United in faith: Iraqis celebrate the Feast of Cross

By Federico Piana

A historic moment in Erbil, northern Iraq. In Ankawa, a suburb of the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan located in the north of the country, hundreds of Christians are participating in the Feast of the Cross, which began on Monday, September 9, and will continue until Friday. This joyous event is marked by great hopes, as Christians of various traditions gather for the celebration – Catholic, Orthodox and Assyrian – for the first time united to celebrate the memory of the discovery of the Holy Cross on which our Lord died for the redemption of all.

A moment during the celebrations in Erbil for the feast of the Holy Cross

The central theme of the celebrations is the faith that unites Christians. Every day, they pray in a different church and participate in the various cultural meetings organized in the streets of the neighborhood, made festive by special lights and colors. All these events are part of the preparations for the liturgical feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which will take place on September 14 for churches of the Gregorian calendar or on September 27 for those of the Julian calendar.

At the opening of the festivities on Monday, September 9, a large cross was carried in procession to the Assyrian Church of the East of St. John the Baptist. The solemnity of the celebration was reflected in the hymns sung by the clergy and the faithful holding large lighted candles, a sign not only of praise and worship, but also of sharing and peace. “The churches used to celebrate this commemoration separately each year. But this year is wonderfully different,” said Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda of the Chaldean Catholic Diocese of Erbil, who organized the event with the blessing of Mar Awa III, Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, and the bishops of the Syrian Catholic and Syrian Orthodox churches.

A moment during the celebrations in Erbil for the feast of the Holy Cross

In his speech at the feast, Patriarch Mar Awa III explained how “the celebration of the feast of the Introduction of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ represents an important step in the divine plan in the Church of the East. When we look at the cross, we remember the sufferings of Christ, but also his glorious resurrection from the dead. And when we make the sign of the cross over ourselves, we proclaim our expectation of his second coming and our faith in eternal life.”

Participants in the celebrations of the Holy Cross Feast in Erbil

The celebrations of the Feast of the Holy Cross represent a further and concrete step of ecumenism, to which the Catholic Church attaches great importance, as Pope Francis affirms in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium: “The ecumenical commitment responds to the prayer of the Lord Jesus that ‘all may be one'”.

These events also represent a positive sign for the future of Iraqi Christians: over time, wars, political instability and the rise of the Islamic State have forced thousands of Christians of all faiths to leave the country. Not long ago, Bishop Bashar Matti Warda himself, in the absence of official statistics, declared that “in all of Iraq, there are about 300,000 Christians left”. But hope remains alive despite the decrease in the number of these faithful, as the Ankawa festival proves.