital, ODA School, Ridley Hall Cambridge, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and the Karliner Yeshiva Married: Caroline Spreckley 1991 Two Sons Josiah b 96 and Jacob b 98
CEO and President of the Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East
Director of the International Centre for Reconciliation & Director of International Ministry for the Diocese and Cathedral of Coventry. Residentiary Canon, Coventry Cathedral since 1998. (Until end of June 2005 (At the time of appointment was the youngest Residentiary canon) The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Special Representative to the Middle East 2001-2003 The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Special Representative to the Alexandria Process 2003- International Director of the Iraqi Institute of Peace 2004- Eric Lane Fellow of Clare College Cambridge 2003 Vicar of the Church of the Ascension, Balham Hill, London SW12 1993-1998 Asst. Curate St Mark’s Battersea Rise 1990-93 Trainee ODA St Thomas’ Hospital 1982-86 Hon Operating Department Practitioner and theatre tutor 1986-1996 Director of the Alexandria Process for Peace in the Middle East 2002- Co-Coordinator and Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Centre for Reconciliation and Peace 2003-` 2004- International Director IIP Visiting Prof. in Social and Political Science, Wheaton College, Illinois 2000- Founding President of Cambridge University Jews and Christian 1987-1990 Chairman of the Young Leadership Section of the International Council of Christians and Jews 1989-1994 Member of the Board of the Council of Christians and Jews 1988- Counselor for Balham 1998  award for bookDeputy Chairman of Wandsworth Social Services 1998 Member of the Advisory Board of the Three Faiths Forum 2001- Member of the General Synod of the Church of England 2000- Member of the C100 of the World Economic Forum Awards The USA Cross of Valor 2006
The Best Christian Book Award in Britain 2006 for Iraq Searching for Hope
 bookThe Tanenbaum Peacemaker in Action Prize 2005
Grand Commander of the Order of Merit of the Supreme Military Order of the Knights of Jerusalem 2003
Sir Sigmund Sternberg, Inter-Faith Prize 2003 for Muslim, Jewish Christian Relations
Anglo Israel Association Prize 2001 for contribution to furthering British Israel Understanding
The Sternberg International Council of Christians and Jews Prize jointly with Lord Donald Coggan 1991
Publications: Various articles and chapters in books on issues of Inter-Faith Activity, Conflict Resolution, Middle East Affairs, Jewish, Christian, Muslim Relations
Iraq People of Hope Land of Despair: Sovereign World 2003 Iraq Searching for Hope: Continuum 2005 Hobbies: Angora Goats, Cooking In 2005 Canon White left the ICR at Coventry Cathedral to become the
President of the Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East and Vicar of Baghdad. He can now be contacted at FRME London House, 100 New Kings Road, London SW6 4LX email. information@frme.org.uk Andrew White is the President and CEO of the... Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East, Chaplain of St Georges Church Baghdad and Anglican / Episcopal Chaplain of the International Zone Baghdad. From 1998 to 2005 he was Director of the International Centre for Reconciliation, Residentiary Canon of Coventry Cathedral and Eric lane Fellow at Clare College Cambridge. He was Archbishop George Carey’s Representative to the Middle East and continues to be Archbishop Rowan Williams Special Representative to the Alexandria Process Canon White Studied at St Thomas’ Hospital, ODA School London, qualifying as an Operating Department Practitioner in 1985. He trained for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge and also spent time at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem as well as at an Orthodox Yeshiva. He served his curacy at St Mark’s Battersea Rise, before becoming Vicar of the Church of the Ascension, Balham Hill.
During his final year as a vicar in Clapham, he combined his duties with being a Wandsworth Borough Counselor and served as deputy Chairman of Social Services.
In 1998 he was installed as Director of International Ministry in the Diocese and Cathedral of Coventry. Since then he has headed up Coventry’s international ministry of reconciliation with centers
in over 50 countries. With the rapid expansion of the work of the ICR he was joined last year by Canon Justin Welby who now heads up the centre jointly with Canon White.
His particular interest is in the Middle East where he co-ordinates the Alexandria Process a religious track complimenting the Middle East Peace Process. He is also very involved in Iraq, being a regular visitor to Baghdad where he has worked with both the political and religious leadership. He has recently published a book entitled “Iraq Searching for Hope” published by Continuum a previous book on Iraq was entitled “Iraq, People of Hope, and Land of Despair.” He has been widely consulted by the British Government on Middle East Issues; he is the co-ordinator and International Director of the Iraqi Institute Peace and advisor to the Iraqi National Security Council. He worked in Iraq with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), being the link with the religious leaders. His particular academic interest is in the role of Israel in Christian Theology.
Over the past few years he has acted as a negotiator in many conflict situations including the siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the riots between Muslims and Christians in Northern Nigeria. In recent years he has been awarded several significant prizes for his peace work including the International Sternberg Prize and The ICCJ Prize for Sustained Intellectual Contribution to Jewish Christian Relations and in 2003 the Three Faith’s Forum Prize for Inter-Faith Relations. In 2003 he was made a grand commander of the order of merit of the Knights Templar of Jerusalem.
Canon Andrew White’s Peace Initiatives: For several years Canon White has been at the forefront of peace making in areas of great conflict. He particularly specializes in conflict where there is a religious component. His work has often been done at great risk to himself in the past five years he has regularly been shot at, been hijacked, kidnapped and held at knife point.
His areas of involvement can be divided into three main areas Israel/Palestine, Iraq and Nigeria. In each of these areas Canon White has played a strategic role in peace making. Israel / Palestine:
Andrew White was strategic in bringing about the Alexandria Declaration and since its signing in 2002. He has led the Alexandria Process. He has continually engaged with a wide variety of the religious and political leaders of Israel and Palestine and has played a strategic role in bring an end to various crisis in the ongoing conflict. This has included being one of the main negotiators during the siege of the Church of the Nativity in spring of 2002. During this time Canon White not only headed up negotiations but also took a major lead in dealing with the humanitarian crisis in the three towns of Bethlehem, Beit Jallah and Beit Sahour. Apart from providing food and medicine he also intervened in several major medical crises, using his previous medical training...
Despite the ongoing Intifada Canon white has continued his efforts at keeping going the Alexandria Process and last year was responsible for bringing together the key 26 of the leading Palestinian Clerics in Cairo with Rabbis Michael Melchior and Menachem Froman. This was the first time most of these clerics had ever met with a Rabbi let alone a Rabbi who was also a member of the Knesset.
He now co-ordinates the religious track of the Middle East Peace Process working with both the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Iraq:
For several years Canon White sought to be a channel of communication between Iraq and the West. Visiting Iraq on many occasions. During this time he established very close working relationships with many of Iraq’s religious leaders. Following the war the Coalition asked for Canon White’s help in dealing with tribal and religious divisions in Iraq. To this end Canon White was responsible for the establishment of the Iraqi Centre for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Peace. He drafted the original Baghdad Religious Accord and continued to spend much of his time in Iraq in the capacity as the Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Centre for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Peace. In June 2004 after the handover of sovereignty to Iraq he was appointed International Director of the Iraqi Institute of Peace.
He has also been responsible for many humanitarian projects in Iraq including the establishment of Iraq’s first Bone Marrow Transplant Centre. Canon White continues to raise funds for this centre and has organized overseas training for its clinical staff.
During the past year Andrew White and his team have come under attack on many times. On one occasion four of his close colleagues were killed and another seriously injured. Despite these dangers Canon White and his team continue to play a strategic role in working for reconciliation amongst all of Iraq’s tribal and religious leaders. This has included organizing the first major meetings between Sunna and Shia leaders.
The formation of the Iraqi Institute of Peace won praise from both the Iraqis and the UK & USA. Both said it was one of the most strategic initiatives in Iraqi reconstruction. The formation of the Iraqi Institute of Peace was totally the work of Canon White. The IIP now functions with eight forums:
Women Religion and Democracy
Youth and Young People Inter-Religious Dialogue Religious Freedom and Human Rights Conflict Resolution Media Tribal Leaders Economics and Conflict In addition to the above forums the IIP is also the leading body doing hostage negotiations in Iraq. Recently Canon White was advised to leave Iraq by the FCO due to fears for his own safety. He has however met regularly with his Iraq team in Jordan, and was allowed to return to Iraq in February 2005.
In recent months he has been very involved with hostage negotiations and has played an active role in training the police in both the USA and UK in techniques of hostage negotiations with religious leaders. He is presently working with the Pentagon and the Iraq Government on the process of dealing with religious sectarianism in Iraq. This is a very confidential and complex project.
Nigeria
Canon White commenced the work of the ICR in Nigeria following the terrible riots in Kaduna in the year 2000. In 2002 he was responsible for the establishment of the Kaduna Peace Committee with Pastor James and Imam Ashafa. He drafted the Kaduna Peace Declaration based on the Alexandria Declaration. Since then under the direction of Canon White’s colleague Canon Justin Welby a series of reconciliation projects have been launched throughout Nigeria. In almost every region there are now major projects.
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