IRAQ: St. George's Anglican Church damaged in deadly bomb attack

By ENS staff,
October 27, 2009

[Episcopal News Service] Two major suicide bomb attacks in Baghdad on Sunday, Oct. 25, caused serious damage to St. George's Anglican Church and left at least 150 dead and more than 600 injured on the streets outside.

When the coordinated car bombs exploded in downtown Baghdad at 10:30 a.m. the church was empty. "If the bomb had been just a few hours later, the glass from the windows would have ripped through the congregation causing terrible human damage," said the Rev. Canon Andrew White, vicar of St. George's, the only Anglican church in Iraq. The explosions damaged the church's clinic, bookshop, school rooms and the Mothers' Union buildings.

St. George's is the spiritual home to about 2,000 Christians. In an Oct. 27 email, White confirmed that none of St. George's members had been killed in the attacks although some had been injured. He estimates the damage to the church and its out-buildings to be in the region of $200,000. the rest