Updated twice Monday
All Saints Church, Peshawar which was attacked yesterday by suicide bombers, is a church in the Diocese of Peshawar in the Church of Pakistan.
The diocesan website has information about the tragedy here.
Information about the historic building is here.
The Church of Pakistan is a United Church within the Anglican Communion. More information about its formation on this page. (scroll down).
And there is a blog post by an American priest who knows the church: Peshawar church bombing a condensation of horror and loss. More from Titus Presler via the Living Church here includes After church bombing Edwardes closes for 3 days and empathy abounds and College closes for 3 days in solidarity as church institution after All Saints bombing.
Media reports of the attack:
Karachi News: Twin suicide attacks in Peshawar church claim 81 lives and Peshawar church attack: Probe committee constituted, 81 dead buried. Also Nationwide protests against Peshawar church bombing and Peshawar bombing: Initial report says a warning was already issued.
Guardian: Taliban suicide attack on Pakistani church leaves dozens dead
Telegraph: Suicide bombers kill 60 Christians outside Pakistan church
Independent: Taliban claims responsibility for Peshawar church bombs that killed 78 and Pakistan’s beleaguered Christians fear Peshawar bombing will not be the last such attack
New York Times: Scores Are Killed by Suicide Bomb Attack at Historic Church in Pakistan
Reuters: Suicide bombers kill 78 Christians outside Pakistani church
Updates
Anglican Communion News Service Anglicans worldwide expresses shock, sadness over Pakistan bombings and also Sorrow over church bombings in Pakistan.
Lambeth Palace Archbishop ‘appalled’ by Pakistan church bombings
Kyrie eleison.
Anglicans around the world should come together to support/rebuild this church.
Michael Nazir-Ali was interviewed on Radio 4 this morning and suggested it was time that the international community came together to protect religious minorities in Pakistan, Egypt, Syria and Irak, just as it had done during the Balkans conflict.
Many thanks, Simon, for putting these series of links up on Thinking Anglicans.
Al Jazeera has just reported Pakistani Christians’ protests today:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/09/201392391826858810.html
Humanity reaches for the stars while our feet are hopelessly, intractably stuck in the mud of ignorance, bigotry, intolerance.
Religions teach the kinship of all humanity — while at the same time all too often preaching “except for ‘those’ people!”
Kyrie eleison, indeed.
Remarkably, I’ve known 2 people from Peshawar in the course of my life, and one of them was a Christian (who I knew briefly as a coworker, a muralist and sign painter who specialized in movie ads in Pakistan; since imagery was forbidden to Muslims, most of the sign painters were Christian).
Christians are a very small minority in that city who lived peaceably with their Muslim neighbors for centuries.
My prayers for that small and now bereaved community.
I wonder if we can put 2 and 2 together to make 4. America has been attacking Pakistan for years with drones and killing huge numbers of civilians. At the last count US drones have killed about 170 children, more than twice as many as the total death count in this bombing. America is a Christian Country. Pakistan militants want to get back at the Christians, and do this sort of thing. I am not condoning the bombing, but trying to understand it. I think there is a parable somewhere about motes and beams. I don’t think you can condemn… Read more »
” I don’t think you can condemn this bombing, and fail to condemn the much larger death toll from the US drone campaign, or not make the link between them.” If it is OK for Pakistani Muslims to bomb Christian churches in response to US drone attacks, would you have been so sanguine had mosques in the USA been targeted in the aftermath on 9/11? Do you think that British citizens visiting Japan should shoot a few civilians in reprisal for the Burma Railroad? We had a German exchange student staying last week: should I have talked more about the… Read more »
Simon, I think I understand the feeling, but there simply is no equivalence here. Drone attacks are directed at fighters with the agreement of a legitimately constituted army, even if the strikes sometimes fail (and I’m not saying I’m in favour) because these guys don’t play by the normal rules of armed engagement. Those who blew up the church (and more often than not methodically kill innocent Muslim civilians too) deliberately target innocent civilians in huge numbers. Stop reading the Guardian.
Lorenzo. “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist” Dom Helder Camara – liberation theologian. “When I pray for the persecuted Christians they support me. When I ask why the Christians are being persecuted they call me a Guardian Reader.” Simon Dawson I am proud to be a Guardian Reader, they have quite a few successes (Jonathan Aitken, BAE bribery and corruption, phone hacking, and now the GCHQ story) but I also read a wide range of other papers. Try this Daily Telegraph article… Read more »
I truly believe Simon is accurate. Whatever the rationale of the drone attacks, good or bad, it necessarily has repercussions. All actions have consequences, and it is not helpful for us to rationalize away differences between a drone attack and a church bombing. Of course there are differences. If I spit into a strong wind, spit and wind are two very different things, but I will get spit in my face – unless I’m very quick. Even when/if we are justified in making war, there will always be negative consequences. We cannot shirk our responsibility when they come. For disclosure… Read more »
I don’t hold a brief for the drone strikes at all. Their legality – and their effectiveness – are highly questionable. But I am with Interested Observer on this. Acknowledging a link between drone strikes and this bombing is very much like seeing attacks on Muslims and mosques in the UK in the aftermath of the murder of Drummer Rigby in Woolwich, as a predictable response. What is more important is the status of Pakistani Christians. They have been a loyal and integral community in that country from the start. Many of the Pakistani Air Force heroes of the wars… Read more »
Sam, Evil is evil. No one is making excuses. It is also an effect of a cause. What you argue is, I believe, tangential to what I am saying. I know nothing about the murder of this Rigby person and nothing about the mosque attacks, so I don’t know. However, evil can also be a compounded evil. Evil can – and most frequently is – the effect of evil. No one accuses the churches for having been attacked. No one (here) is questioning their loyalty to Pakistan. I don’t see any convoluted reasoning, here – we like to present ourselves,… Read more »
I sometimes read the Guardian too, that was tongue in cheek, but I still think that if we allow ourselves to believe that without drone strikes Islamist would not target Christian or Jewish minorities, we delude ourselves: Mali, Sudan, Nigeria, Indonesia… the list is very long.