Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan is pictured with the Holy Missionary Choir during a pre-Christmas celebration for Iraqi Syriac Catholic refugee families in Lebanon.
Photo: CNS Toddlers could hardly contain their excitement as they danced in the church aisles to the Holy Missionary Choir’s Christmas songs during a celebration that was a bright star of hope for Iraqi Syriac Catholic refugee families.
While the little ones are too young to know their ancestral roots, Christmas memories for their parents are those of large, joyous extended family gatherings and prosperity in Iraq. Life there centred around the Church, as it still does while they are in exile.
The families are among the more than 100,000 Christians driven out from Iraq’s Ninevah Plain by the Islamic State in the summer of 2014. Lebanon is only an intermediary place in their quest to be resettled to a Western country.
“Even though I am sad, I am very happy to sing in the choir,” said Ranwaq Kajoo of the Iraqi town of Qaraqosh, which was completely emptied of Christians in a single night six years ago. She was proud that her 3-year-old daughter, Darine, also sang a song during the Ss Behnam and Sarah Church gathering on December 12.
“It is very difficult,” Ms Kajoo said of her family’s life in Lebanon as they wait to immigrate to Australia.