A suicide truck bomb, which rocked the centre of Baghdad March 8 (Tuesday morning), broke the two remaining stained glass windows of the Baghdad Seventh-day Adventist Church. The concussion from the blast also shattered the floor-to-ceiling window, which separates the parents' room from the worship hall inside the building. The blast occurred close to the Ministry of Agriculture, just 100 metres from the church compound, at around 6.30 am local time. There were no church members inside the building at the time.

The Baghdad church building has now been damaged three times over the last 17 months. A car bomb at the Red Cross building in October 2003, 200 meters from the church, took out several windows and covered some of the church’s office workers with glass. Then in September 2004, a car packed with 150 kg (330 lbs) of explosives was detonated right outside the side entrance of the church, causing US$150,000 worth of damage. Nobody was injured.

The deliberate targeting of the Baghdad Adventist Church last September had prompted church leaders, out of concern for the members’ safety, to cancel Sabbath services and advise members to meet in homes. "A few days ago we were rejoicing that worship services had resumed at the church after the September incident," says Michael Porter, president of the Adventist Church in the Middle East. "Now our Iraqi brothers and sisters must endure another period of uncertainty."

Basim Fargo, secretary for the Adventist Church in Iraq reports that extensive repairs had been undertaken, over the last several months, to replace the entire electrical circuit that was irreparably damaged by the September blast. "We have boarded up windows and done what we can to make the church premises barely usable, but much of the building remains in disrepair." So far, all efforts to secure funding for the repairs have turned up nothing.

"This latest hostile incident, while not specifically targeting the Adventist church, could not have come at a worse time for the morale of our members," laments Homer Trecartin, secretary treasurer for the Adventist Church in the Middle East. Already our church administration in Iraq has received twenty-four requests for membership transfers in 2004. That translates to one Iraqi member in every nine emigrating to a congregation in another country. The indication is that many more have already left without officially transferring their membership. "While we are eager for our members to remain and flourish," says Trecartin, "these latest statistics are hardly surprising. Their daily routine of insecurity is nerve-racking. They cannot see the situation improving. We are praying that the Lord will give Adventist Christians a supernatural courage and make them a force of peace in this land of turmoil."

There are three congregations with more than 200 Seventh-day Adventist members in Iraq, most of who live in Baghdad.

© 2005 Adventist News Review (ANR) / Adventist Press Service (APD).