October 1, 2004
by Michelle Roemer Schoen
Communications/Publications Office
Princeton Theological Seminary

PRINCETON - Four Princeton Theological Seminary faculty members and Sister Olga Yaqob, a peace activist from the Assyrian Catholic Church of Iraq, will lead a teach-in about the war in Iraq here on Oct. 14 at 7:30 p.m.

Professors George Hunsinger, Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger, Peter Paris, and Mark Taylor will speak, and two seminary students will perform music.

In 2002, Yaqob was sent to the United States by her bishop in Iraq to study spirituality and pastoral ministry at Boston College. She had worked and lived among the poor in Baghdad - both Christian and Muslim - and visited Abu Ghraib prison regularly to pray with prisoners.

After four years of ministry there, she began her own community of religious - the Missionaries of the Virgin Mary, the Assyrian Catholic Church's first new religious community for women in 700 years.

George Hunsinger believes discussion of the situation in Iraq is of utmost importance as the U.S. approaches the presidential election. "Iraq is sliding into chaos and civil war, and the insurgents control the countryside and many cities," he says. "A growing consensus exists that the current U.S. military strategy is hopeless. The administration claims that it has suffered 'no tactical defeats' in Iraq and is actively discussing plans to widen the war into Iran and Syria in a second Bush term. If that happens, a draft will have to be revived."

Mark Taylor points out that the "U.S. media rarely air the voice of Iraqis themselves. Yaqob's voice is a much needed one today, rising from her firsthand experience of the U.S. bombings of Baghdad and from her family's and friends' suffering and hope amid war and occupation."

Yaqob wants to tell Americans that there are many people in her homeland without beds, food, water, or education. "I beg you today as a people of peace to try to educate your nation," she says. "It is time for new insight. We need peace, we need love, we need to see God in each other."

Presbyterian News Service