Parish support eases anguish

by SUE SECONI
WANGANUI — The forcing of the Yaziki people from their villages by Sunni militants
in Northern Iraq has become more real for the congregation of St Anne’s Wanganui.

Parishioner Suhair Pedley, who was born in Baghdad, led a prayer for her people back home.
Following the unfolding of the horrific events through the news and Facebook, Mrs Pedley was feeling increasingly powerless in her inability to help. Reading the Prayers of the Faithful at Mass on Sunday August 10, she realised there wasn’t even a prayer for Christian people being persecuted.
“When presider Fr Brian Carmine stood behind me and put his hand on my shoulder, I just felt the Holy Spirit deep inside me to pray that God will be with them, which included some of my cousins, aunts and uncles who are trying to survive on Mount Sinjar,” she said.
Mrs Pedley’s parents were born beneath those mountain ranges and she knows that area extremely well.
“It is all rock. It is desert. There is no food or wells. The heat of the day is blistering and shelter comes only from small shrubs, and then the cold at night is another threat to their survival,” she said.
In Algosh, a little village where some of her relatives lived, the parish priest went around with a loudspeaker encouraging residents to leave. They had a choice of converting to Islam, paying more tax or being persecuted for their faith.
“Many left with few possessions but, at the checkpoint, the authorities demanded everything apart from the clothes they were wearing. They fled to the next village, only for the Islamic militants to catch up and do the same,” explained Mrs Pedley.
Suhair Pedley with sons George, 11, left, as Quinn, 8, points to Mt Sinjar on the atlas.
Now those people are trapped, stranded and desperate as the world watches.
What has also upset her is the destruction of the historic and ancient grave of Jonah by those terrorists. The grave dates back to the 8th century BC. At the tomb of the biblical prophet Nahum near Elkosh, some have chosen to remain to protect the shrine, risking their own lives.
Mrs Pedley graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Baghdad University.
She left Iraq after the Gulf War and arrived in Auckland in 1994. There she met her husband Neil, and shifted to Wanganui to raise their two homeschooled sons.
For Mrs Pedley, the love she felt from parishioners has helped her grief immensely.
At the evening Mass there was a minute’s silence.