ICC Note: After Prince Charles visited the ceremony at St. Thomas Cathedral and spoke on the plight of suffering Christians in the Middle East, he extended an invitation to three Christian archbishops from Iraq and Syria to meet and talk. All three men were barred from entering the UK this week for various reasons. The UK embassy deemed their visas and intentions unacceptable for entrance into the nation.
12/07/2016 UK (Christian Times): Three Christian archbishops from Iraq and Syria were barred from entering the U.K. despite having an invitation to meet Prince Charles.
Archbishops Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf of Mosul, Timothius Mousa Shamani of St Matthew’s in Nineveh valley of northern Iraq, and Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh of Homs and Hama in Syria were supposed to attend the consecration ceremony of the Syriac Orthodox Cathedral in London, Express reported.
However, they were not able to attend the event because the Home Office deemed their visa applications unacceptable.
Prince Charles attended the ceremony at St. Thomas Cathedral last week and spoke about the suffering of Christians in Syria.
Alnemeh was told by the British embassy that it does not grant visas to anyone in Syria. The archbishops were also told that their application was denied because they may not be capable of supporting themselves financially, and they might stay in the U.K.
Archbishop Athanasius Toma Dawod, the leader of Syriac Orthodox Christians in the U.K., expressed his disappointment about the decision.
“These are men who have pressing pastoral responsibilities as Christian areas held by IS are liberated. That is why we cannot understand why Britain is treating Christians in this way?” said Dawod.
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