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Her Mentula Cōleī BaptismA Series in 17 parts, By Blacksheep. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Christmas was fast approaching, and festive events were in full swing at St. Michael's Church."Well not long to go until Jesus' birthday," Reverend Morris smiled as he and Jenna finished putting up their Christmas decorations. "Just two weeks. Which reminds me, there's another very special person's birthday a week before the festive season, ""Oh yes. I'd forgotten!" Jenna replied."Jenna my love, it's your 21st! You can't forget something like that. I want it to be a truly memorable birthday for you. Is there anything in particular you'd really, really like? Please give it some thought. Turning 21 is a milestone.""I will Simon. But I pretty much have everything I've ever wanted already," she smiled, slipping her arms round him.Later, Jenna was engrossed in reading something on her smartphone."Imagine that," she whispered to herself.Noticing her excitement, Reverend Morris became curious."What's grabbed your attention, Jen?"" Mentula Cōleī Baptism," she blurted out, without thinking.Her husband looked confused. "Pardon?""Oh! It's nothing. Just an old fertility rite of the Eastern Orthodox, in some Asian nations! The Japanese call it bukkake. The loose translation of ‘Mentula Cōleī' is ‘cock & balls'. And it follows the Anglican tradition of sprinkling. Er, would you like a cup of tea?”"Sure."Later, when Jenna was having a shower, Reverend Morris picked up his phone. "Bukkake, she said. How does one spell that, then?" He typed into the browser. Boocaka? Bookaki? Bukacay? On the third attempt, the browser's autocorrect suggested the correct term."Oh, so that's how it's spelt. He clicked on a Wikipedia link. "Good God!" He spluttered, as he read all about the act. When he'd finished, he chuckled to himself. "You learn something new every day. The Internet never disappoints, "At the Wednesday Eucharist, Gordon had just finished the recessional hymn. The midweek service always had a lower turnout than the Sunday service, but numbers had been steadily increasing all year."Morning Gordon," Reverend Morris said, appearing at the side of the organ."Oh hello vicar," the organist replied. "Quite full today. I don't know, the news says that Christianity is declining in this country but this church seems to be the exception.""It does, and that pleases me greatly. I can't speak for all churches in England, but knowing that our community here at St. Michael's is thriving, well it lifts my heart. I tend not to pay much attention to the news these days. Too depressing. Difficult times for so many. Strikes, cost of living and all that. Oh and England getting knocked out of the World Cup.""Mmm, yes," Gordon nodded. "Couldn't care less about football. I never watch it. Horse racing is my thing. How's Jenna and Christopher?""Oh they're both fine, actually I need to discuss something important with you, Gordon. Jenna's 21st birthday is next week. I was wondering if you could help me with something?""Certainly, vicar!" He replied, switching off the light above the organ's keyboards. "Happy to help in any way I can.""Okay, but not here. Come to my study right now, please.""Right you are," Gordon said. He didn't even have time to remove his robe and hang it up in the vestry. He was intrigued. The way the vicar was summoning him to the study sounded a bit ominous. He felt like a kid at school being summoned to the headmaster in order to receive a punishment. He meekly followed the vicar down the aisle."Close the door if you please," Reverend Morris said, as he beckoned the organist into the study. Gordon did as he asked, and was surprised to find Josh the curate, Father Aiden, Bishop George and Norman Winstanley the new churchwarden all waiting."Eh, what's all this, vicar?" Gordon exclaimed. "A lads-only party?""Gentlemen," Reverend Morris began. "I've invited you here because you are trusted spiritual mentors; and trusted friends of mine. As servants of God, you all have your own important tasks to perform. Now what I am about to ask you, requires a great deal of trust. As good Christians, I wonder if you'll be able to fulfil this very unique anointing ceremony a parishioner has requested."Father Aiden crossed himself. "I am always ready to do the Lord's work.""Me too," Gordon said. "And if there's free beer included, well that's a bonus!""Well this task concerns Jenna, my wife."The men in the study all fell silent. There was a great deal of shuffling feet and awkward coughs!One week later,"Where are we going, Simon?" Jenna asked, as he got into the car. She assumed they were going to a restaurant."The church. Just a little birthday surprise."When they arrived, Reverend Morris requested that Jenna close her eyes."Absolutely no peeking!" He said as he led her down the aisle."This is so exciting!" Jenna said. "Let me guess, the whole congregation of St. Michael's are going to leap out and yell Happy Birthday, right?""Close, but no cigar!" The vicar replied. "Now, just sit on this stool, "Father Aiden was driving down the high street, on his way to St. Michael's Church. His heart was pounding like crazy."I can't believe I agreed to take part in this," he mumbled to himself. "Lord in heaven, why am I doing this? Haven't I sinned enough already?"He fiddled with the car radio. Most of the stations were planning Christmas songs 24/7 now. Chris's Rea's Driving Home for Christmas started playing. This was the third time today he'd heard this song. Passing a Tesco Express store, Father Aiden decided he needed some Dutch courage before he could partake in the special "celebration" at the church. A cheap bottle of whiskey or gin would suffice. Parking up, he hurried into the store and walked straight into a woman who was loaded up with shopping."I'm so sorry!" He exclaimed, picking up the tube of gift wrap she'd dropped."Aiden?"He froze and looked up. "Róisín?""My God! It is you! I can't believe it!" the red-haired woman gasped."W-what are you doing in this neck of the woods?" Father Aiden said. "Did you leave Liverpool?""Sure did. I've jumped ship. I'm at the Living Earth Free Church now and I'm loving every minute. I've become a vicar, well they call us leaders. It suits me just fine. What about you, are you still with the Catholic Church?"The priest looked awkwardly at her. "Erm, sort of. I've been fighting a conflict with myself these past couple of weeks."Róisín smiled at him. "You think your future lies elsewhere?"He took a deep breath. "Maybe?"She put down her shopping bags and took his hand. "I've never stopped thinking about you, Aiden. I know you broke things off because you couldn't break your celibacy vows, ""Oh but that's the thing. I fled Liverpool and moved to this town, and the first thing I did was to break my celibacy vows, "Róisín's face fell. "Oh, so you've met someone?""Uh, No. It was just a, one-off. But it made me think that I'm just not cut out for a celibate life. And because of that, I can't continue in my current profession.""Well you're too attractive for that."A blush spread across the priest's face. "Would you like to go for a drink?""Thought you'd never ask! Let me dump this stuff in the car and then I'm all yours!""Sorry Jenna," Father Aiden said to himself as he slipped his arm around Róisín and they strolled into the town center. "But I'm sure you'll have fun without me. Thanks for helping me see the light though."Jenna could hear muffled whisperings and several male voices. She wondered what was going to happen next. "Can I look yet?""No not yet," Reverend Morris replied. "Just a sec, " The vicar ushered Gordon, Josh, Bishop George and Norman in front of the altar, where several candles has been lit. "Where's Father Aiden?""Guess he chickened out?" Gordon muttered. "Maybe he's in a confession booth? Ha-ha!""Oh well, fair enough. It was a lot to ask, Okay Jenna, you can open your eyes now!"Jenna opened her eyes, to see the organist, the curate, the Bishop, and the churchwarden all stood round her. Gordon was wearing his best suit and the black robe he wore when playing the organ, andJosh was wearing his cassock and surplice."Oh my. Good evening, boys!" She said. "Are you all here to wish me Happy Birthday?""We certainly are," Gordon grinned, rubbing his crotch. "We're here to give you the most memorable birthday ever, eh chaps? As it's a special one, and you're a very special lass, Jenna!""Aww, you're all so sweet," Jenna replied, still not aware of what was about to happen. "I love being part of this church.""And you've brought so much happiness to it," Reverend Morris said. Now it's time for us to repay your kindness." He nodded at Gordon and the others. "Now don't keep my lovely wife waiting, she's eager to be baptized!""Huh?" Jenna blinked. "Baptized?"Gordon volunteered to go first. He unzipped his trousers and pulled out his cock. "Come on lads, don't be shy, eh?" Seconds later, Josh and Bishop George did the same. Norman hesitated a moment, but finally followed suit and unzipped. Jenna's mouth dropped in amazement as four delicious erect cocks were pointed right at her. She was too stunned to speak, and turned to Reverend Morris, who was standing back from the others, and also wearing church vestments."This is our 21st birthday present to you," the vicar said. "A Mentula Cōleī Baptism." It's been part of early Assyrian Christian marriage ceremonies in Asia, to anoint a young bride's womb, before the couple consummates. The church elders would meet with the couple after the public ceremony vows, to anoint the virgin."Oh, my, God" Jenna gasped. "Simon, how?"The reverend simply put his hands together, as though in prayer. "I asked God for help in getting you the perfect present. He knows everything, you see. I'm just sorry that Father Aiden decided to opt out, and unfortunately the Archbishop of Canterbury was unavailable as he's currently in Ukraine. John Wesley's ghost, well one cannot book a last-minute appointment with the dead, alas. But I hope those of us that are here will satisfy you?"Jenna licked her lips. "Hell yes!" She knelt down before them. "Oh Gordon, I see you've got an organ pipe that needs blowing," she said as she pulled down his trousers and briefs and squeezed his erection. "Let's see if you can hit the right notes.""I always hit the right notes," he chuckled. "Especially when you're playing my instrument, ""Umm. You're an organist who always entertains," she commented as she lowered her mouth over the end of his cock.Jenna sucked on the head, tasting him as she ran her tongue over the sensitive opening, while pumping the shaft with her hand. She took more and more of his hardness into her mouth until she felt him hit the back of her throat. She relaxed and pushed on until she had his whole member in her mouth and she was nuzzling his silvery pubic hair. He groaned as he grabbed the back of her head and thrust into her mouth.Reverend Morris watched in admiration and amazement as his wife expertly sucked the organist's cock. Gordon was quite well-endowed, but that was no challenge to Jenna. Seeing her pleasuring another man like this had got him as hard as a rock. He massaged his erection through his cassock and surplice. Could she cope with more than one man though?Josh was growing impatient, and his cock was desperate for attention. "Fancy trying some younger meat, Jenna? I think you've fully re-tuned the organist's organ.""Don't rush the lass," Gordon sighed. "Wait your turn, lad!""I'm sure you can't wait to taste it," he said as he pushed his throbbing shaft in her face.Jenna didn't hesitate, she removed Gordon's cock and Josh pushed his erection deep into her mouth. He grabbed her head and she began sucking him hard."Oh yeah! Praise the Lord! Oh I'm coming!""So soon?" Gordon chuckled. You younger fellas have no endurance!""Now now, enough of that," Jenna said. Play nice." She unbuttoned her blouse, exposing her pert breasts. "Mmm, give me some cum, Josh!"The sight of her tits pushed the curate over the edge and he erupted, glazing them with his hot seed."So delicious! Thanks so much Josh. What an impressive load. No longer shy I see! Like I said, you'll make one hell of a vicar one day!" Jenna felt an intense tingling sensation of arousal and a moistening in her pussy. The crotch of her panties turned a darker shade of red as her nectar seeped out of her and soaked them. Reaching under her skirt, she began fingering herself."We vicars produce more cum, right?" Reverend Morris chuckled, jacking off in the background."Hell yes.""Organists produce a lot too," Gordon interrupted. "Oh fuck, now I'm coming, Jenna, .oh!"Jets of creamy white cum surged forth through the air from the tip of Gordon's thick "organ pipe." As the first of them struck Jenna's pale skin she could feel the warmth of the virile seed upon her face. More strands of spunk splashed across her cheeks. A jet catching her on the nose quickly dripped down across her lips and chin and filled her nostrils with its tangy odor. Jenna could feel the thick sticky goo mess her red hair. Jizz ran down her forehead in rivulets joining the cum on her nose and cheeks or getting stuck in a gooey mess in her eyelashes. By now her eyes were closing somewhat as she reached her own orgasm. Letting out a mewling moan she came to the plastering of her face with the organist's cum."Cum cantibus in choro. Cum canticis et organo!" Jenna yelled."I should know what that means, but I don't," Gordon panted."It translates as "let the organ thunder, let voice and organ sing."Gordon was smug, knowing that it was his spunk that had made her climax. "Latin is full of cum isn't it? How marvelous!""Wow Jenna, I'm impressed." Bishop George smiled, calmly presenting his cock to her. "You're an expert at playing the pipe organ. But now I have a bishop for you to bash.""Right Reverend, it is an honor to get my hands on your crosier again," Jenna said, pulling his trousers down."Bloody hell, are you wearing ladies' knickers Bish?" Gordon interrupted, noticing the pink panties. "You kinky bugger.""High ranking clergy need to be comfortable under their cassocks!" Bishop George replied. "Ah, Oh my God!" Jenna gently took hold of his shaft with one dainty hand and began to stroke his length. At the same time her lips slipped down to his balls and she began to suck gently upon one of them. When she took the entire orb into her mouth the bishop groaned as he felt her tongue began to tease the tender flesh. He could scarcely believe that this was happening, that the parish vicar's wife was on her knees before him sucking his pastoral staff in the church!Jenna took care to alternate from one of the bishop's plums to another as she stroked up and down his length with one hand. Droplets of precum had begun to escape the tip of his cock and she could feel them dripping down onto her forehead. She began to lick a wavy trail along the underside of his shaft moving her tongue from side to side as she worked her way towards the tip of his prick. When she reached the base of his head she opened her mouth, her tongue still touching his cock-head, and gripping at the base of his shaft she worked her hand down along his length forcing the precum out and straight onto her tongue."Wow," Reverend Morris said. "She's amazing. Taking the Bishop as well!""Blessed, " Bishop George said, closing his eyes and putting his bony hands together. "Jenna, I anoint thee!" He may have been the oldest man of the group, but he produced a tremendous amount of cum. Jenna hurriedly cast off her sticky blouse, just in time to be baptized in Bishop George's holy jizz. she almost wasn't prepared for the huge volume of cum he released, and this was far from over!"Oh dear Lord, Reverend!" She moaned, as the copious dollop of man-juice coated her face, breasts and belly, just about everywhere, mixing with the cum already released by Josh and Gordon. It was so viscous and creamy, fuck! Jenna was in ecstasy! She'd never imagined bukkake would be as good as this, and in the church, well that just made it even better! The candlelight reflected off her glazed breasts. It was all so overwhelming and she came a second time."Ready for some more, little vixen?" Norman the churchwarden said, offering his cock to her. "I'll tell you a Frank Carson joke. So, an Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotsman walk into a bar. The barman looks at them and says: "Is this some kind of a joke?"Jenna giggled. "This cock of yours is no joke, Norman!" She grabbed it with both hands. "You've been good haven't you? Keeping your hands to yourself?""I kept my promise. I'd like to get my hands on you though. I think you'd better slip out of that skirt. It's already spunked up. Any chance I could squeeze that arse of yours?""I want you to cum all over my arse cheeks, Norman. Think you can manage that?""Is the Pope a Catholic?" Norman replied.Jenna slipped out of her skirt and tossed it on a pew. Now she was wearing nothing except a pair of drenched red panties, and her high-heeled sandals. Her tongue darted out as she licked the churchwarden's cock the way a cat licks up cream. Every inch of his shaft got the hallowed treatment as she expertly fellated him. She rubbed her nose and face against his balls, making him groan with joy."Bet that's more fun than guiding the flock to communion, right?" Gordon said."Not half!" Norman panted.Sensing he was about to come, Jenna removed his cock and turned round. Pulling her panties down, she presented her rear to him and Norman responded, sliding his cock against her welcoming arse cheeks."Alleluia!" Norman yelled. He hot-dogged her for a bit, but then his cock erupted, and thick spunk blasted across her tight buns. The salty goo coated her arse entirely, running down her thighs and dripping onto the church floor. Norman's cock twitched some more, spewing out some final strands of cum across Jenna's lower back."Mmm, that feels so good, Norman! Look at me! I'm covered in cum. This is wonderful! I love this so much! Oh thank you all so much!""Happy 21st Birthday Jenna," all four men said. Gordon walked over, wiped Jenna's face with a tissue and gave her a passionate French kiss. "You're amazing. Thanks for everything you've done for us."Next, Josh did the same. Bishop George kissed her on the lips and both cheeks. "A Holy Trinity Kiss for you," he said. Finally, Norman kissed her, and managed to give her arse a pinch at the same time."The birthday ceremony isn't quite over yet," Reverend Morris said, walking over and helping his wife to her feet. "Gordon, organ music if you please!""Right you are, vicar," the organist smiled, zipping up his trousers and hurrying over to the organ. The vicar nodded at Josh and Norman."Gentlemen. Please move the candles."They did as asked, and before Jenna could say anything, Reverend Morris gathered her up in his arms and laid her on top of the altar. Slowly, he slid off her red panties and handed them to Bishop George.Gordon began playing the great hymn of Charles Wesley, "And Can It Be", Jenna's favorite hymn."And now, allow me to give you my gift, my love!" Reverend Morris said. He spread Jenna's legs apart, fumbled with his surplice and cassock and freed his cock. Without hesitation he slid in and began to thrust inside her. Jenna moaned as her folds spread around her husband's holy rod. Nothing could have prepared her for being fucked on the altar! Following up his initial thrust the vicar began to pound his wife harder and deeper. Josh, Bishop George and Norman stood in front of the altar, holding the candles and singing the hymn.It didn't take long for Jenna to orgasm a third time. The organ sound, the lust-filled faces of the curate, bishop and churchwarden staring at her, her husband's thrusts, it sent her over the edge. As she came her eyes rolled back and her tongue hung limply from one side of her mouth. Reverend Morris grabbed her by the back of her head, his fingers wrapping in her sticky, cum-filled red hair, kissing her lips passionately. She was still cumming when he joined her. With a groan and uttering a quick muffled prayer to the Lord, he came, shooting his sacred seed inside her. While still buried inside her, cum began to overflow out around his cock, dripping on to the white cloth that covered the altar.Reverend Morris withdrew his cock, and spewed the last drops of his cum across Jenna's face. Extending a finger, he coated the tip in his jizz and marked the sign of the cross on Jenna's forehead."Happy Birthday Jenna, my love! I hope your present was all that you hoped it would be?"Jenna was so giddy, exhausted and overwhelmed, she could barely speak. A massive grin spread her face."It was the best birthday present ever! Thanks be to God!"Oh Cum All Ye FaithfulChristmas Eve had arrived, but over at St. Michael's vicarage, Reverend Morris was in a bit of a panic."Oh dear, what terrible timing," he sighed, as he put down his smartphone."What's up?" Jenna asked, handing him a glass of mulled wine. "Is it about tonight's carol service?""Unless I can find an organist willing to step in for Gordon, I'm afraid we'll be forced to have a rather muted carol service, with only the piano!" The vicar sighed.A look of horror spread across Jenna's face. "Oh no, Gordon! Is he okay?""Gordon's fine. It's his cousin Barry, who lives in Yorkshire. He's taken a tumble on some ice and broken his ankle. He's recovering at home, but he lives alone and can't manage by himself over Christmas. His daughter Lisa, lives in Florida. So Gordon has decided to stay with him until after the new year, when Lisa will be flying over.""Aww. That's so kind of him. Nobody should be on their own at Christmas. Let's hope Barry makes a speedy recovery. But the carol service just won't be the same without Gordon playing the organ. He's, taught me a lot, but I'm not up the standard where I can play fluently during a church service yet! The organ is so complicated."In truth, Jenna had spent rather more time playing Gordon's 8 inch organ rather than the church organ. "Simon, I'll gladly play the piano at the service, although you're right, it'll be feeble-sounding by comparison."Reverend Morris sighed. "I really appreciate that, my love. People are expecting a fantastic Christmas service this year, to make up for the two years we lost due to the pandemic. With all the bad news recently, they need cheering up. I've been going on about the carol service for weeks, promoting it online, putting ads in the gazette. I even forked out for an ad on the local radio. You simply can't have Hark the Herald Angels and O Come All Ye Faithful played on anything else but a pipe organ!""Is there nobody else who could take Gordon's place?""Not at such short notice. The service is only seven hours away! I phoned Tom Fishwick who used to play at St. Paul's, but he lives ten miles away and can't drive. He can't get here due to the train strikes. So I tried Sundeep Kapoor over at the Living Earth Free Church, but he's at home suffering from a chest infection, plus his cat has developed ringworm, so he's stressed out about that."Jenna groaned. "What a nightmare.""That just leaves Raymond Wilson, the organist at Oakwood Road Methodist Church. Oakwood had its carol service this morning, so he might be available. But, ""But what? Get on that phone pronto, Simon!""Raymond's notoriously difficult to work with," Reverend Morris replied. "I don't like to speak ill of people, but I'm not that keen on him. He's rude and awkward. A bit of an Ebenezer Scrooge."Gordon used to be a bit like that, before I was able to cheer him up, Jenna smirked to herself. "Oh I see. I wonder why he's like that?""Some people are just like that, and I don't think Raymond's that keen on Christmas anyway.""I don't mind speaking to him," Jenna said. "He doesn't scare me!"The vicar perked up. "Would you? I confess the last time I spoke to him on the phone, I got a tirade of abuse.""Leave it to me," the wily redhead replied, although she wasn't planning to speak to him by phone."I must dash, Jen. I've got to head over to the church hall and drop these foodbank items off, then I'm going to take this shopping round to Mrs. Grimes.""Don't wear yourself out, Simon. Big day tomorrow! Our first Christmas together, and my parents, your parents, Lucy, Debbie and Christopher will be joining us for dinner. It'll be so nice for Christopher to have a big family Christmas.""I always have the Lord's work to do!" Reverend Morris laughed, hurrying out. "Love you. See you later!"Jenna smiled to herself as she looked through the address book. "So this organist is like Scrooge is he?" She said as she found Raymond Wilson's home address. "Well Scrooge was redeemed in the end, after he saw the three ghosts. Oh that reminds me. Home Alone and the Alistair Sim version of A Christmas Carol are on later. Must make sure the TV is set to record them."Raymond Wilson had arrived home after playing the organ at Oakwood's carol service. He poured himself a brandy and slumped in an armchair. A tall skinny man, who looked to be in need of a good meal. He was fifty, but looked a lot older. Years of being hunched over playing the Methodist church's organ had left him with a stoop. In recent years, he'd let his white hair grow long until it was almost on his shoulders."Thank God that's over for another year," he muttered. He reached over to the side table and pressed the flashing button on the answerphone. There were two new messages.Beep"Hi Ray. It's Steve. Brandi and I really hope you can visit us for Christmas dinner tomorrow. Brandi's going to cook this time. I taught her how to use the microwave. See you about half-three. Love you!"Beep"Ray, it's Terry. The kids and I are gonna call round tomorrow morning to exchange presents. Noah's hoping Santa's going to bring him the latest Pokémon game. You did get Pokémon Scarlet didn't you? Oh and Mia has her heart set on that Bluey plush. Remember that? The big ones that they sell at the Asda Shop. Don't get any cheap fake stuff off the market stalls. Those soft toys that the Bulgarian guy with the gold tooth sells? Well they tend to have wraps of cocaine inside them, Okay, bye for now!"Raymond drank his brandy. "Bloody kids," he moaned. His younger brother's children were notoriously spoilt, and never wanted to spend any time with him, unless he had some money or a toy to give.He hadn't much time for his cousin Steve either, or his new wife, an airhead former porn star named Brandi Snaps.Raymond was dozing in his chair when the doorbell rang. "This had better not be another of those damned cold callers, ""Raymond Wilson? Hello!" Jenna smiled. She was wearing a Santa hat. Over a white top she had on a red Christmas jumper, bearing a slogan, "Pull My Cracker!" The tight sweater revealed the curves of her perky C-cup tits quite nicely and got her nearly as much attention as her skirt. The short pleated green skirt was just long enough to tease while leaving a good portion of her smooth white thighs visible. Then completing the look she had on a pair of long white socks that came up to a few inches above her knees and black patent leather shoes."Who are you?""I'm the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Cum, " she grinned. Blimey, he really does resemble Scrooge! She thought."Look I'm not in the mood for carol singers," Raymond muttered. He was about to close the door, but she quickly stopped him."I'm Jenna, wife of Reverend Morris over at St. Michael's. I came here because we really need your help!""Huh?" Raymond blinked, looking her up and down. "You're an improvement on his previous wife. So how can I help?""Please may I come in?" Jenna said. "It's so cold out here and my legs are freezing!""You should wear some tights instead of socks," Raymond replied. "Come in. I suppose you'll want a brew?""Oh no thank you, I won't trouble you," Jenna said, sitting opposite him on the couch. "I came to ask you a favor." She told him the church's predicament, and how they were in desperate need of an organist.Raymond folded his arms. "That's a big ask, Mrs. Morris. I've just done the service at Oakwood. It's bloody hard work you know.""Jenna, please call me Jenna. Look, my husband will pay you well. And I will make it worth your while too." She uncrossed her legs, and noticed him shift around in his armchair."How exactly will you make it worth my while? This sounds like bribery." He was starting to feel uncomfortable. He was pretty sure she wasn't wearing any underwear!"Picture the scene, Raymond. A Christmas carol service that's damp squib. Scores of disappointed people expecting to hear the rousing sound of a pipe organ, and instead having to endure the frail tinkling of a humble upright piano, that is long overdue for retuning. Picture the scene at next Christmas Eve. Nobody turning up at our church after last year's disappointment. I don't think my poor husband could bear the shame, ""Oh where's my small violin?" Raymond sarcastically replied."And I've been a good girl all year long!" Jenna continued. She put on her best pouty face and added a bit of a whine to her voice. That of course was a lie worthy of a politician. Standing up, she walked over and pressed her tight arse straight down at the middle of his lap. Pressing down, she gently ground her backside up against him as her hands came to rest on his knees."What the, Mrs, Jenna, this is hardly appropriate!" Raymond spluttered, but his erection prodded up between the curves of her arse, despite his protestations."I don't do appropriate when times are as desperate as this," Jenna sighed. As she spoke she reached a hand behind her and groped his crotch."Oh my God," Raymond groaned. He fumbled and unzipped his black trousers. Gripping his shaft tenderly, Jenna began to stroke his thick long cock. She could hear him whimper with arousal as she teased him."It's true about organists. They all have such impressive instruments!" She giggled."Uh, could I stand up?" Raymond gasped, and she let him. She helped slide his trousers down, pulling his white boxer briefs down with them. Her eyes lit up when she saw his cock spring up upon being freed from containment. This "organ pipe" was perfectly sufficient to sate her carnal designs."What a big instrument!""This is so wrong." Raymond panted, though his body clearly had other feelings on the subject."It's a necessary sin," Jenna replied. She reached down and cupped his hairy balls with one hand while wrapping her fingers around the base of his cock and bringing her face in close to it. Her seductive eyes looked up into his as she pursed her cherry red lips and kissed the organist's fat cock head.It had been a long time since Raymond had experienced any sexual pleasure, having been divorced for many years. He'd never enjoyed a blowjob half as good as this, however. It was almost more than he could stand. Seeing this stunning twentysomething vicar's wife gobbling on his dick had him on the verge of spewing his load right down her throat. Sensing he was close, Jenna pulled his cock out of her mouth and stood up. Pushing him down onto the couch, she straddled him. Raymond's cock teased past her entrance and deep into her pussy. Once he was inside he began to fuck her hard."Oh God yes, Raymond, give it to me! She was delighted with the stamina of this man. To look at him, you'd think he was a frail chap who could be felled by a faint breeze. Never judge a book by its cover. In his twenties, Raymond had been a notorious bare-knuckle fighter.Jenna's yells sent the organist over the edge. With one last thrust, he groaned out loud as his balls surrendered their gift and his thick jizz spurted out inside her."Umm, oh Raymond! Fill me up, Raymond! Feels so good! Oh my God, I'm coming! Ah!"When they'd both calmed down a little, she pulled up off his cock till it slipped all the way out. She stood up straight and closed her thighs, feeling his spunk oozing out of her. "So, Raymond. Will you play the organ at the carol service at St. Michael's tonight? It starts at 6.30. If you could be there at 6, that would be perfect. I'll be directing the choir.""I'll do it. No problem, I'll be there, no problem." Raymond panted, completely dazed. "Tell, your husband, .I'll, .do it for free, ""Aww, I can't thank you enough, Raymond. You're so sweet." Jenna kissed him. "Goodwill to all men, (that includes women too), now that's the true spirit of Christmas, isn't it? Right, I'd better get going. I'll see you later, at the church!"The Christmas Eve carol service at St. Michael's had a bigger attendance than Reverend Morris could ever have hoped for. The church was so packed, that extra chairs had to be provided. For two brief hours, everyone who attended had a superb time and were able to experience comfort and joy, and it more than made up for the two Christmases that had been ruined by the pandemic. During the interval, mince pies and mulled wine were provided.Raymond Wilson performed his duties as an organist to perfection and literally pulled out all the stops. He was true to his word. The St. Michael's organ was much larger than the one he usually played, but it didn't faze him. Thanks to Jenna, he learned to love Christmas again. Like Scrooge, he became "as good a man as the old city ever knew."God bless us, every one!To be continued.By Blacksheep, for Literotica.

 Her Mentula Cōleī BaptismA Series in 17 parts, By Blacksheep. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Christmas was fast approaching, and festive events were in full swing at St. Michael's Church."Well not long to go until Jesus' birthday," Reverend Morris smiled as he and Jenna finished putting up their Christmas decorations. "Just two weeks. Which reminds me, there's another very special person's birthday a week before the festive season, ""Oh yes. I'd forgotten!" Jenna replied."Jenna my love, it's your 21st! You can't forget something like that. I want it to be a truly memorable birthday for you. Is there anything in particular you'd really, really like? Please give it some thought. Turning 21 is a milestone.""I will Simon. But I pretty much have everything I've ever wanted already," she smiled, slipping her arms round him.Later, Jenna was engrossed in reading something on her smartphone."Imagine that," she whispered to herself.Noticing her excitement, Reverend Morris became curious."What's grabbed your attention, Jen?"" Mentula Cōleī Baptism," she blurted out, without thinking.Her husband looked confused. "Pardon?""Oh! It's nothing. Just an old fertility rite of the Eastern Orthodox, in some Asian nations! The Japanese call it bukkake. The loose translation of ‘Mentula Cōleī'  is ‘cock & balls'. And it follows the Anglican tradition of sprinkling. Er, would you like a cup of tea?”"Sure."Later, when Jenna was having a shower, Reverend Morris picked up his phone. "Bukkake, she said. How does one spell that, then?" He typed into the browser. Boocaka? Bookaki? Bukacay? On the third attempt, the browser's autocorrect suggested the correct term."Oh, so that's how it's spelt. He clicked on a Wikipedia link. "Good God!" He spluttered, as he read all about the act. When he'd finished, he chuckled to himself. "You learn something new every day. The Internet never disappoints, "At the Wednesday Eucharist, Gordon had just finished the recessional hymn. The midweek service always had a lower turnout than the Sunday service, but numbers had been steadily increasing all year."Morning Gordon," Reverend Morris said, appearing at the side of the organ."Oh hello vicar," the organist replied. "Quite full today. I don't know, the news says that Christianity is declining in this country but this church seems to be the exception.""It does, and that pleases me greatly. I can't speak for all churches in England, but knowing that our community here at St. Michael's is thriving, well it lifts my heart. I tend not to pay much attention to the news these days. Too depressing. Difficult times for so many. Strikes, cost of living and all that. Oh and England getting knocked out of the World Cup.""Mmm, yes," Gordon nodded. "Couldn't care less about football. I never watch it. Horse racing is my thing. How's Jenna and Christopher?""Oh they're both fine, actually I need to discuss something important with you, Gordon. Jenna's 21st birthday is next week. I was wondering if you could help me with something?""Certainly, vicar!" He replied, switching off the light above the organ's keyboards. "Happy to help in any way I can.""Okay, but not here. Come to my study right now, please.""Right you are," Gordon said. He didn't even have time to remove his robe and hang it up in the vestry. He was intrigued. The way the vicar was summoning him to the study sounded a bit ominous. He felt like a kid at school being summoned to the headmaster in order to receive a punishment. He meekly followed the vicar down the aisle."Close the door if you please," Reverend Morris said, as he beckoned the organist into the study. Gordon did as he asked, and was surprised to find Josh the curate, Father Aiden, Bishop George and Norman Winstanley the new churchwarden all waiting."Eh, what's all this, vicar?" Gordon exclaimed. "A lads-only party?""Gentlemen," Reverend Morris began. "I've invited you here because you are trusted spiritual mentors; and trusted friends of mine. As servants of God, you all have your own important tasks to perform. Now what I am about to ask you, requires a great deal of trust. As good Christians, I wonder if you'll be able to fulfil this very unique anointing ceremony a parishioner has requested."Father Aiden crossed himself. "I am always ready to do the Lord's work.""Me too," Gordon said. "And if there's free beer included, well that's a bonus!""Well this task concerns Jenna, my wife."The men in the study all fell silent. There was a great deal of shuffling feet and awkward coughs!One week later,"Where are we going, Simon?" Jenna asked, as he got into the car. She assumed they were going to a restaurant."The church. Just a little birthday surprise."When they arrived, Reverend Morris requested that Jenna close her eyes."Absolutely no peeking!" He said as he led her down the aisle."This is so exciting!" Jenna said. "Let me guess, the whole congregation of St. Michael's are going to leap out and yell Happy Birthday, right?""Close, but no cigar!" The vicar replied. "Now, just sit on this stool, "Father Aiden was driving down the high street, on his way to St. Michael's Church. His heart was pounding like crazy."I can't believe I agreed to take part in this," he mumbled to himself. "Lord in heaven, why am I doing this? Haven't I sinned enough already?"He fiddled with the car radio. Most of the stations were planning Christmas songs 24/7 now. Chris's Rea's Driving Home for Christmas started playing. This was the third time today he'd heard this song. Passing a Tesco Express store, Father Aiden decided he needed some Dutch courage before he could partake in the special "celebration" at the church. A cheap bottle of whiskey or gin would suffice. Parking up, he hurried into the store and walked straight into a woman who was loaded up with shopping."I'm so sorry!" He exclaimed, picking up the tube of gift wrap she'd dropped."Aiden?"He froze and looked up. "Róisín?""My God! It is you! I can't believe it!" the red-haired woman gasped."W-what are you doing in this neck of the woods?" Father Aiden said. "Did you leave Liverpool?""Sure did. I've jumped ship. I'm at the Living Earth Free Church now and I'm loving every minute. I've become a vicar, well they call us leaders. It suits me just fine. What about you, are you still with the Catholic Church?"The priest looked awkwardly at her. "Erm, sort of. I've been fighting a conflict with myself these past couple of weeks."Róisín smiled at him. "You think your future lies elsewhere?"He took a deep breath. "Maybe?"She put down her shopping bags and took his hand. "I've never stopped thinking about you, Aiden. I know you broke things off because you couldn't break your celibacy vows, ""Oh but that's the thing. I fled Liverpool and moved to this town, and the first thing I did was to break my celibacy vows, "Róisín's face fell. "Oh, so you've met someone?""Uh, No. It was just a, one-off. But it made me think that I'm just not cut out for a celibate life. And because of that, I can't continue in my current profession.""Well you're too attractive for that."A blush spread across the priest's face. "Would you like to go for a drink?""Thought you'd never ask! Let me dump this stuff in the car and then I'm all yours!""Sorry Jenna," Father Aiden said to himself as he slipped his arm around Róisín and they strolled into the town center. "But I'm sure you'll have fun without me. Thanks for helping me see the light though."Jenna could hear muffled whisperings and several male voices. She wondered what was going to happen next. "Can I look yet?""No not yet," Reverend Morris replied. "Just a sec, " The vicar ushered Gordon, Josh, Bishop George and Norman in front of the altar, where several candles has been lit. "Where's Father Aiden?""Guess he chickened out?" Gordon muttered. "Maybe he's in a confession booth? Ha-ha!""Oh well, fair enough. It was a lot to ask, Okay Jenna, you can open your eyes now!"Jenna opened her eyes, to see the organist, the curate, the Bishop, and the churchwarden all stood round her. Gordon was wearing his best suit and the black robe he wore when playing the organ, andJosh was wearing his cassock and surplice."Oh my. Good evening, boys!" She said. "Are you all here to wish me Happy Birthday?""We certainly are," Gordon grinned, rubbing his crotch. "We're here to give you the most memorable birthday ever, eh chaps? As it's a special one, and you're a very special lass, Jenna!""Aww, you're all so sweet," Jenna replied, still not aware of what was about to happen. "I love being part of this church.""And you've brought so much happiness to it," Reverend Morris said. Now it's time for us to repay your kindness." He nodded at Gordon and the others. "Now don't keep my lovely wife waiting, she's eager to be baptized!""Huh?" Jenna blinked. "Baptized?"Gordon volunteered to go first. He unzipped his trousers and pulled out his cock. "Come on lads, don't be shy, eh?" Seconds later, Josh and Bishop George did the same. Norman hesitated a moment, but finally followed suit and unzipped. Jenna's mouth dropped in amazement as four delicious erect cocks were pointed right at her. She was too stunned to speak, and turned to Reverend Morris, who was standing back from the others, and also wearing church vestments."This is our 21st birthday present to you," the vicar said. "A Mentula Cōleī Baptism." It's been part of early Assyrian Christian marriage ceremonies in Asia, to anoint a young bride's womb, before the couple consummates. The church elders would meet with the couple after the public ceremony vows, to anoint the virgin."Oh, my, God" Jenna gasped. "Simon, how?"The reverend simply put his hands together, as though in prayer. "I asked God for help in getting you the perfect present. He knows everything, you see. I'm just sorry that Father Aiden decided to opt out, and unfortunately the Archbishop of Canterbury was unavailable as he's currently in Ukraine. John Wesley's ghost, well one cannot book a last-minute appointment with the dead, alas. But I hope those of us that are here will satisfy you?"Jenna licked her lips. "Hell yes!" She knelt down before them. "Oh Gordon, I see you've got an organ pipe that needs blowing," she said as she pulled down his trousers and briefs and squeezed his erection. "Let's see if you can hit the right notes.""I always hit the right notes," he chuckled. "Especially when you're playing my instrument, ""Umm. You're an organist who always entertains," she commented as she lowered her mouth over the end of his cock.Jenna sucked on the head, tasting him as she ran her tongue over the sensitive opening, while pumping the shaft with her hand. She took more and more of his hardness into her mouth until she felt him hit the back of her throat. She relaxed and pushed on until she had his whole member in her mouth and she was nuzzling his silvery pubic hair. He groaned as he grabbed the back of her head and thrust into her mouth.Reverend Morris watched in admiration and amazement as his wife expertly sucked the organist's cock. Gordon was quite well-endowed, but that was no challenge to Jenna. Seeing her pleasuring another man like this had got him as hard as a rock. He massaged his erection through his cassock and surplice. Could she cope with more than one man though?Josh was growing impatient, and his cock was desperate for attention. "Fancy trying some younger meat, Jenna? I think you've fully re-tuned the organist's organ.""Don't rush the lass," Gordon sighed. "Wait your turn, lad!""I'm sure you can't wait to taste it," he said as he pushed his throbbing shaft in her face.Jenna didn't hesitate, she removed Gordon's cock and Josh pushed his erection deep into her mouth. He grabbed her head and she began sucking him hard."Oh yeah! Praise the Lord! Oh I'm coming!""So soon?" Gordon chuckled. You younger fellas have no endurance!""Now now, enough of that," Jenna said. Play nice." She unbuttoned her blouse, exposing her pert breasts. "Mmm, give me some cum, Josh!"The sight of her tits pushed the curate over the edge and he erupted, glazing them with his hot seed."So delicious! Thanks so much Josh. What an impressive load. No longer shy I see! Like I said, you'll make one hell of a vicar one day!" Jenna felt an intense tingling sensation of arousal and a moistening in her pussy. The crotch of her panties turned a darker shade of red as her nectar seeped out of her and soaked them. Reaching under her skirt, she began fingering herself."We vicars produce more cum, right?" Reverend Morris chuckled, jacking off in the background."Hell yes.""Organists produce a lot too," Gordon interrupted. "Oh fuck, now I'm coming, Jenna, .oh!"Jets of creamy white cum surged forth through the air from the tip of Gor

 Her Mentula Cōleī BaptismA Series in 17 parts, By Blacksheep. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Christmas was fast approaching, and festive events were in full swing at St. Michael's Church."Well not long to go until Jesus' birthday," Reverend Morris smiled as he and Jenna finished putting up their Christmas decorations. "Just two weeks. Which reminds me, there's another very special person's birthday a week before the festive season, ""Oh yes. I'd forgotten!" Jenna replied."Jenna my love, it's your 21st! You can't forget something like that. I want it to be a truly memorable birthday for you. Is there anything in particular you'd really, really like? Please give it some thought. Turning 21 is a milestone.""I will Simon. But I pretty much have everything I've ever wanted already," she smiled, slipping her arms round him.Later, Jenna was engrossed in reading something on her smartphone."Imagine that," she whispered to herself.Noticing her excitement, Reverend Morris became curious."What's grabbed your attention, Jen?"" Mentula Cōleī Baptism," she blurted out, without thinking.Her husband looked confused. "Pardon?""Oh! It's nothing. Just an old fertility rite of the Eastern Orthodox, in some Asian nations! The Japanese call it bukkake. The loose translation of ‘Mentula Cōleī'  is ‘cock & balls'. And it follows the Anglican tradition of sprinkling. Er, would you like a cup of tea?”"Sure."Later, when Jenna was having a shower, Reverend Morris picked up his phone. "Bukkake, she said. How does one spell that, then?" He typed into the browser. Boocaka? Bookaki? Bukacay? On the third attempt, the browser's autocorrect suggested the correct term."Oh, so that's how it's spelt. He clicked on a Wikipedia link. "Good God!" He spluttered, as he read all about the act. When he'd finished, he chuckled to himself. "You learn something new every day. The Internet never disappoints, "At the Wednesday Eucharist, Gordon had just finished the recessional hymn. The midweek service always had a lower turnout than the Sunday service, but numbers had been steadily increasing all year."Morning Gordon," Reverend Morris said, appearing at the side of the organ."Oh hello vicar," the organist replied. "Quite full today. I don't know, the news says that Christianity is declining in this country but this church seems to be the exception.""It does, and that pleases me greatly. I can't speak for all churches in England, but knowing that our community here at St. Michael's is thriving, well it lifts my heart. I tend not to pay much attention to the news these days. Too depressing. Difficult times for so many. Strikes, cost of living and all that. Oh and England getting knocked out of the World Cup.""Mmm, yes," Gordon nodded. "Couldn't care less about football. I never watch it. Horse racing is my thing. How's Jenna and Christopher?""Oh they're both fine, actually I need to discuss something important with you, Gordon. Jenna's 21st birthday is next week. I was wondering if you could help me with something?""Certainly, vicar!" He replied, switching off the light above the organ's keyboards. "Happy to help in any way I can.""Okay, but not here. Come to my study right now, please.""Right you are," Gordon said. He didn't even have time to remove his robe and hang it up in the vestry. He was intrigued. The way the vicar was summoning him to the study sounded a bit ominous. He felt like a kid at school being summoned to the headmaster in order to receive a punishment. He meekly followed the vicar down the aisle."Close the door if you please," Reverend Morris said, as he beckoned the organist into the study. Gordon did as he asked, and was surprised to find Josh the curate, Father Aiden, Bishop George and Norman Winstanley the new churchwarden all waiting."Eh, what's all this, vicar?" Gordon exclaimed. "A lads-only party?""Gentlemen," Reverend Morris began. "I've invited you here because you are trusted spiritual mentors; and trusted friends of mine. As servants of God, you all have your own important tasks to perform. Now what I am about to ask you, requires a great deal of trust. As good Christians, I wonder if you'll be able to fulfil this very unique anointing ceremony a parishioner has requested."Father Aiden crossed himself. "I am always ready to do the Lord's work.""Me too," Gordon said. "And if there's free beer included, well that's a bonus!""Well this task concerns Jenna, my wife."The men in the study all fell silent. There was a great deal of shuffling feet and awkward coughs!One week later,"Where are we going, Simon?" Jenna asked, as he got into the car. She assumed they were going to a restaurant."The church. Just a little birthday surprise."When they arrived, Reverend Morris requested that Jenna close her eyes."Absolutely no peeking!" He said as he led her down the aisle."This is so exciting!" Jenna said. "Let me guess, the whole congregation of St. Michael's are going to leap out and yell Happy Birthday, right?""Close, but no cigar!" The vicar replied. "Now, just sit on this stool, "Father Aiden was driving down the high street, on his way to St. Michael's Church. His heart was pounding like crazy."I can't believe I agreed to take part in this," he mumbled to himself. "Lord in heaven, why am I doing this? Haven't I sinned enough already?"He fiddled with the car radio. Most of the stations were planning Christmas songs 24/7 now. Chris's Rea's Driving Home for Christmas started playing. This was the third time today he'd heard this song. Passing a Tesco Express store, Father Aiden decided he needed some Dutch courage before he could partake in the special "celebration" at the church. A cheap bottle of whiskey or gin would suffice. Parking up, he hurried into the store and walked straight into a woman who was loaded up with shopping."I'm so sorry!" He exclaimed, picking up the tube of gift wrap she'd dropped."Aiden?"He froze and looked up. "Róisín?""My God! It is you! I can't believe it!" the red-haired woman gasped."W-what are you doing in this neck of the woods?" Father Aiden said. "Did you leave Liverpool?""Sure did. I've jumped ship. I'm at the Living Earth Free Church now and I'm loving every minute. I've become a vicar, well they call us leaders. It suits me just fine. What about you, are you still with the Catholic Church?"The priest looked awkwardly at her. "Erm, sort of. I've been fighting a conflict with myself these past couple of weeks."Róisín smiled at him. "You think your future lies elsewhere?"He took a deep breath. "Maybe?"She put down her shopping bags and took his hand. "I've never stopped thinking about you, Aiden. I know you broke things off because you couldn't break your celibacy vows, ""Oh but that's the thing. I fled Liverpool and moved to this town, and the first thing I did was to break my celibacy vows, "Róisín's face fell. "Oh, so you've met someone?""Uh, No. It was just a, one-off. But it made me think that I'm just not cut out for a celibate life. And because of that, I can't continue in my current profession.""Well you're too attractive for that."A blush spread across the priest's face. "Would you like to go for a drink?""Thought you'd never ask! Let me dump this stuff in the car and then I'm all yours!""Sorry Jenna," Father Aiden said to himself as he slipped his arm around Róisín and they strolled into the town center. "But I'm sure you'll have fun without me. Thanks for helping me see the light though."Jenna could hear muffled whisperings and several male voices. She wondered what was going to happen next. "Can I look yet?""No not yet," Reverend Morris replied. "Just a sec, " The vicar ushered Gordon, Josh, Bishop George and Norman in front of the altar, where several candles has been lit. "Where's Father Aiden?""Guess he chickened out?" Gordon muttered. "Maybe he's in a confession booth? Ha-ha!""Oh well, fair enough. It was a lot to ask, Okay Jenna, you can open your eyes now!"Jenna opened her eyes, to see the organist, the curate, the Bishop, and the churchwarden all stood round her. Gordon was wearing his best suit and the black robe he wore when playing the organ, andJosh was wearing his cassock and surplice."Oh my. Good evening, boys!" She said. "Are you all here to wish me Happy Birthday?""We certainly are," Gordon grinned, rubbing his crotch. "We're here to give you the most memorable birthday ever, eh chaps? As it's a special one, and you're a very special lass, Jenna!""Aww, you're all so sweet," Jenna replied, still not aware of what was about to happen. "I love being part of this church.""And you've brought so much happiness to it," Reverend Morris said. Now it's time for us to repay your kindness." He nodded at Gordon and the others. "Now don't keep my lovely wife waiting, she's eager to be baptized!""Huh?" Jenna blinked. "Baptized?"Gordon volunteered to go first. He unzipped his trousers and pulled out his cock. "Come on lads, don't be shy, eh?" Seconds later, Josh and Bishop George did the same. Norman hesitated a moment, but finally followed suit and unzipped. Jenna's mouth dropped in amazement as four delicious erect cocks were pointed right at her. She was too stunned to speak, and turned to Reverend Morris, who was standing back from the others, and also wearing church vestments."This is our 21st birthday present to you," the vicar said. "A Mentula Cōleī Baptism." It's been part of early Assyrian Christian marriage ceremonies in Asia, to anoint a young bride's womb, before the couple consummates. The church elders would meet with the couple after the public ceremony vows, to anoint the virgin."Oh, my, God" Jenna gasped. "Simon, how?"The reverend simply put his hands together, as though in prayer. "I asked God for help in getting you the perfect present. He knows everything, you see. I'm just sorry that Father Aiden decided to opt out, and unfortunately the Archbishop of Canterbury was unavailable as he's currently in Ukraine. John Wesley's ghost, well one cannot book a last-minute appointment with the dead, alas. But I hope those of us that are here will satisfy you?"Jenna licked her lips. "Hell yes!" She knelt down before them. "Oh Gordon, I see you've got an organ pipe that needs blowing," she said as she pulled down his trousers and briefs and squeezed his erection. "Let's see if you can hit the right notes.""I always hit the right notes," he chuckled. "Especially when you're playing my instrument, ""Umm. You're an organist who always entertains," she commented as she lowered her mouth over the end of his cock.Jenna sucked on the head, tasting him as she ran her tongue over the sensitive opening, while pumping the shaft with her hand. She took more and more of his hardness into her mouth until she felt him hit the back of her throat. She relaxed and pushed on until she had his whole member in her mouth and she was nuzzling his silvery pubic hair. He groaned as he grabbed the back of her head and thrust into her mouth.Reverend Morris watched in admiration and amazement as his wife expertly sucked the organist's cock. Gordon was quite well-endowed, but that was no challenge to Jenna. Seeing her pleasuring another man like this had got him as hard as a rock. He massaged his erection through his cassock and surplice. Could she cope with more than one man though?Josh was growing impatient, and his cock was desperate for attention. "Fancy trying some younger meat, Jenna? I think you've fully re-tuned the organist's organ.""Don't rush the lass," Gordon sighed. "Wait your turn, lad!""I'm sure you can't wait to taste it," he said as he pushed his throbbing shaft in her face.Jenna didn't hesitate, she removed Gordon's cock and Josh pushed his erection deep into her mouth. He grabbed her head and she began sucking him hard."Oh yeah! Praise the Lord! Oh I'm coming!""So soon?" Gordon chuckled. You younger fellas have no endurance!""Now now, enough of that," Jenna said. Play nice." She unbuttoned her blouse, exposing her pert breasts. "Mmm, give me some cum, Josh!"The sight of her tits pushed the curate over the edge and he erupted, glazing them with his hot seed."So delicious! Thanks so much Josh. What an impressive load. No longer shy I see! Like I said, you'll make one hell of a vicar one day!" Jenna felt an intense tingling sensation of arousal and a moistening in her pussy. The crotch of her panties turned a darker shade of red as her nectar seeped out of her and soaked them. Reaching under her skirt, she began fingering herself."We vicars produce more cum, right?" Reverend Morris chuckled, jacking off in the background."Hell yes.""Organists produce a lot too," Gordon interrupted. "Oh fuck, now I'm coming, Jenna, .oh!"Jets of creamy white cum surged forth through the air from the tip of Gor

Last time we spoke about the rise of the Spirit Soldier movement. As a result of the hardship brought upon the common people of China during China's Warlord Era a new group known as the Spirit Soldiers rose up. Motivated by grievances against warlord abuses and foreign influences, the Spirit Soldier emerged as a grassroots movement seeking to overthrow the oppressive regime. They believed in summoning divine beings or becoming possessed by them to aid their cause, reminiscent of the Yihetuan. Despite lacking centralized organization and firearms, they managed to seize control of several counties in regions like Hubei and Sichuan. However, they simply were no match for Warlord armies who were better trained, better organized and certainly better armed. While in small groups the Spirit armies managed just fine, but when they assembled 100,000 strong, they were ultimately crushed. Despite this the last Spirit rebellion would occur in 1959.   #101 The Mongolian Revolution of 1921   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Oh yes we are not done with Mongolia. As a quick refresher, a few episodes back we talked about what is known as the Occupation of Mongolia. Quite a few things were going on all at once in the late 1910's. The Russian Empire collapsed and now was stuck in a civil war with the Reds vs the Whites. The Republic of China likewise collapsed into the Warlord Era. Mongolia stuck between these two former empires, attempted to gain independence, but swiftly fell into conflict with radicals from both. As a result of the Russian white General Grigori Semyonov trying to force a new pan Mongolia state, Duan Qirui exploited the situation to forcibly invade Mongolia. Duan Qirui had been taking a lot of heat for pushing China to declare war on Germany and getting caught taking secret loans from the Empire of Japan. Everyone in China was calling for Duan to reduce or eliminate his Anhui Army, but the situation in Mongolia gave him the perfect excuse to use it, thus in his mind legitimizing its existence. Duan Qirui dispatched General Xu Shuzheng with the “northwest frontier army” to protect Mongolia from a supposed Red army invasion. In the face of overwhelming military forces, the Mongolians submitted to Xu and were absolutely humiliated and subjugated. And thus Mongolia lived happily ever after. No, not at all. Between 1919-1920 a few Mongolian nobles came together to form two groups, the first was called “Konsulyn denj / the Consular Hill” the second “Zuun khuree / the East Urga” groups. The first group was the brainchild of Dogsomyn Bodoo, a prominent Mongolian politician. Bodoo had worked as a Mongolian language teacher at a Russian-Mongolian school for translators. He spoke Mongolian, Tibetan, Mandarin and Manchu. Because of his work he came into contact with Bolshevism through Russian acquaintances. After the occupation of Mongolia by Duan Qirui's forces, he formed the secret Consular Hill group as a means of resistance. Doboo's Consular Hill soon saw Khorloogiin Choibalsan join. Choibalsan also worked at the Russian Mongolian translator school and shared a Yurt with Doboo. Doboo was a mentor to Choibalsan whom worked primarily as a Russian interpreter at the Russian consulate. Because of the nature of his work, Choibalsan spent a lot of time with the Soviets. Not to give too much away, but later on Choibalsan would become known as “the Stalin of Mongolia”. A Russo-Mongolian printing officer typesetter named Mikhail Kucherenko, a Bolshevik in Urga, visited Bodoo and Choibalsan, talking to them about things related to Mongolian independence and actively resisted the Chinese. The East Urga group were founded by Soliin Danzan an official of the Ministry of Finance and Dansranbilegiin Dogsom , an official in the Ministry of the Army. Danzan had once been a horse thief, but managed to climb the ladder towards being a customs officer or the ministry of finance. Dogs had worked as a scribe for district and provincial assemblies before taking a job at the ministry of finance and Army later on. Another founding member was Damdin Sukhbaatar who grew up around Russians and spoke Russian. He joined the New Mongolia Army in 1911 after the independence movement and rose through the ranks seeing deployment on Mongolia's eastern border. After his death he would be referred to as “the Lenin of Mongolia”. The beginning of the East Urga group saw radicals within the lower house of the Mongolian parliament, such as Danzan and Dogsom met secretly trying to figure a way of getting rid of Xu Shuzheng and the Chinese dominance over their nation. The groups formed a plot to seize the mongolian army's arsenal and assassinate Xu Shuzheng, but the arsenal was too well guarded and Xu departed the region before they could pull it off. Within Urga were many Russian refugees, Red and White alike. They established a Municipal Duma, and some of the Bolshevik minded ones learned of the secret Consular Hill and East Urga groups. In March of 1920, the Duma was sending one of their members, Sorokovikov to Irkutsk, but before he did so, they thought it a good idea for him to learn about these secret groups and what they were up to. Sorokovikov met with representatives of both groups before traveling to Irkutsk. When he returned to Urga in June of that year, he met with the representatives again with promises the USSR would provide any assistance needed to the Mongolian workers. He then extended them invitations to send their groups representatives to Russia to discuss matters further.  As you can imagine, both these groups got pretty excited. Until this point the two groups did not brush shoulders much, they were in fact quite different. The Consular Hill group were progressive socialists while the East Urga group were more nationalistic. While they seemed to be at odds, the Soviet invitation had brought them together and in doing so they decided to merge on June 25th to form the Mongolian People's Party. It was then agreed Danzan and Choibalsan would act as the delegates that would go to Russia. Both men arrived in Verkhneudinsk, the new capital of the Pro-Soviet Far Eastern Republic. They met with Boris Shumyatsky, the acting head of the government. Shumyatsky kind of gave them the cold shoulder as they hounded his government for military assistance to fight off the Chinese. Shumyatsky advised them they should go back home, and get members of their party over in Urga to send a coded message with the stamped seal of the Bogd Khan to formally request such a thing. They did just that and now 5 delegates returned to Verkhneudinsk with it, but Shumyatsky told them he had no real authority to make such a decision and that they needed to go to Irkutsk. So yeah it was one of those cases where a guy you thought was a head honcho, was really not haha. The Mongolian delegates then went to Irkutsk in August where they met with the head of what would soon become the Far Eastern Secretariat of the Communist International aka the Comintern. They explained they required military assistance, soon handing over a list of requests. They wanted military instructors, over 10,000 rifles, some artillery pieces, machine guns and of course funding they could use to recruit soldiers. The head told them….to drag a letter and this time to make sure the name of the party was included in it, not in the name of the Bogd Khan. They were also to list their objectives and requests. Now as funny as this all sounds, not to dox myself, but when I got my first big boy job as they say, I had to learn how to write formal letters to the government, funding requests, partnership things, etc etc, and I can feel for these guys in that sense. They all seemed to have little experience in such matters and yes, some officials were clearing just messing with them, sending them left and right, but some guys were trying to show them how to work an existing process, random rant sorry. Once they finished this new letter they were told it might be considered by the Siberian REvolutionary Committee in Omsk, the buck keeps passing. At this point the mongolians divided themselves into three groups: Delegates Danzan, Losol and Dendev went to Omsk to deliver the new letter; Bodoo and Dogsom went back to Urga to grow the party and begin recruiting a army; and Sukhbaater and Choibalsan went to Irkutsk to serve as liaisons there. Before they all departed, the drafted a new revolutionary message. It dictated the Mongolian nobility would be divested of their hereditary powers. The new system of government would be democratic with a limited monarch run by the Bogd Khaan. Several more meeting with the soviets at Omsk occurred only for the Mongolians to be sold yet again they had to go somewhere else, this time it was Moscow. Thus Danzan led a team of delegates to go to Moscow in September. For a month they discussed matters, but something huge was cooking up in the meantime. Here comes a man named Roman von Ungern-Sternberg. He was born in Graz Austria in January of 1886 to a noble family, descending from present day Estonia. Ungern-Sternberg's first language was German, but he also spoke English, French, Russian and Estonian. Within his family tree he had Hungarian roots and he would claim to be a descendant of Batu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. Why is it, all of these “great men figures” always have to come up with a “I am descended from x” haha. He moved to Reval, the capital of Estonia. It's said as a child he was a ferocious bully and a psychopath who would torture animals. Apparently at the age of 12 he strangled his cousins owl, now thats messed up. Now Ungern-Sternberg was very proud of his ancient aristocratic background…though whether any of it was real who knows. He wrote extensively things like “for centuries my family never took orders from the working classes and it was outrageous that dirty workers who've never had any servants of their own, but still think they can command! They should have absolutely no say in the ruling of the vast Russian Empire". He was proud of his Germanic origin, but also identified with the Russian empire…and with Ghenghis khan, so yeah. When asked about his family's military history in the Russian empire he would proud boast “72 family members were killed in the wartime!”. He believed many of the fallen monarchies of Europe could be restored with the help of the cavalry peoples of the Steppe, such as the Mongols.  Ungern-Sternberg of course was attracted to military service and during the Russo-Japanese War he joined the fighting. Its unsure whether he made it to Manchuria to see actual fighting, but he was awarded a Russo-Japanese War Medal in 1913. During the first Russian Revolution of 1905, Estonian peasants ravaged the country trying to murder nobles. Ungern-Sternberg recalled "the peasants that worked on my family's land were rough, untutored, wild and constantly angry, hating everybody and everything without understanding why". After the failed revolution he continued his military career and picked up an interest in Buddhism. Later in life while in Mongolia he would become a Buddhist, but never really relinquished his Lutheran faith. While in Mongolia Ungern-Sternberg became obsessed with the idea that he was the in-incarnation of Genghis Khan. When he graduated from a military academy he demanded a station amongst the Cossacks in Asia. He was appointed an officer in Eastern Siberia where he served under the 1st Argunsky and later the 1st Amursky Cossack regiments. From there he fell in love with the lifestyle of the nomadic Mongol peoples. He was a hell of a drunk and loved to pick fights. There were theories he had been hit so many times to the head during fights, it was believed he had brain damage and was insane as a result. In 1913 he asked to be transferred to the reserves, because he wanted time and space to achieve a new goal, he sought to assist the Mongols in their struggle for independence from China. Russian officials heard rumors he sought to do this and they actively thwarted him as best as they could. He went to the town of Khovd in western Mongolia where he served as an unofficial officer in a Gossack guard detachment for the Russian consulate.  When WW1 broke out, Ungern-Sternberg joined the 34th regiment of Cossack troops stationed in the Galicia frontier. He would take part in the first Russian offensive against Prussia and earned a reputation as an extremely brave but also very reckless and mentally unstable officer. Men who came to know him said he looked happiest atop a horse leading a charge, showing no signs of fear with a wicked smile on his face. He received multiple citations such as the st george of the 4th grade; st vladimir of the 4th grade, st anna of the 3rd and 4th grades and st Stanislas of the 3rd grade. These decorations however were offset by the amount of disciplinary actions issued against him and he would eventually be discharged from one of his commands for attacking another officer in a drunken brawl. He went to prison and was court martialed.  After he got out of prison in January of 1917, he transferred over to the Caucasian theater to fight the Ottomans. Then the Russian revolution began, ending the Russian empire and of course ending the Romanov monarchy, quite the bitter blow to the monarchist Ungern-Sternberg. While still in the Caucasus, Ungern-Sternberg ran into a Cossack Captain, an old friend we met a few podcasts ago, Captain Grigory Semyonov. Working with Semyonov the two organized a volunteer Assyrian Christian unit in modern day Iran. The Assyrian genocide had led to thousands of Assyrians fleeing over to the Russians. Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg Assyrian force was able to win some small victories over Turkish forces, but in the grand scheme of the theater it did not amount to much. The experience of forging such a group however led them to think about doing the same thing with Buryat troops in Siberia.  At the outbreak of the Russian civil war, Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg declared themselves Romanov loyalists, joing the White Movement. They both vowed the defeat the Red Army and late into 1917, they as part of a combined group of 5 Cossacks managed to disarm 1500 Red soldiers at a Far Eastern Railway station in China near the Russian border. They took up a position there, preparing for a military expedition into the Transbaikal region, recruiting men into a Special Manchrian regiment. The White army managed to defeat the Red Army along the Far Eastern Railway territory. Semyonov eventually appointed Ungern-Sternberg to be the commander of a force at Dauria, a railway station at the strategic point southeast of Lake Baikal. Despite being part of the white movement, Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg were quite rebellious. Semyonov for example refused to recognize the authority of Admiral Alexander Kolchak, the prominent white leader in Siberia. Semyonov fancied acting on his own and received support from the Japanese. Ungern-Sternberg, a subornidate to Semyonov also acted independently. Ungern-Sternberg also had his own reasons not to comply fully with Kolchak. Kolchak had promised after a White victory, he would reconvene the Consitutional Assembly, disband the Bolsheviks completely and then decide the future for Russia, that being whether it adopts the monarchy back or goes a different path. Ungern-Sternberg believed god had chosen Russia to be run by a monarchy and that its restoration came first.  Ungern-Sternberg performed successful military campains in Dauria and Hailar, earning the rank of Major-General, promtping Semyonov to enturst him with forming his own military unit to fight the communists. Both men gradually recruited Buryats and Mongols for the task, but they also were growing wary of another. Ungern-Sternberg was unhappy with Semyonov who he deemed to be corrupt, he also took issue with the mans love interest in a Jewish cabert singer, he was after all a rampant anti-semite. Ungern-Sternberg founded the volunteer based Asiatic Cavalry Division in Dauria, alongside a fortress. It is said at this fortress he would torture his red enemies and it was full of their bones.  As we mentioned in a previous episode, the Anhui Clique dispatched General Xu Shuzheng to occupy outer mongolia. However after the first Anhui-Zhili war, the Anhui clique was severely reduced and General Xu Shuzheng's forces in Mongolia were as well. This effectively left the Mongolian protectorate without their protectors. Chaos reigned as Chahar Mongols from Inner Mongolia began to fight with Khalkhas Mongols from Outer Mongolia. Seeing the disunity, Ungern-Sternberg saw a grand opportunity and made plans to take control of Mongolia. He began networking and married the Manchurian princess Ji at Harbin. Princess Ji was a relative of Genreal Zhang Kuiwu, the coammander of Chinese troops in the western part of the Chinese Manchurian railway as well as the govenror of Hailar. He also tried to arrange a meeting between Semyonov and Zhang Zuolin, Eventually Kolchak's white army was defeated by the Red Army and subsequently the Japanese pulled their expeditionary forces out of the Transbaikal region. This put Semyonov in a bad situation as he was unable to cope with the brunt of the impending Red forces, thus he planned to pull back into Manchuria. Ungern-Sternberg had a different idea however. He took his Asiatic Cavalry Division, roughly 1500 men at the time, consisting mostly of Russians, but there was also Cossacks, Buryats, Chinese and a few Japanese, with few machine guns and 4 artillery pieces. He broke his ties to Semyonov and took his division into Outer Mongolia in October of 1920. They gradually advanced to Urga where they ran into Chinees occupying forces. Ungern-Sternberg attempted to negotiate with the Chinese, demadning they disarm, but they rejected his terms. In late October and early November, Ungern-Sternbergs forces assaulted Urga, suffering two disasterous defeats. After this they assailed the Setsen-Khan aimag, a district north of the Kherlen River, ruld by Prince Setsen Khan. During his time in Mongolia Ungern-Sternberg befriended some Mongol forces seeking independence from the Chinese occupation, the most influential leader amongst them being Bogd Khan. Bogd Khan secretly made a pact with Unger-Sternberg, seeking his aid to expel the Chinese from Mongolia. Ungern-Sternberg went to work reorganizing his army. Apparently he had taken a liking to a Lt and gave the man full command over the medical division. During a withdrawal, the Lt raped multiple nurses in the medical division, many of whom were married to other officers, ordered settlements they ran by to be looted and ordered all the wounded the be poisoned because they were a nuisance. Ungern-Sternberg had the man flogged and burned at the stake. So yeah.  During the Chinese occupation of Outer Mongolia, they had initiated strict regulations over Buddhist services and imprisoned anyone whom they considered sought independence, including Russians. While Ungern-Sternberg had 1500 well trained troops, the Chinese had roughly 7000 still in Outer Mongolia. The Chinese enjoyed an advantage in more men, more machine guns, more artillery and they already had fortified Urga. On February 2nd, Ungern-Sternberg assaulted the front line of Urga again. His forces led by Captain Rezzukhin managed to capture a front-line fortificaiton near the Small and Big Madachan villages, due southeast of Urga. Ungern-Sternberg's forces also managed to rescue Bogd Khan who was under house arrests, transporting him to the Manjushri Monastery. Ungern-Sternberg then took a page out of Genghis Khan's note book, ordering his troops to light a large number of campfires in the hills surrounding Urga, trying to scare the Chinese into thinking they were more numerous. On February 4th, they attacked Chinese barracks east of Urga, captured them. Ungern-Sternberg then divided his force in two with the first attacking the Chinese trade settlement “Maimaicheng” and the secnd the Consular Settlement. Ungern-Sternbergs men used exlosives and improvised battering rams to blow open the gates to Maimaicheng. Upon storming the settlement, the battle turned into a melee of sabres, seeing both sides hack each other in a slaughter. Ungern-Sternbergs men took Maimaicheng, and soon joined up with the other force to attack the COnsulder Settlement. The Chinese launched a counter attack, forcing Ungern-Sternbergs men northeast somewhat, but then he counter attacked sending them back to Urga. By the night of the 4th, Urga would fall to the invaders. The Chinese civilian and military officials simply fled for their lives in 11 cars, abandoning the soldiers. The Chinese troops followed suite aftwards heading north, massacring all Mongolian civilians they came across, heading over the Russian border. The Red Russians resided in Urga fled alongside them. The Chinese suffered apparently 1500 men, while Ungern-Sternberg recorded only 60 casualties for his force. Ungern-Sternbergs troops were welcomed with open arms as liberators. The populace of Urga hated their tyrannical Chinese overlords and believed the Russians were their salvation. Then the Russian began plundering the Chinese run stores and hunted down Russian Jews still in the city. Ungern-Sternberg personally ordered the execution of all Jews in the city unless they had special notes handed out by him sparing their lives. It is estimated roughly 50 Jews were killed by Ungern-Sternbergs men in Mongolia. Urga's Jewish community was annihilated. After a few days, Ungern-Sternberg had set up a quasi secret police force led by Colonel Leonid Sipalov who hunted Red Russians. Meanwhile Ungern-Sternberg's army seized the Chinese fortified base at Choi due south of Urga. During the attack the Russians number 900, the Chinese garrison roughly 1500. After taking the fort, the Russians returned to Urga as Ungern-Sternberg dispatched expeditionary groups to find Chinese strength. They came across a abandoned Chinese fort at Zamyn-Uud, taking it without resistance. Most of the Chinese troops left in Mongolia withdrew north to Kyakhta where they were trying find a way to get around the Urga region to escape back to China. Ungern-Sternberg and his men assumed they were trying to reorganize to recapture Urga so he dispatched forces to assail them. Chinese forces were advancing through the area of Talyn Ulaaankhad Hill when Ungern-Sternberg initiated a battle. The battle saw nearly 1000 Chinese, 100 Mongols and various amounts of Russians, Buryats and others killed. The Chinese forces routed during the battle, fleeing south until they got over the Chinese border. After this action, the Chinese effectively had departed Outer Mongolia. On February 22nd february of 1921, Ungern-Sternberg, Mongolian prince and Lamas, held a ceremony to restore the Bogd Khan to the throne. To reward their savior, Bogd Khan granted Ungern-Sternberg a high title, that of “darkhan khoshoi chin wang” in the degree of Khan. Once Semyonov heard of what Ungern-Sternberg had achieved, he likewise promoted him to Lt-General. On that same day, Mongolia proclaimed itself independent as a monarchy under the Bogd Khan, now the 8th Bogd Gegen Jebtsundamba Khutuktu. According to the eye witness account of the polish explorer Kamil Gizycki and polish writer Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Ungern-Sternberg went to work ordering Urga's streets thoroughly cleaned, promoted religious tolerance, I would imagine for all excluding Jews and attempted some economic reforms.  The writer Ossendowski had previously served in Kolchaks government, but after its fall sought refugee in Mongolia. He became friends with Ungern-Sternberg, probably looking for a good story, I mean this maniac does make for a good story, hell I am covering him after all ahah. Ossendowski would write pieces of his experience in Mongolia in his book “Beasts, Men and Gods”. A soldier within Ungern-Sternbergs army, named Dmitri Alioshin wrote a novel as well of his experience titled Asian Odyssey and here is a passage about his description of Ungern-Sternberg and his closest followers beliefs. “The whole world is rotten. Greed, hatred and cruelty are in the saddle. We intend to organize a new empire; a new civilization. It will be called the Middle Asiatic Buddhist Empire, carved out of Mongolia, Manchuria and Eastern Siberia. Communication has already been established for that purpose with Djan-Zo-Lin, the war lord of Manchuria, and with Hutukhta, the Living Buddha of Mongolia. Here in these historic plains we will organize an army as powerful as that of Genghis Khan. Then we will move, as that great man did, and smash the whole of Europe. The world must die so that a new and better world may come forth, reincarnated on a higher plane.” Within that passage there was mention of Hutukhta, he was the dominant Buddha of Mongolia at the time. Hutukhta did not share Ungern-Sternbergs dream of restoring Monarchies all across the world and he understood the mans army could not hope to defend them from Soviet or Chinese invaders. In April of 1921, Hutukhta wrote to Beijing asking if the Chinese government was interesting in resuming their protectorship.  In the meantime Ungern-Sternberg began looking for funds. He approached several Chinese warlords, such as Zhang Zuolin, but all rejected him. He also continued his tyrannical treatment never against Mongolians, but against Russians within Mongolia. Its estimated his secret police force killed 846 people, with roughly 120 being in Urga. Ungern-Sternbergs men were not at all happy about the brutality he inflicted upon their fellow Russians. Yet Ungern-Sternbergs days of psychopathic fun were soon to come to an end. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Poor Mongolia was stuck between two crumbling empires, who both became engulfed in violent civil wars. The spill over from their wars saw Mongolia become a protectorate to the Chinese, nearly a satellite communist state to the USSR and now was independent, but really at the mercy of the White army of Ungern-Sternberg. The psychopath was having a field day, but it was about to come to an end. 

The past week has seen two shocking stabbing attacks by lone actors in Sydney - one in the city's east, and one in its west.  Both incidents have horrified the community, but the attack against a Bishop at an Assyrian Christian church on Monday evening has prompted a particularly strong political response.  These two destabilising events represent a test of Australia's social cohesion, and a test of our political leaders' capacity to nurture tolerance within the community at a time of great international tensions.  Joining Jacqueline Maley to discuss is political correspondent Paul Sakkal, national security correspondent Matthew Knott, and chief political correspondent David Crowe. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The past week has seen two shocking stabbing attacks by lone actors in Sydney - one in the city's east, and one in its west.  Both incidents have horrified the community, but the attack against a Bishop at an Assyrian Christian church on Monday evening has prompted a particularly strong political response.  These two destabilising events represent a test of Australia's social cohesion, and a test of our political leaders' capacity to nurture tolerance within the community at a time of great international tensions.  Joining Jacqueline Maley to discuss is political correspondent Paul Sakkal, national security correspondent Matthew Knott, and chief political correspondent David Crowe. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pro-Palestine activists are turning up at University of Melbourne classrooms and photographing students after asking   for a show of hands to indicate who agrees with their views on the Israel-Gaza war.  A teenager has been charged after allegedly attacking an Assyrian Christian bishop during a livestreamed service at a church in Sydney's southwest after days in hospital.  Police say the Australian boss of a transnational organised crime syndicate was living in Brisbane's suburbia as he masterminded a series of huge drug shipments including a “botched” 900kg cocaine import where bricks of the drugs washed ashore.  Owners of short-term accommodation, such as Airbnb and Stayz properties, will be slugged hundreds more in rates, under a proposal by Adelaide City Council. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pro-Palestine activists are turning up at University of Melbourne classrooms and photographing students after asking   for a show of hands to indicate who agrees with their views on the Israel-Gaza war.  A teenager has been charged after allegedly attacking an Assyrian Christian bishop during a livestreamed service at a church in Sydney's southwest after days in hospital.  Police say the Australian boss of a transnational organised crime syndicate was living in Brisbane's suburbia as he masterminded a series of huge drug shipments including a “botched” 900kg cocaine import where bricks of the drugs washed ashore.  Owners of short-term accommodation, such as Airbnb and Stayz properties, will be slugged hundreds more in rates, under a proposal by Adelaide City Council. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pro-Palestine activists are turning up at University of Melbourne classrooms and photographing students after asking   for a show of hands to indicate who agrees with their views on the Israel-Gaza war.  A teenager has been charged after allegedly attacking an Assyrian Christian bishop during a livestreamed service at a church in Sydney's southwest after days in hospital.  Police say the Australian boss of a transnational organised crime syndicate was living in Brisbane's suburbia as he masterminded a series of huge drug shipments including a “botched” 900kg cocaine import where bricks of the drugs washed ashore.  Owners of short-term accommodation, such as Airbnb and Stayz properties, will be slugged hundreds more in rates, under a proposal by Adelaide City Council. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pro-Palestine activists are turning up at University of Melbourne classrooms and photographing students after asking   for a show of hands to indicate who agrees with their views on the Israel-Gaza war.  A teenager has been charged after allegedly attacking an Assyrian Christian bishop during a livestreamed service at a church in Sydney's southwest after days in hospital.  Police say the Australian boss of a transnational organised crime syndicate was living in Brisbane's suburbia as he masterminded a series of huge drug shipments including a “botched” 900kg cocaine import where bricks of the drugs washed ashore.  Owners of short-term accommodation, such as Airbnb and Stayz properties, will be slugged hundreds more in rates, under a proposal by Adelaide City Council. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At about 7pm on Monday night, a teenager wearing a black hoodie walked up to a bishop conducting a service in an Orthodox church in western Sydney and allegedly stabbed him repeatedly. Police have labelled it an act of terrorism, and community leaders are calling for calm. Reporter Mostafa Rachwani tells Nour Haydar why emotions are running high in the Assyrian Christian and Muslim communities

Naseem Sadiq from Dohuk participated in the 75th anniversary of the UN Day of the Declaration of Human Rights. He delivered a lecture at the conference organised by the HR Commission in the Kurdistan Region. He spoke about the indigenous people of Iraq, the Assyrian Christians and the lack of many human rights towards the minorities in the region.

Charles Cooper continues his discussion of Eschatological Geography: The World Map at the Return of Jesus Christ. Today, Cooper describes the spiritual significance of recent historical events concerning the Assyrian people and their traditional homeland. The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) had a far more significant agenda than most Western Christians think. Just as one can see Satanic opposition to God's agenda in many historically significant events in the Bible that at first glance did not have explicit reference to Satan. The book of Esther, Isil's attempt to drive out the Assyrian Christians from their traditional homeland, has more to do with God's eschatological promise than many might know. Listen as Cooper explains.  

Naseem Sadiq's reports on The Mar Narsay Medical Centre's partnership with The Good Word group in Duhok_KRG of distributing free essential medication and critical medical supplies to widows lacking support and urgently requiring treatment for their critically ill children. The medicine was paid for by donations from Assyrians from different countries.

Episode 196 - Matthew Joudeh hosts an LGBTQ+ panel of Assyrians who openly share their unique experiences of being members of the LGBTQ+ community. Matthew leads the discussion, providing a safe space for these individuals to express their stories, challenges, and triumphs. Join us as we delve into the intersectionality of their Assyrian heritage and LGBTQ+ identities, fostering understanding, empathy, and unity within our community. This powerful episode aims to amplify voices and promote inclusivity, creating a platform for diverse narratives to be heard. Matthew Joudeh, born and raised in Turlock, Ca! Working and a full time student, at CSU Stanislaus! In this episode we discuss the importance of being an Assyrian LGBTQ ally and also the struggles that some of us have faced during the process of finding ourselves and coming out!  Rhoda Nazanin is an Assyrian Christian born in Isfahan, Iran. She immigrated to Los Angeles, CA with her family in 1993. After living in LA for 29 years, Rhoda moved to St. Louis, MO with her wife, Sarah in spring of 2022. Rhoda is a former Assembly of God pastor and congressional candidate for CA's 27th district.  Andre Shamoon is an Assyrian catholic born and raised in Turlock Ca. He is a proud transman who loves to spend time with family and friends or go to the gym!  Yeshua (ܝܫܘܥ) is a standup comedian living in New York City. He LOVES talking about being Assyrian to anyone and everyone. He talks about being Assyrian and Gay in his standup, hoping it will bring awareness of his Assyrian culture to the world; and to Assyrians, unity within the culture. Yeshua grew up in Turlock, CA and studied at UC Berkeley. Above all else, he loves proving to anyone that the singular strongest common bond every single culture on earth shares is diversity. And, indeed, diversity is God's work, and if you protest God's work then you are saying you know better than God. And you do not. Chris is an out and proud Assyrian from Chicago who currently lives in LA. A passionate cook, everyone Chris befriends is immediately force fed dolma and rice. As an actor, he loves turning Middle Eastern stereotypes on their heads with his web series @WahabbiBobbi. He's thrilled to have participated in this conversation and to connect with other queer Assyrians.  Bernadet Yaghobian is an Assyrian, Armenian, Iranian Christian. She was born in Iran and immigrated to California in 2000. She's a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has a private practice and also works at a non-profit, providing mental health services to unhoused population. She also has an unconditional love for elephants.  

Listen to the premiere episode of a new limited narrative series from American Jewish Committee (AJC): The Forgotten Exodus. Each Monday, for the next six weeks, AJC will release a new episode of The Forgotten Exodus, the first-ever narrative podcast series to focus exclusively on Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews. This week's episode focuses on Jews from Iraq. If you like what you hear, use the link below to subscribe before the next episode drops on August 8. Who are the Jews of Iraq? Why did they leave? And why do so many Iraqi Jews, even those born elsewhere, still consider Iraq their home?  Join us to uncover the answers to these questions through the inspiring story of Mizrahi Jewish cartoonist Carol Isaacs' family. Feeling alienated growing up as the only Jew in school from an Arab-majority country, Carol turned her longing for Iraq and the life her family left behind into a gripping graphic memoir, The Wolf of Baghdad.  Meanwhile, Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, professor of History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University, delves into the fascinating, yet the little-known history of Iraqi Jewry, from its roots in the region 2,600 years ago, to the antisemitic riots that led them to seek refuge in Israel, England, and the U.S. ____ Show Notes: Sign up to receive podcast updates here. Learn more about The Forgotten Exodus here.  Song credits: Thanks to Carol Isaacs and her band 3yin for permission to use The Wolf of Bagdad soundtrack. Portions of the following tracks can be heard throughout the episode:  01 Dhikrayyat (al Qasabji)  02 Muqaddima Hijaz (trad)  03 Che Mali Wali (pt 1) (trad) 05 Fog el Nakhal (trad)  11 Balini-b Balwa (trad)  12 Al Effendi (al Kuwaiti)  14 Dililol (trad)  15 Che Mail Wali (pt 2) (trad)  Pond5: “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837; “Sentimental Oud Middle Eastern”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Sotirios Bakas (BMI), IPI#797324989. ____ Episode Transcript: CAROL ISAACS: A lot of businesses were trashed, houses were burnt. It was an awful time. And that was a kind of time when the Jews of Iraq had started to think, ‘Well, maybe this isn't our homeland after all.' MANYA BRACHEAR PASHMAN: Welcome to the premiere of the first ever podcast series devoted exclusively to an overlooked episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in Arab nations and Iran in the mid-20th century. Some fled antisemitism, mistreatment, and pogroms that sparked a refugee crisis like no other, as persecuted Jewish communities poured from numerous directions.  Others sought opportunities for their families or followed the calling to help create a Jewish state. In Israel, America, Italy, wherever they landed, these Jews forged new lives for themselves and future generations. This series explores that pivotal moment in Jewish history and the rich Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations as some begin to build relations with Israel. Each week, we will share the history of one Jewish family with roots in the Arab world. Each account is personal and different. Some include painful memories or elegies for what could've been. Others pay homage to the conviction of their ancestors to seek a life where they were wanted. To ground each episode, we rely on a scholar to untangle the complexities. Some of these stories have never been told because they wished to leave the past in the past. For those of you who, like me, before this project began, never read this chapter in Jewish history, we hope you find this series enlightening. And for those who felt ignored for so many decades, we hope these stories honor your families' legacies. Join us as we explore stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience.  I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman, and this is The Forgotten Exodus.   Today's episode: Leaving Iraq.   CAROL: All my life, I've lived in two worlds – one inside the family home, which is a very Jewish world, obviously, but also tinged with Iraqi customs like Iraqi food, a language we spoke—Judeo Arabic. So, I've always known that I'm not just British. I've lived in these two worlds, the one at home, and then the one at school. And then later on at work, which was very English. I went to a terribly English school, for example, there were about a thousand girls. Of those thousand girls, 30 were Jewish, and I was the only Mizrahi, the only non-European Jew. So, there's always been that knowing that I'm not quite fitting into boxes. Do you know what I mean? But I never quite knew which box I fit into. MANYA: Carol Isaacs makes her living illustrating the zeitgeists of our time, poking fun at the irony all around us, reminding us of our common quirks. And she fits it all into a tiny box. You might not know Carol by her given name, but you've probably seen her pen name, scrawled in the corner of her cartoons published by The New Yorker and Spectator magazines: TS McCoy, or The Surreal McCoy.  Carol is homesick for a home she never knew. Born and raised Jewish in London, she grew up hearing stories of her parents' life in Baghdad. How her family members learned to swim in the Tigris River using the bark of palm trees as life preservers, how they shopped in the city sooks for dates to bake b'ab'e b'tamer.  Millions of Jews have called Iraq home for more than 2,600 years, including many of their children and grandchildren who have never been there, but long to go. Like Carol, they were raised with indelible stories of daily life in Mosul, Basra, Baghdad – Jewish life that ceased to exist because it ceased to be safe. CAROL: My mother remembered sitting with her mother and her grandmother and all the family in the cellar, going through every single grain of rice for chometz. Now, if you imagine that there were eight days of Passover, I don't know 10, 12 people in the household, plus guests, they ate rice at least twice a day. You can imagine how much rice you'd have to go through. So little things like that, you know, that would give you a window into another world completely, that they remembered with so much fondness.  And it's been like that all my life. I've had this nostalgia for this, this place that my parents used to . . . now and again they'd talk about it, this place that I've never visited and I've never known. But it would be wonderful to go and just smell the same air that my ancestors smelled, you know, walk around the same streets in the Jewish Quarter. The houses are still there, the old Jewish Quarter. They're a bit run down. Well, very run down. MANYA: Carol turned her longing for Iraq and the life her family left behind into a graphic memoir and animated film called The Wolf of Baghdad. Think Art Spiegelman's Maus, the graphic novel about the Holocaust, but for Jews in Iraq who on the holiday of Shavuot in 1941 suffered through a brutal pogrom known as the Farhud, followed by decades of persecution, and ultimately, expulsion. Her research for the book involved conversations with family members who had never spoken about the violence and hatred they witnessed. They had left it in the past and now looked toward the future. There's no dialogue in the book either. The story arc simply follows the memories. CAROL: They wanted to look forward. So, it was really gratifying that they did tell me these things. ‘Cause when my parents came, for example, they came to the UK, it was very much ‘Look forward. We are British now.' My father was the quintessential city gent. He'd go to the office every day in the city of London with his pinstriped suit, and a rose plucked from the front garden, you know, a copy of The Guardian newspaper under his arm. He was British. We listened to classical music. We didn't listen to the music of my heritage. It was all Western music in the house. MANYA: But her father's Muslim and Christian business associates in Iraq visited regularly, as long as they could safely travel.    CAROL: On a Sunday, every month, our house would turn into little Baghdad. They would come and my mother would feed them these delicacies that she spent all week making and they'd sit and they'd talk. MANYA: As Carol said, she had heard only fond memories throughout her childhood because for millennia, Jews in Iraq lived in harmony with their Muslim and Christian neighbors.  CAROL: Jews have always lived in Mesopotamia, lived generally quite well. There was always the dimmi status, which is a status given to minorities. For example, they had to pay a certain tax, had to wear certain clothing. Sometimes, they weren't allowed to build houses higher than their neighbor, because they weren't allowed to be above their neighbor. They couldn't ride a horse, for example, Jews. I mean, small little rules, that you were never quite accorded full status. But then when the Brits arrived in 1917, things became a bit easier. MANYA: But 20-some years later, life for Jews took a turn for the worse. That sudden and dramatic turning point in 1941 was called The Farhud. ZVI BEN-DOR BENITE: Jews have been living in Iraq for thousands of years. If we start with the Farhud, we are starting in the middle of the story, in fact, in the middle of the end.” MANYA: That's Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, a professor of history and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. The son of Iraqi Jewish parents who migrated to Israel in the early 1950s, he carries in his imagination maps of old Jewish neighborhoods in Mosul and Baghdad, etched by his parents' stories of life in the old country. He shares Carol's longing to walk those same streets one day.  ZVI: Iraqis, even those who were born in Israel, still self-identify as Iraqis and still consider that home to a certain extent – an imaginary home, but home. And you can say the same thing, and even more so, for people who were born there and lived there at the time. So here's the thing: if I go there, I would be considering myself a returnee. But it would be my first time. MANYA: As a Jew, Zvi knows the chances of his returning are slim. To this day, Iraq remains the only Arab country that has never signed a ceasefire with Israel since Arab nations declared war on the Jewish state upon its creation in 1948. Jews are not safe there. Really, no one has been for a while. The dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, ISIS, and general civil unrest have made modern-day Iraq dangerous for decades. The region is simply unstable. The centuries leading up to the Farhud in 1941 were no different. The territory originally known as Mesopotamia flipped from empire to empire, including Babylonian, Mongol, Safavids, Ottoman, British. Just to name a few. But during those centuries, Iraq was historically diverse – home to Muslims, Jews, Assyrian Christians. Yes, Jews were a minority and faced some limitations. But that didn't change the fact that they loved the place they called home.  ZVI: We zoom in on the Farhud because it is a relatively unique event. Jews in Iraq were highly integrated, certainly those who lived in the big cities and certainly those who lived in Baghdad. Few reasons to talk about this integration. First of all, they spoke Arabic. Second of all, they participated in the Iraqi transition to modernity. In many ways, the Jewish community even spearheaded Iraqi society's transition into modernity. Of course, you know, being a minority, it means that not everything is rosy, and I'm not in any way trying to make it as a rosy situation. But if you compare it to the experiences of European Jews, certainly Europeans in the Pale of Settlement or in Eastern Europe, it's a much lovelier situation. Many Jews participate in Iraqi politics in different ways. Many Jews joined the Communist Party, in fact, lead the Communist Party to a certain extent. Others join different parties that highly identify in terms of Iraqi nationalism. MANYA: Very few Iraqi Jews identified with the modern Zionist movement, a Jewish nationalist movement to establish a state on the ancestral homeland of the Jews, then known as Palestine. Still, Iraqi Jews were not immune from Arab hostility toward the notion of Jewish self-determination. Adding to that tension: the Nazi propaganda that poured out of the German embassy in Baghdad.  CAROL: Mein Kampf was translated into Arabic and published in all the newspapers there. There were broadcasts coming from Radio Berlin, in Arabic, politicizing Islam and generally manipulating certain texts from the Quran, to show that Jews were the enemies of Islam. So, there was this constant drip, drip of antisemitism. ZVI: Another factor is, of course, the British. There is an anti-British government in Baghdad at the time, during the period of someone who went down in history as a Nazi collaborator, Rashid Ali. And Rashid Ali's been removed just before the British retake Iraq. We should remember that basically, even though Iraq is a kind of constitutional monarchy, the British run the show behind the scenes for a very, very long time. So, there is a little bit of a hiatus over several months with Rashid Ali, and then when he is removed, you know, people blame the Jews for that. MANYA: On the afternoon of June 1, 1941, Jews in Baghdad prepared to celebrate the traditional Jewish harvest festival of Shavuot. Violent mobs descended on the celebrants. CAROL: In those two days the mobs ran riot and took it all out on the Jews. We don't, to this day, we don't know how many Jews died. Conservative estimates say about 120. We think it was in the thousands. Certainly, a lot of businesses were trashed, houses were burnt, women raped, mutilated, babies killed. It was an awful time. And that was a kind of time when the Jews of Iraq had started to think, ‘Well, maybe this isn't our homeland after all.' MANYA: The mobs were a fraction of the Iraqi population. Many Muslim residents protected their Jewish neighbors.  CAROL: One of my relations said that during the Farhud, the pogrom, that her neighbors stood guard over their house, Muslim neighbors, and told the mobs that they wouldn't let them in that these people are our family, our friends. They wouldn't let them in. They looked after each other, they protected each other. MANYA: But the climate in Iraq was no longer one in which Jews could thrive. Now they just hoped to survive. In the mid-to-late 40s, Carol's father, who worked for the British army during World War II, left for the United Kingdom and, as the eldest son, began to bring his family out one by one. Then came 1948. Israel declared independence and five Arab nations declared war.  ZVI: So, Iraq sent soldiers to fight as part of the Arab effort in Palestine, and they began to come back in coffins. I mean, there's a sense of defeat. Three deserters, three Iraqi soldiers that deserted the war, and crossed the desert back to Iraq, and they landed up in Mosul on the Eve of Passover in 1949. And they knocked on the door of one of my uncles. And they said, they were hosted by this Jewish family. And they were telling the Jews, who were their hosts that evening, about the war in Palestine, and about what was going on and so on. This is just an isolated case, but the point is that you know, it raises the tension in the population, and it raises the tensions against Jews tenfold. But there's no massive movement of Iraqi Jews, even though the conditions are worsening. In other words, it becomes uneasy for someone to walk in the street as a Jew. There is a certain sense of fear that is going on. And then comes the legal action. MANYA: That legal action, transacted with the state of Israel and facilitated by Zionist operatives, set the most significant exodus in motion. In 1950, the Iraqi government gave its Jewish citizens a choice. Renounce their Iraqi citizenship, take only what fits in a suitcase, and board a flight to Israel, or stay and face an uncertain future. The offer expired in a year, meaning those who stayed would no longer be allowed to leave. ZVI: If you're a Jew in Iraq in 1950, you are plunged into a very, very cruel dilemma. First of all, you don't know what the future holds. You do know that the present, after 1948, suggests worsening conditions. There is a sense that, you know, all the Jews are sort of a fifth column. All of them are associated with Zionism, even though you know, the Zionist movement is actually very small. There are certain persecutions of Zionists and communists who are Jews as well. And, you know, there have been mass arrests of them, you know, particularly of the young, younger Jewish population, so you don't know. And then the state comes in and says, ‘Look, you get one year to stay or to leave. If you leave, you leave. If you stay, you're gonna get stuck here.' Now, just think about presenting someone with that dilemma after 1935 and the Nuremberg Laws, after what happened in Europe. MANYA: In all, 120,000 Iraqi Jews leave for Israel over nine months – 90% of Iraqi Jewry. For the ten percent who stayed, they became a weak and endangered minority. Many Iraqis, including the family on Carol's mother's side, eventually escaped to America and England.  CAROL: My mother and my father were separated by a generation. My father was much older, 23 years older than my mother. So, he had a different view of life in Baghdad. When he was around, it was generally very peaceful. The Jews were allowed to live quite, in peace with their neighbors. But with my mother's generation and younger, it was already the beginning – the rot had started to set in. So, she had a different view entirely. CAROL: My grandmother, maternal grandmother, was the last one to come out of our family, to come out of Iraq. She left in ‘63. And my dad managed to get her out. MANYA: After Israel defeated another Arab onslaught in 1967, thousands more fled. ZVI: This was a glorious community, a large community, which was part of the fabric of society for centuries, if not millennia. And then, in one dramatic day, in a very, very short period, it just basically evaporated. And what was left is maybe 10 percent, which may be elite, that decided to risk everything by staying. But even they, at the end, had to leave.  MANYA: Remember, Carol said she was one of 30 Jewish girls at her school, but the only Mizrahi Jew. The term Mizrahi, which means “Eastern” in Hebrew, refers to the diaspora of descendants of Jewish communities from Middle Eastern countries such as: Iraq, Iran, and Yemen, and North African countries such as: Egypt, Libya, and Morocco. CAROL: It's been interesting. A lot of people didn't even know that there were Jews living in Arab lands. I mean, for all my life, I've been told, ‘Oh, you're Jewish, you speak Yiddish, you come from Poland. You eat smoked salmon and bagels. You say ‘oy vey,' which is great if you do all those things and you do come from Eastern Europe, but I don't. Almost 1 million Jews of Arab lands, nobody knows about what happened to them, that they were ethnically cleansed, removed from their homes, and dispersed across the world. It's our truth. And it's our history and make of it what you will, just add it to other family histories that we know. MANYA: Carol has discovered that even Iraqis did not know of their country's rich Jewish past, nor the fate of its Jewish citizens. Since the animated version of The Wolf of Baghdad premiered at the Israeli and Iraqi embassies in London, accompanied by Carol's accordion and other musicians playing its Judeo-Arabic soundtrack, Iraqis in the audience have been moved to tears.  CAROL: At one Q&A, after we did a performance, one Iraqi gentleman stood up at the front. He was crying. He said, ‘I'm really sorry for what we did to you. I'm so sorry.' And that was immensely moving for me. It was like, well, you know what? We're talking now. It's wonderful. We can sit down together. We can talk in a shared language. We can talk about our shared culture, and we've got more that ties us together than separates us. We've got more in common, right? So, I'm always looking for that, that kind of positive, and so far it's come back to me, multiplied by a million, which has been brilliant. The truth is coming to light, that people know that the Jews of Iraq contributed so much, not just culturally but also socially, in the government too. So, it's this reaching out from Iraq to its lost Jews saying ‘Well where are you? What happened to you? Tell us your story. We want to see where you are. Come back even,' some of them are saying. MANYA: Carol has continued to give a voice to the Jewish refugees of Iraq. Most recently, she has been adapting The Wolf of Baghdad for younger, middle school-aged readers to better understand the story. And high schools in London and Canada have added The Wolf of Baghdad to their history curriculum.  CAROL: Leaving Iraq was called the silent exodus for a reason. We just left quietly and without fuss, and just went and made our lives elsewhere. I do know that life was difficult for them wherever they went, but they just got on with it, like refugees will do everywhere. MANYA: These Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who, in the last century left Arab countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations. Join us next week as we share another untold story of The Forgotten Exodus. Many thanks to Carol Isaacs for sharing her family's story and to her band 3yin for the music. Throughout this episode, you have been listening to pieces of the soundtrack from The Wolf of Baghdad motion comic performed by 3yin, a groundbreaking London based band that plays Jewish melodies from the Middle East and North Africa. The soundtrack is available at thesurrealmccoy.com. Atara Lakritz is our producer, CucHuong Do is our production manager. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Sean Savage, Ian Kaplan, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name really, for making this series possible. And extra special thanks to David Harris, who has been a constant champion for making sure these stories do not remain untold. You can subscribe to The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/forgottenexodus.  The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC.  You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.

Who are the Jews of Iraq? Why did they leave? And why do so many Iraqi Jews, even those born elsewhere, still consider Iraq their home?  The premiere episode of a new limited narrative series from American Jewish Committee (AJC) uncovers the answers to these questions through the inspiring story of Mizrahi Jewish cartoonist Carol Isaacs' family. Feeling alienated growing up as the only Jew in school from an Arab-majority country, Carol turned her longing for Iraq and the life her family left behind into a gripping graphic memoir, The Wolf of Baghdad.  Meanwhile, Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, professor of History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University, delves into the fascinating, yet the little-known history of Iraqi Jewry, from its roots in the region 2,600 years ago, to the antisemitic riots that led them to seek refuge in Israel, England, and the U.S. _________ Show notes: Sign up to receive podcast updates here. Learn more about the series here. Song credits: Thanks to Carol Isaacs and her band 3yin for permission to use The Wolf of Bagdad soundtrack. Portions of the following tracks can be heard throughout the episode:  01 Dhikrayyat (al Qasabji)  02 Muqaddima Hijaz (trad)  03 Che Mali Wali (pt 1) (trad) 05 Fog el Nakhal (trad)  11 Balini-b Balwa (trad)  12 Al Effendi (al Kuwaiti)  14 Dililol (trad)  15 Che Mail Wali (pt 2) (trad)  Pond5: “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837; “Sentimental Oud Middle Eastern”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Sotirios Bakas (BMI), IPI#797324989. ______ Episode Transcript: CAROL ISAACS: A lot of businesses were trashed, houses were burnt. It was an awful time. And that was a kind of time when the Jews of Iraq had started to think, ‘Well, maybe this isn't our homeland after all.' MANYA BRACHEAR PASHMAN: Welcome to the premiere of the first ever podcast series devoted exclusively to an overlooked episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in Arab nations and Iran in the mid-20th century. Some fled antisemitism, mistreatment, and pogroms that sparked a refugee crisis like no other, as persecuted Jewish communities poured from numerous directions.  Others sought opportunities for their families or followed the calling to help create a Jewish state. In Israel, America, Italy, wherever they landed, these Jews forged new lives for themselves and future generations. This series explores that pivotal moment in Jewish history and the rich Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations as some begin to build relations with Israel. Each week, we will share the history of one Jewish family with roots in the Arab world. Each account is personal and different. Some include painful memories or elegies for what could've been. Others pay homage to the conviction of their ancestors to seek a life where they were wanted. To ground each episode, we rely on a scholar to untangle the complexities. Some of these stories have never been told because they wished to leave the past in the past. For those of you who, like me, before this project began, never read this chapter in Jewish history, we hope you find this series enlightening. And for those who felt ignored for so many decades, we hope these stories honor your families' legacies. Join us as we explore stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience.  I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman, and this is The Forgotten Exodus. Today's episode: Leaving Iraq. CAROL: All my life, I've lived in two worlds – one inside the family home, which is a very Jewish world, obviously, but also tinged with Iraqi customs like Iraqi food, a language we spoke—Judeo Arabic. So, I've always known that I'm not just British. I've lived in these two worlds, the one at home, and then the one at school. And then later on at work, which was very English. I went to a terribly English school, for example, there were about a thousand girls. Of those thousand girls, 30 were Jewish, and I was the only Mizrahi, the only non-European Jew. So, there's always been that knowing that I'm not quite fitting into boxes. Do you know what I mean? But I never quite knew which box I fit into. MANYA: Carol Isaacs makes her living illustrating the zeitgeists of our time, poking fun at the irony all around us, reminding us of our common quirks. And she fits it all into a tiny box. You might not know Carol by her given name, but you've probably seen her pen name, scrawled in the corner of her cartoons published by The New Yorker and Spectator magazines: TS McCoy, or The Surreal McCoy.  Carol is homesick for a home she never knew. Born and raised Jewish in London, she grew up hearing stories of her parents' life in Baghdad. How her family members learned to swim in the Tigris River using the bark of palm trees as life preservers, how they shopped in the city sooks for dates to bake b'ab'e b'tamer.  Millions of Jews have called Iraq home for more than 2,600 years, including many of their children and grandchildren who have never been there, but long to go. Like Carol, they were raised with indelible stories of daily life in Mosul, Basra, Baghdad – Jewish life that ceased to exist because it ceased to be safe. CAROL: My mother remembered sitting with her mother and her grandmother and all the family in the cellar, going through every single grain of rice for chometz. Now, if you imagine that there were eight days of Passover, I don't know 10, 12 people in the household, plus guests, they ate rice at least twice a day. You can imagine how much rice you'd have to go through. So little things like that, you know, that would give you a window into another world completely, that they remembered with so much fondness.  And it's been like that all my life. I've had this nostalgia for this, this place that my parents used to . . . now and again they'd talk about it, this place that I've never visited and I've never known. But it would be wonderful to go and just smell the same air that my ancestors smelled, you know, walk around the same streets in the Jewish Quarter. The houses are still there, the old Jewish Quarter. They're a bit run down. Well, very run down. MANYA: Carol turned her longing for Iraq and the life her family left behind into a graphic memoir and animated film called The Wolf of Baghdad. Think Art Spiegelman's Maus, the graphic novel about the Holocaust, but for Jews in Iraq who on the holiday of Shavuot in 1941 suffered through a brutal pogrom known as the Farhud, followed by decades of persecution, and ultimately, expulsion. Her research for the book involved conversations with family members who had never spoken about the violence and hatred they witnessed. They had left it in the past and now looked toward the future. There's no dialogue in the book either. The story arc simply follows the memories. CAROL: They wanted to look forward. So, it was really gratifying that they did tell me these things. ‘Cause when my parents came, for example, they came to the UK, it was very much ‘Look forward. We are British now.' My father was the quintessential city gent. He'd go to the office every day in the city of London with his pinstriped suit, and a rose plucked from the front garden, you know, a copy of The Guardian newspaper under his arm. He was British. We listened to classical music. We didn't listen to the music of my heritage. It was all Western music in the house. MANYA: But her father's Muslim and Christian business associates in Iraq visited regularly, as long as they could safely travel.    CAROL: On a Sunday, every month, our house would turn into little Baghdad. They would come and my mother would feed them these delicacies that she spent all week making and they'd sit and they'd talk. MANYA: As Carol said, she had heard only fond memories throughout her childhood because for millennia, Jews in Iraq lived in harmony with their Muslim and Christian neighbors.  CAROL: Jews have always lived in Mesopotamia, lived generally quite well. There was always the dimmi status, which is a status given to minorities. For example, they had to pay a certain tax, had to wear certain clothing. Sometimes, they weren't allowed to build houses higher than their neighbor, because they weren't allowed to be above their neighbor. They couldn't ride a horse, for example, Jews. I mean, small little rules, that you were never quite accorded full status. But then when the Brits arrived in 1917, things became a bit easier. MANYA: But 20-some years later, life for Jews took a turn for the worse. That sudden and dramatic turning point in 1941 was called The Farhud. ZVI BEN-DOR BENITE: Jews have been living in Iraq for thousands of years. If we start with the Farhud, we are starting in the middle of the story, in fact, in the middle of the end.” MANYA: That's Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, a professor of history and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. The son of Iraqi Jewish parents who migrated to Israel in the early 1950s, he carries in his imagination maps of old Jewish neighborhoods in Mosul and Baghdad, etched by his parents' stories of life in the old country. He shares Carol's longing to walk those same streets one day.  ZVI: Iraqis, even those who were born in Israel, still self-identify as Iraqis and still consider that home to a certain extent – an imaginary home, but home. And you can say the same thing, and even more so, for people who were born there and lived there at the time. So here's the thing: if I go there, I would be considering myself a returnee. But it would be my first time. MANYA: As a Jew, Zvi knows the chances of his returning are slim. To this day, Iraq remains the only Arab country that has never signed a ceasefire with Israel since Arab nations declared war on the Jewish state upon its creation in 1948. Jews are not safe there. Really, no one has been for a while. The dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, ISIS, and general civil unrest have made modern-day Iraq dangerous for decades. The region is simply unstable. The centuries leading up to the Farhud in 1941 were no different. The territory originally known as Mesopotamia flipped from empire to empire, including Babylonian, Mongol, Safavids, Ottoman, British. Just to name a few. But during those centuries, Iraq was historically diverse – home to Muslims, Jews, Assyrian Christians. Yes, Jews were a minority and faced some limitations. But that didn't change the fact that they loved the place they called home.  ZVI: We zoom in on the Farhud because it is a relatively unique event. Jews in Iraq were highly integrated, certainly those who lived in the big cities and certainly those who lived in Baghdad. Few reasons to talk about this integration. First of all, they spoke Arabic. Second of all, they participated in the Iraqi transition to modernity. In many ways, the Jewish community even spearheaded Iraqi society's transition into modernity. Of course, you know, being a minority, it means that not everything is rosy, and I'm not in any way trying to make it as a rosy situation. But if you compare it to the experiences of European Jews, certainly Europeans in the Pale of Settlement or in Eastern Europe, it's a much lovelier situation. Many Jews participate in Iraqi politics in different ways. Many Jews joined the Communist Party, in fact, lead the Communist Party to a certain extent. Others join different parties that highly identify in terms of Iraqi nationalism. MANYA: Very few Iraqi Jews identified with the modern Zionist movement, a Jewish nationalist movement to establish a state on the ancestral homeland of the Jews, then known as Palestine. Still, Iraqi Jews were not immune from Arab hostility toward the notion of Jewish self-determination. Adding to that tension: the Nazi propaganda that poured out of the German embassy in Baghdad.  CAROL: Mein Kampf was translated into Arabic and published in all the newspapers there. There were broadcasts coming from Radio Berlin, in Arabic, politicizing Islam and generally manipulating certain texts from the Quran, to show that Jews were the enemies of Islam. So, there was this constant drip, drip of antisemitism. ZVI: Another factor is, of course, the British. There is an anti-British government in Baghdad at the time, during the period of someone who went down in history as a Nazi collaborator, Rashid Ali. And Rashid Ali's been removed just before the British retake Iraq. We should remember that basically, even though Iraq is a kind of constitutional monarchy, the British run the show behind the scenes for a very, very long time. So, there is a little bit of a hiatus over several months with Rashid Ali, and then when he is removed, you know, people blame the Jews for that. MANYA: On the afternoon of June 1, 1941, Jews in Baghdad prepared to celebrate the traditional Jewish harvest festival of Shavuot. Violent mobs descended on the celebrants. CAROL: In those two days the mobs ran riot and took it all out on the Jews. We don't, to this day, we don't know how many Jews died. Conservative estimates say about 120. We think it was in the thousands. Certainly, a lot of businesses were trashed, houses were burnt, women raped, mutilated, babies killed. It was an awful time. And that was a kind of time when the Jews of Iraq had started to think, ‘Well, maybe this isn't our homeland after all.' MANYA: The mobs were a fraction of the Iraqi population. Many Muslim residents protected their Jewish neighbors.  CAROL: One of my relations said that during the Farhud, the pogrom, that her neighbors stood guard over their house, Muslim neighbors, and told the mobs that they wouldn't let them in that these people are our family, our friends. They wouldn't let them in. They looked after each other, they protected each other. MANYA: But the climate in Iraq was no longer one in which Jews could thrive. Now they just hoped to survive. In the mid-to-late 40s, Carol's father, who worked for the British army during World War II, left for the United Kingdom and, as the eldest son, began to bring his family out one by one. Then came 1948. Israel declared independence and five Arab nations declared war.  ZVI: So, Iraq sent soldiers to fight as part of the Arab effort in Palestine, and they began to come back in coffins. I mean, there's a sense of defeat. Three deserters, three Iraqi soldiers that deserted the war, and crossed the desert back to Iraq, and they landed up in Mosul on the Eve of Passover in 1949. And they knocked on the door of one of my uncles. And they said, they were hosted by this Jewish family. And they were telling the Jews, who were their hosts that evening, about the war in Palestine, and about what was going on and so on. This is just an isolated case, but the point is that you know, it raises the tension in the population, and it raises the tensions against Jews tenfold. But there's no massive movement of Iraqi Jews, even though the conditions are worsening. In other words, it becomes uneasy for someone to walk in the street as a Jew. There is a certain sense of fear that is going on. And then comes the legal action. MANYA: That legal action, transacted with the state of Israel and facilitated by Zionist operatives, set the most significant exodus in motion. In 1950, the Iraqi government gave its Jewish citizens a choice. Renounce their Iraqi citizenship, take only what fits in a suitcase, and board a flight to Israel, or stay and face an uncertain future. The offer expired in a year, meaning those who stayed would no longer be allowed to leave. ZVI: If you're a Jew in Iraq in 1950, you are plunged into a very, very cruel dilemma. First of all, you don't know what the future holds. You do know that the present, after 1948, suggests worsening conditions. There is a sense that, you know, all the Jews are sort of a fifth column. All of them are associated with Zionism, even though you know, the Zionist movement is actually very small. There are certain persecutions of Zionists and communists who are Jews as well. And, you know, there have been mass arrests of them, you know, particularly of the young, younger Jewish population, so you don't know. And then the state comes in and says, ‘Look, you get one year to stay or to leave. If you leave, you leave. If you stay, you're gonna get stuck here.' Now, just think about presenting someone with that dilemma after 1935 and the Nuremberg Laws, after what happened in Europe. MANYA: In all, 120,000 Iraqi Jews leave for Israel over nine months – 90% of Iraqi Jewry. For the ten percent who stayed, they became a weak and endangered minority. Many Iraqis, including the family on Carol's mother's side, eventually escaped to America and England.  CAROL: My mother and my father were separated by a generation. My father was much older, 23 years older than my mother. So, he had a different view of life in Baghdad. When he was around, it was generally very peaceful. The Jews were allowed to live quite, in peace with their neighbors. But with my mother's generation and younger, it was already the beginning – the rot had started to set in. So, she had a different view entirely. CAROL: My grandmother, maternal grandmother, was the last one to come out of our family, to come out of Iraq. She left in ‘63. And my dad managed to get her out. MANYA: After Israel defeated another Arab onslaught in 1967, thousands more fled. ZVI: This was a glorious community, a large community, which was part of the fabric of society for centuries, if not millennia. And then, in one dramatic day, in a very, very short period, it just basically evaporated. And what was left is maybe 10 percent, which may be elite, that decided to risk everything by staying. But even they, at the end, had to leave.  MANYA: Remember, Carol said she was one of 30 Jewish girls at her school, but the only Mizrahi Jew. The term Mizrahi, which means “Eastern” in Hebrew, refers to the diaspora of descendants of Jewish communities from Middle Eastern countries such as: Iraq, Iran, and Yemen, and North African countries such as: Egypt, Libya, and Morocco. CAROL: It's been interesting. A lot of people didn't even know that there were Jews living in Arab lands. I mean, for all my life, I've been told, ‘Oh, you're Jewish, you speak Yiddish, you come from Poland. You eat smoked salmon and bagels. You say ‘oy vey,' which is great if you do all those things and you do come from Eastern Europe, but I don't. Almost 1 million Jews of Arab lands, nobody knows about what happened to them, that they were ethnically cleansed, removed from their homes, and dispersed across the world. It's our truth. And it's our history and make of it what you will, just add it to other family histories that we know. MANYA: Carol has discovered that even Iraqis did not know of their country's rich Jewish past, nor the fate of its Jewish citizens. Since the animated version of The Wolf of Baghdad premiered at the Israeli and Iraqi embassies in London, accompanied by Carol's accordion and other musicians playing its Judeo-Arabic soundtrack, Iraqis in the audience have been moved to tears.  CAROL: At one Q&A, after we did a performance, one Iraqi gentleman stood up at the front. He was crying. He said, ‘I'm really sorry for what we did to you. I'm so sorry.' And that was immensely moving for me. It was like, well, you know what? We're talking now. It's wonderful. We can sit down together. We can talk in a shared language. We can talk about our shared culture, and we've got more that ties us together than separates us. We've got more in common, right? So, I'm always looking for that, that kind of positive, and so far it's come back to me, multiplied by a million, which has been brilliant. The truth is coming to light, that people know that the Jews of Iraq contributed so much, not just culturally but also socially, in the government too. So, it's this reaching out from Iraq to its lost Jews saying ‘Well where are you? What happened to you? Tell us your story. We want to see where you are. Come back even,' some of them are saying. MANYA: Carol has continued to give a voice to the Jewish refugees of Iraq. Most recently, she has been adapting The Wolf of Baghdad for younger, middle school-aged readers to better understand the story. And high schools in London and Canada have added The Wolf of Baghdad to their history curriculum.  CAROL: Leaving Iraq was called the silent exodus for a reason. We just left quietly and without fuss, and just went and made our lives elsewhere. I do know that life was difficult for them wherever they went, but they just got on with it, like refugees will do everywhere. MANYA: These Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who, in the last century left Arab countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations. Join us next week as we share another untold story of The Forgotten Exodus. Many thanks to Carol Isaacs for sharing her family's story and to her band 3yin for the music. Throughout this episode, you have been listening to pieces of the soundtrack from The Wolf of Baghdad motion comic performed by 3yin, a groundbreaking London based band that plays Jewish melodies from the Middle East and North Africa. The soundtrack is available at thesurrealmccoy.com. Atara Lakritz is our producer, CucHuong Do is our production manager. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Sean Savage, Ian Kaplan, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name really, for making this series possible. And extra special thanks to David Harris, who has been a constant champion for making sure these stories do not remain untold. You can subscribe to The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/forgottenexodus.  The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC.  You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.  

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts. www.catholicnewsagency.com - Pope Francis plans to visit Kazakhstan in September for an interreligious meeting. The pope intends to visit the Central Asian country for the seventh edition of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, taking place in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan in mid-September. Kazakhstan has also been proposed as a potential country that could serve as a location for a meeting between Pope Francis and Kirill, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, who is thought to have some influence on Vladimir Putin. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250949/pope-francis-plans-to-visit-kazakhstan-in-september Seven people were killed when a tank fired on a Caritas office in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol. The Catholic charitable organization Caritas-Spes announced April 11 that among the seven people killed by the Russian attack were two women staff members of Caritas Mariupol. Mariupol, a port city in southeastern Ukraine, was attacked by Russian forces on February 24, the first day of the full-scale invasion of the country. Ukrainian fighters have continued to resist the Russian advance on the city despite relentless bombing, which has destroyed many buildings and killed thousands of people. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250941/seven-people-killed-at-caritas-office-in-beseiged-city-of-mariupol After almost a decade of death and destruction, and one year after the historic visit of Pope Francis to Iraq, more than 25,000 Assyrian Christians celebrated Palm Sunday in northern Iraq over the weekend. The town of Qaraqosh became the Christian epicenter of Iraq during a procession and a Mass on April 10. Qaraqosh has been only partially rebuilt after years of assaults by ISIS, and it is estimated that only half of its original Christian population has returned. The Palm Sunday procession was decorated with palm fronds, roses, bright colors, and folkloric costumes characteristic of Holy Week and Easter. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250940/iraqi-christians-return-nineveh-holy-week A jury has convicted Ali Harbi Ali for the murder of British politician Sir David Amess, a pro-life Catholic. Ali stabbed Amess more than 20 times during an October 2021 attack at a Methodist Church in Essex, England. Amess had served in Parliament since 1983 and was a champion of pro-life causes. He also was instrumental in arranging Pope Benedict the sixteenth's visit to the UK Parliament in September 2010. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250944/guilty-verdict-for-murderer-of-catholic-mp-david-amess Today the Church celebrates Saint Giuseppe Moscati, the first modern medical doctor to be canonized. The Catholic understanding of body and soul informed his understanding of illness and medicine, as he saw Confession and Communion as the “first medicine.” To help the poor, he often donated his medical services or paid for his patients' prescriptions. He lived out the Gospel through his position as a teacher and physician. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-joseph-moscati-55

In episode 59, I interview Author of "I Prayed, God Answered" and Adoption Coach,  Poulyana Pazand Srouji. We discuss infertility, IVF-treatment, miscarriages, and adoption. Poulyana shares her journey with us very openly, honestly and vulnerably in order to support other women on the journey through infertility. She shares her pain, her struggles and at the end her joy at how she arrived at motherhood after multiple failed IVF-treatments and miscarriage. Poulyana works with couples and individuals now that want to start a family as their adoption coach. I trust this episode will help you and comfort you on your healing journey, so curl up on the couch or go for a walk and get ready to tune into today's episode. Connect with Poulyana at www.Poulyana.com Instagram: @poulyanapazandsrouji   BOOK LINK: "I prayed, GOD ANSWERED https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578645750/ref=cm_sw_r_em_api_glt_fabc_DVH13NWRHMVGD8TSXQWV Guest Bio Poulyana was born into a family of Assyrian Christians who immigrated from the Middle East to Chicago in 1979, when she was only seven months old. During her pre-teen years, her father moved to San Jose, CA so that he could provide better opportunities for the family. When she was a teenager, she discovered her passion for writing. She wrote poetry as often as she could, as it was a way of expressing myself. Not until later, in adulthood, did she find that writing could be a form of self-healing, as she began to journal her day-to-day struggles with infertility. Through her faith, she came to understand that there was a reason why she had been chosen to experience the obstacles and tribulations involved in achieving the family she had desired for so long. After many years, the experience opened her heart to adoption. Poulyana currently resides in California along with her husband and precious son. By day, she is a HR business partner for a healthcare organization. In 2019, she returned back to school to seek higher education to become a Psychotherapist to support couples during their infertility journey. Her heart and soul are tied to yoga, reading, writing poetry and she is an avid adoption advocate.   To connect with me and see what services I offer please visit www.eiditc.com or find me on Instagram @eiditchoochage for inspiration & mental wellness tips. Enjoy the show! Have a topic suggestion? Email me your ideas at hello@eiditc.com  Please be sure to subscribe to the show and leave an honest review. Thank you so much! Disclaimer: I am a licensed therapist, but this show or myself does not replace seeking professional mental health services, including but not limited to therapy. If you or someone you know needs mental health support please visit www.nami.org to access free nationwide mental health support and resources or www.psychologytoday.com/us  to find a therapist near you.

Jonathan Kay speaks to famed Middle Eastern historian Benny Morris, whose latest book explores the ethnic cleansing of Turkey during the last decades of the Ottoman Empire

Jonathan Kay speaks to famed Middle Eastern historian Benny Morris, whose latest book explores the ethnic cleansing of Turkey during the last decades of the Ottoman Empire

0529 Guests Nahren Anwaya And Dr Ron Susek On Assyrian Christians Middle East by Kate Dalley

Three Assyrian Christians were arrested recently in Southeast Turkey. Assyrian Christians often face danger and have been brutally persecuted by ISIS. In this episode, host Jenny Rose Spaudo shares how you can be praying for these persecuted believers.

KPFA theatre critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Noura” by Heather Raffo, a co-production of Marin Theatre and Golden Thread, at Marin Theatre Company through Feb. 9, 2020. Text of review (audio is slightly different). The cost of war is always high. It's high at the start, through violence, destruction and the death of soldiers and innocent civilians. It's high later on through the rebuilding process, and it becomes higher still when, through unintended consequences, everything falls apart. That happened to Mosul, one of Iraq's largest cities, surviving the American invasionand then succumbing to the horrors of the ISIS takeover. When ISIS came in, Assyrian Christians were forced to leave their homes and their lives. Many came to America, and those exiled Iraqis are the subjects of Noura, a play by Heather Raffo, at Marin Theatre Company through February 9th, in a co-production with Golden Thread. It's Christmas, and Noura and her husband Tareq, have been living in New York City for the past eight years. They're expecting a visit from Maryam, an orphan girl who grew up in a convent, whom Noura sponsored for school in America. Tareq was a surgeon in Mosul but now can't operate because his hands never stop shaking. Noura was an architect, but once in America, she stopped pursuing her profession. Because of all the upheaval, she's no longer sure who she is. Iraqi? American? What is she? It's driving her crazy, and she's not making it easy on her husband, her young son, or their best friend, the muslim Rafa'a, whom Noura knew as a child growing up in Mosul. And then when Maryamm shows up, she's not at all what Noura expected. What Heather Raffo has done, and done well, is show how deep the collateral damage of war can run. Noura and Tareq have a nice life, their son is fully American, but they are neither here nor there. Iraq can never leave them, though realistically they know they can never go back. Even if they could, the Mosul Noura knew is gone forever. Denmo Ibrahim rules the stage as Noura, who wavers between being supportive of others, and anger that she's lost control of what's important.. Maya Narzai as the forthright Maryam and Mattico David as the supportive Tareq give equally strong performances, joined by Abraham Makany as Rafa'a. For most of its running time, the play brilliantly lays out the full brunt of the family's life as refugees. But then at the end, melodrama takes over. Every question is answered as a series of personal secrets are revealed. But really – there's no need. In a political play, the political IS personal. Noura by Heather Raffo, a co-production of Golden Thread and Marin Theatre Company plays at Marin Theatre Company thru February 9th. For more information you can go to Marin theatre.org. I'm Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA.     The post Review: Noura, at Marin Theatre Company appeared first on KPFA.

Juliana Taimoorazy of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council talks about the recent UN report on how the horrors of Assyrian Christians refugees are being ignored. Justin Whitmel Earley of The Common Rule talks about the importance of first looking at Scripture rather than our cellphones to set our day's agenda.

Juliana Taimoorazy of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council talks about the recent UN report on how the horrors of Assyrian Christians refugees are being ignored. Justin Whitmel Earley of The Common Rule talks about the importance of first looking at Scripture rather than our cellphones to set our day's agenda.

US Army ​Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) Sargis Sangari ​grew up in Iran​ of an ethnic Assyrian family. Sargis is CEO of The Near East Center for Strategic Engagement LLC​ and had six years of continuous combat deployment in the Mid East​-conducted 144 combat patrols, 22 Special Forces missions​ and surviv​ed 7 IED attacks. Col. Sargis Sangari has a deep skill set in Mid east languages and ​cultures and ​understands the plight of Assyrian and other Christians in the Mid East and now ​uses his 20 year military experience to help ​Assyrian Christians in their struggle against ISIS

Prophecy News, Blood Moon, Fulani crisis, Christian Persecution, Kurdish jizya tax, Yazidi rescue, More World events! | www.warn-usa.com | WIBR WARN Radio Steel the Darkness, A Christian Mystery Thriller; this is book one in a four book series. Learn more here: Steel the Darkness paperback http://amzn.to/2z4Kcpe Prophecy News, Blood Moon, Fulani crisis, Christian Persecution, Kurdish jizya tax, Yazidi rescue, More World events! | www.warn-usa.com | WIBR WARN Radio Today we look at Prophecy news and World events with Christian Persecution occurring and making headlines. The Fulani Militants in Nigeria continue to be a menace to believers; we have the story. Pakistani Christians are targeted by Hindu Extremists in India. Don't miss our coverage of testimony regarding the Samaritans Purse Alaskan couples ministry to Military couples. We look at the anti-Israel push in the world and discuss Spain's own involvement in it. Europe may not be Christian for long, let alone lukewarm. We also cover information on the Kurds, Assyrian Christians, and Yazidis who were targeted by ISIS. Get up to speed in the purpose and rise of Islam in Europe.

Youtube Podcast host Chuck Morse is joined by Lt. Col (RET) Sargis Sangari in a discussion about his work with the Assyrian Christian militia in Iraq. Support the Assyrian Christians: https://unitedassyrianappeal.org/​ Near East Center for Strategic Engagement: https://nec-se.com

An Assyrian Christian born and raised in Iran, Juliana Taimoorazy is the founder and president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, an organization that raises awareness about the persecuted church in Iraq and helps Assyrian refugees resettle in the United States. She is also a fellow with the Philos Project.

Atoor Merkail, Assyrian Christian whose immediate family – seeking stability and better life – left native Iraq last year to settle in Chicago area, part of Middle East minority with rich history, targeted by ISIS in recent years. She speaks to the Chicago Sun-Times' Face to Faith podcast about her experiences.

Weand're exploring the crisis facing the Assyrian Christians in the Middle East with Religious Liberty Analyst Elizabeth Kendal. Help Vision to keep 'Connecting Faith to Life': https://vision.org.au/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No people group on earth has lived in their homeland quite as long as the Assyrians of northern Iraq. This small tribe has suffered millennia of persecution, but for the entire church age have embraced Jesus Christ as their Lord. But today, through the actions of Islamic purists running amok, the Assyrians are barely hanging onto their lives and land. Many have fled to other countries, and many have died. In this rich interview with Juliana Taimoorazy, herself an Assyrian Christian from Iran, we learn about the outlook for this forgotten people. Indeed, Juliana's life work is to make the Assyrian people unforgettable. Will you please take some time to learn who they are, and what they face? Begin with this episode of the Citizen of New Jerusalem, but also go to the website of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, of which Juliana is founder and president. From there also see the Philos Project, (to which Juliana is a Senior Fellow)--an outreach to Westerners to educate and encourage us in positive engagement with the Middle East. This interview was a great privilege to conduct, and I hope you take its lessons with you as you think, pray, and act to show love to Christians under the heavy burden of persecution and displacement. Be sure to offer feedback here, or to donate here to keep this show going strong. Thank you all.

Marlene Matthew was born in Jerusalem, and her family moved to Australia after the 1967 war in Israel. She is an Assyrian Christian and she speaks Aramaic, Arabic and English. I met her in a restaurant in Bethlehem, where we heard a Palestinian Pastor preach to a group of Aussies about his mission to reach the Arab world for Christ! She ministers to Muslims regularly and leads tours to Israel, Jordan and Egypt, during the Feast of Tabernacles. Her passion to share the gospel is contagious, this is a must listen!

Guest Introduction:â?? â??Emanuel Khoshaba Youkhana is Secretary General of the Assyrian Patriotic Party and Commander in Chief of the Assyrian Armed Forces (Dwekh Nawsha) and was born in Kirkuk. He represented the Assyrian people for the Nineveh province in the founding conference of the new Iraq, and the Iraqi Parliament in 2003. Emanuel Khoshaba called for the establishment of the Assyrian Army (DWEKH NAWSHA) forces, to defend the Assyrian people in 2014 after the occupation of IS in the Nineveh Plainâ?? and is their Commander in Chief. The United Assyrian Appeal.org helps the families of Assyrian Christian soldiers. Guest Introduction: â??US Army â??Ltâ??. Colâ??. (ret.) Sargis Sangari â??is â??the â??CEO of The Near East Center for Strategic Engagement LLCâ?? â??and â??Founder of the United Assyrian Appealâ??â??. â??Besides his six years of combat deployment in the Mid Eastâ??â?? â??â??including â??22 Special Forces missionsâ??â??, 144 combat patrolsâ?? and commanding men during numerous enemy attacksâ??â??, Sargisâ?? was accorded diplomatic status in Kuwait as Director of Host Nation Affairs. The United Assyrian Appeal â??focuses on assisting the Military Families of the Dwekh Nawshaâ??/Assyrian Armed Forces â??to stabilize the well being of Assyrians in Iraq & Syria. â??

#20 - Hitler declaring war on America (1941) (X-Post from Colorizedhistory)   #19 - 40 feet of snow, North Dakota 1966   #18 - Americans are flooding the government with appeals to have their student loans forgiven on the grounds that schools deceived them with false promises of a well-paying career—part of a growing protest against years of surging college costs.   #17 - German high court rules Facebook "Friend Finder" is unlawful, calling the contact-scraping tool a deceptive marketing practice   #16 -Anon posts some triggering statistics about the all white Oscars scandal   #15 - See #1   #14 - What happens when you park under a tree with millions of caterpillars in it   #13 -The same street, 71 years ago.   #12 - TIL: 60% of the Fat and 31% of the calories in Burger King's Chicken Sandwich come from the mayonnaise alone   #11 -Remember? Do you?   #10 - But no warnings about leopards...?   #9 - So my kid has now realized the full potential of the little recliner we got him.   #8 - A little survivor of the fires in south-western Australia   #7 - winter clothing #6 - This monkey protects this puppy from stray dogs. Makes sure the puppy eats first and is full and then monkey eats. #5 - The state of privacy in America: What we learned - "Fully 91% of adults agree or strongly agree that consumers have lost control of how personal information is collected and used by companies. #4 - ATM and overdraft fees top $6 billion at the big 3 banks   #3 - See #1   #2 - ISIS destroys Iraq's oldest Assyrian Christian monastery that stood for over 1,400 years   #1 - The solar system appears to have a new ninth planet. Today, two scientists announced evidence that a body nearly the size of Neptune—but as yet unseen—orbits the sun every 15,000 years.   Astronomers have announced the potential discovery of "Planet X", a Neptune-sized ninth planet in our solar system   Astronomers say a Neptune-sized planet lurks beyond Pluto       E-mail: feedback.ireadit@gmail.com Twitter: @ireaditcast Phone: (508)-738-2278   Michael Schwahn: @schwahnmichael Nathan Wood: @bimmenstein "Music" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

ISIS has been holding Assyrian Christians captive in Syria, but that may be coming to an end soon. Find out what happened with God's intervention.

CBN NewsWatch: March 2, 2015: Netanyahu in US for 'fateful, historic mission'; ISIS frees 19 Assyrian Christian captives; Rand Paul, Scott Walker - what you missed at CPAC; and more.

CBN NewsWatch: March 2, 2015: Netanyahu in US for 'fateful, historic mission'; ISIS frees 19 Assyrian Christian captives; Rand Paul, Scott Walker - what you missed at CPAC; and more.

CBN NewsWatch: March 2, 2015: Netanyahu in US for 'fateful, historic mission'; ISIS frees 19 Assyrian Christian captives; Rand Paul, Scott Walker - what you missed at CPAC; and more.

CBN NewsWatch: March 2, 2015: Netanyahu in US for 'fateful, historic mission'; ISIS frees 19 Assyrian Christian captives; Rand Paul, Scott Walker - what you missed at CPAC; and more.

CBN NewsWatch: March 2, 2015: Netanyahu in US for 'fateful, historic mission'; ISIS frees 19 Assyrian Christian captives; Rand Paul, Scott Walker - what you missed at CPAC; and more.

CBN NewsWatch: March 2, 2015: Netanyahu in US for 'fateful, historic mission'; ISIS frees 19 Assyrian Christian captives; Rand Paul, Scott Walker - what you missed at CPAC; and more.

CBN NewsWatch: March 2, 2015: Netanyahu in US for 'fateful, historic mission'; ISIS frees 19 Assyrian Christian captives; Rand Paul, Scott Walker - what you missed at CPAC; and more.

CBN NewsWatch: March 2, 2015: Netanyahu in US for 'fateful, historic mission'; ISIS frees 19 Assyrian Christian captives; Rand Paul, Scott Walker - what you missed at CPAC; and more.

CBN NewsWatch: March 2, 2015: Netanyahu in US for 'fateful, historic mission'; ISIS frees 19 Assyrian Christian captives; Rand Paul, Scott Walker - what you missed at CPAC; and more.

CBN NewsWatch: March 2, 2015: Netanyahu in US for 'fateful, historic mission'; ISIS frees 19 Assyrian Christian captives; Rand Paul, Scott Walker - what you missed at CPAC; and more.

Today's host(s): Scot Landry Today's guest(s): Sr. Olga Yaqob Today's topics: Sr. Olga Yaqob, foundress of the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth order Summary of today's show: Sr. Olga Yaqob joins Scot and shares with him her story of growing up in Iraq as an Assyrian Christian; her growing pull toward the Catholic Church; how she started a movement of love in response to war, including ministering to prisoners in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison; started the first order of religious women in the Assyrian Church in 700 years; came to Boston and eventually entered full communion with the Catholic Church; served as campus chaplain at Boston University; and was asked by Cardinal Sean to form the first new religious order of women in Boston in 45 years. 1st segment: Scot started by recalling that 33 years ago yesterday was the anniversary of the election of Pope John Paul II. Scot said joining us today on the show is Sr. Olga Yaqob, who is founding the first new religious order in Boston in five decades. Scot said Sr. Olga was living in Iraq in 1978 and was not part of the Roman Catholic Church, but was Assyrian Christian. She became a Roman Catholic much later. Sr. Olga said John Paul was part of her faith journey. She remembers the day he died. Earlier that year she'd started the full process of coming into full communion with the Church. He had inspired her desire to convert. She feels he's with her even more now that he's in heaven. Sister pointed out that Assyrian Christians are not in communion with Rome, while the Chaldean Catholics are. She grew up in northern Iraq, near Kirkuk, until she finished high school. Part of her ministry in Iraq was helping the victims of the first Persian Gulf War. Sr. Olga said her vocation was influenced by the suffering of her people. She was born in 1966 and has seen four wars: the war with Iran, first Gulf War, the 12 years of the embargo, and the second Gulf War. she was struck by the pain and despair of young people, who would say that it didn't matter if they went to school because they would die anyway. She wanted to give them hope by bringing them out to the streets of Kirkuk and Baghdad to see the pain of others, to make a difference for them and help them see a hope for the future. Sr. Olga said the Assyrian church does not religious sisters, but it was the example of the Blessed Mother that called her to the religious life.She grew up desiring to be set aside for the Lord, just like the liturgical items in the church. Her neighbors in her town were Catholic and she asked them why they went to Mass every day and they said it was because they were Catholic. They then introduced her to the rosary, to religious sisters, and to the presence of the Eucharist in the church. She told her father she wanted to become a religious sister and live next to the “red light” of the tabernacle lamp. She moved to Baghdad at one point. In high school, she saw so many dying in the Iran-Iraq War, she wanted to serve. She knew that Assyrians had not had religious sisters in 700 years until she became the first in 1995. So before that she went to the Patriarch and asked him if she could start a lay movement of young people serving others, called “Love Your Neighbor”. She said it was amazing to see Muslim young men and women join the movement too. It included Catholics and Assyrians as well. One of the prisons where Sr. Olga ministered was the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. She served prisoners there for seven years, including both criminals and political prisoners. She even walked with prisoners who were being taken for execution. She noted that there was no official prison chaplaincy so it was a special grace for her to be able to do that. She said the fact that the movement was a lay movement of people from all religions providing food and medication for everyone equally was the reason they gave her permission to work there. Sister said she walked with the death row inmates nearly every week, too many, and it stays with her. She began to study Islam in order to talk with the prisoners on their own religious terms. 2nd segment: Scot asked Sr. Olga about Muslim beliefs of the afterlife. Sr. Olga said there is a lot of emphasis on doing good in this life to determine where you will end up. Many of the prisoners focused on their misdeeds and believed that they would definitely be punished. They did not believe in the possibility of mercy and forgiveness. One prisoner told her that he couldn't understand why she cared for them when even their own families had cut them off. She told him that she did it for Christ because he loves them and wants to extend his mercy to them. Scot said Christians may take for granted how loving God is to us with all the sacraments to bring us into right relationship with God. He is infinitely loving and merciful to us. She said the example of their witness was a powerful example of the love of Christ to many in Baghdad. In 2000 she moved from Iraq to the United States. She said it was due to Pope John Paul II and his love for the people of Iraq. He had encouraged religious orders to go to Rome and so two Jesuits from Boston and two Salesians went to Iraq for 1999-2000 to teach at the seminary, and John Paul said that whoever reached summa cum laude would go to Rome with a full scholarship. Sister Olga was studying there, still not a Catholic, but she won. She was going to refuse it in favor of one of the seminarians, but the two Jesuits thought it was so big that a woman who was not Catholic and suffered so much for her education (four years of philosophy and tow years of theology), they asked the order to give her a full scholarship to Boston College. She arrived in 2001 without knowing English. She started learning English at Boston University, which a strong program for international students to learn English. Spent two years learning English. Then she entered the Masters program at BC in the fall of 2003. Even while she was still not proficient in English, she was asked to be a spiritual director by a young woman. She had to respond in her broken English that it would be better to find an American. She responded, “I didn't choose you because you would understand my English, but that you understand my heart.” At the time she was living with the Sisters of Charity. While she couldn't convert to Catholicism in Iraq, she did practice Catholic devotions, including consecration to the Sacred Heart, praying the rosary, attending Mass. Her parents did not approve and she was even beaten for it. In 2003, when the war started, she went back to see the religious order she started. She was told she had to go back to finish her schooling and was told that when she was done she had to come back either fully Assyrian or give up her order. She decided to approach Cardinal Sean and she had to join an Eastern-rite church in communion with Rome to continue as a religious sister. Finally, when she fully entered the Church as a Roman Catholic, she did so on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Mother, September 8, 2005. 3rd segment: After entering the Church, Cardinal Seán asked her to serve as campus minister at Boston University. When she was studying at BC, she had to do a field education component and was allowed to volunteer there for 2 years and after being received into the Church began full-time ministry. She said it was a very special place for her. She had many nicknames, including “Blue Lightning” and “Flying Nun” and “Sister Hug”, but her favorite was that all the kids would call her “Mother”. Every Mother's Day she would receive gifts from the students she ministered to. Her official title was Catholic chaplain at the Newman Center, but her ministry was to bring Christ to all the students. The highlight was being with the students every day. The Newman Center is at the center of the BU campus, which made her available to give a hug or talk with them or give them a smile. Walking around campus, being there on move-in day, attending weddings, being godmother for children of students and even for students who came into the Church. She's also been there in times of tragedy, when students have died on campus, to console faculty and staff and students. She was overwhelmed by the generosity of the university and the student community when it was announced that she would be living. They gave her many beautiful farewells. Scot said some of his favorite photos were the service trips with students, going on spring break with them to help in various places, including one trip to Honduras. She recalled visiting Appalachia with students and experiencing the regional dialect. She heard women saying “Howdy” to one another and she expressed surprise at hearing so many women with the same name: “Howdy!” The students she was with got great laughs at hearing her confusion. But now she really loves the Southern accent. 4th segment: Scot said Sr. Olga will soon be Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart now that Cardinal Sean has asked her to start the new religious order Daughters of Mary of Nazareth. She has just moved into her new convent, St. Joseph Convent, in Newton. She said Cardinal Sean first invited her to consider this 3 years ago. She said it's a big responsibility she doesn't take lightly. The theme of annunciation continues to be part of her journey. She finds it difficult that she didn't grow up in this culture and doesn't understand their background so how could she be a mother to the young women who join her order? But she turns to St. Joseph who must have wondered how he, a simple carpenter, could be a father to the Son of God. She doesn't want to just bring sisters to the Church, but holy sisters for the Church. To do so takes a lot of sacrifice. She said the new convent is rented and even the furniture has been donated as well as all the household goods. She is reliant on so much generosity. Parents and children, priests and seminarians have all been helping in so many ways. Scot said it has been a hope of Cardinal Sean to found a new order of religious order of women for years. Cardinal Sean said he hopes and prays that order will serve to promote the New Evangelization called for by Pope John Paul II. Sr. Olga said the main focus will be to live the life of Nazareth, to live in daily intimacy with Jesus just like Mary and Joseph and to bring his presence to others. Jesus lived in Nazareth for 28 years. The order will contemplative and apostolic at the same time. They will focus on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Evangelization is to be the living witness, the living sanctuary and its a call for everyone today. It could be through Catholic media, through healthcare, through every day work. Scot said six to eight women are in discernment to enter the order when the rule of life gets accepted by Cardinal Seán. She had a retreat for discerning women in May for six women and another 10 are signed up for another retreat coming up. They are all very devout young women. Some of them have a lot of student loans so it will take some time for those to enter. Six are expected to entered right away and the others in the spring. They will take the usual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and she has asked Cardinal Sean for a fourth vow of a public consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Scot said if someone wanted to offer a donation to further her work, they can make out a check to the Convent of St. Joseph and send it to Sr. Olga Yaqob, Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese of Boston, 66 Brooks Drive, Braintree, MA 02184.

This 84th Episode of CS is titled Lost & is a brief review of The Church in the East.I encourage you to go back and listen again to episode 72 – Meanwhile Back in the East, which conveyed a lot of detail about the Eastern Church & how it fared under the Mongols and Muslim Expansion in the Middle Ages.Until that time, Christianity was widespread across a good part of the Middle East, Mesopotamia, Persia, & across Central Asia – reaching all the way to China. The reaction of Muslim rulers to the incipient Mongol affiliation with Christianity meant a systemic persecution of believers in Muslim lands, especially in Egypt, where Christians were regarded as a 5th Column. Then, when the Mongols embraced Islam, entire regions of Christians were eradicated.Still, even with these deprivations, Christianity continued to live on in vast portions of across the East.Let me insert a verbal footnote at this point. Much of what follows comes form the work of Philip Jenkins, whose book The Lost History of Christianity is a stellar review of the Church of the East. I heartily recommend it to all you hardcore history fans.Consider this . . .The news recently reported the attacks by ISIS on Assyrian Christians in Northern Iraq. This is a reprise of 1933, when Muslim forces in the new nation of Iraq launched assaults on Nestorian & Assyrians, in what had once been the Christian heartland of northern Mesopotamia. But now, government-sponsored militias cleansed most of the area of its Assyrian population, killing thousands, and eliminating dozens of villages.Although the atrocities weren't new, the arrival of modern media meant they reached the attention of the world, raising demands for Western intervention.These anti-Christian purges were shocked many & elicited a new legal vocabulary. Within months, the Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin referred to the Assyrians & Christian Armenians before them, to argue for a new legal category called crimes of barbarity, meaning “acts of extermination directed against the ethnic, religious or social collectivities whatever the motive; be it political or religious.” In 1943, Lemkin expanded this idea and coined a new word for such abhorrent behavior—Genocide.Yes = The modern concept of genocide as a horror calling for international sanctions has its roots in successful movements to eradicate Middle Eastern Christians.I mention this less than century old genocidal campaign against Assyrian Christians because we may tend to assume the Middle East has ALWAYS been dominated by Islam, or at least, it has since the 7th C. What we ought to understand instead is that it was only in the last Century that the Middle East wasn't understood as a home to a significant popular of Christians. Take ANY Middle Eastern person out of the 18th C and plant them in the Middle East of today and they would be stunned by the paucity of Christian presence.Until a century ago, the Middle East was a bewildering quilt of religious diversity in which Christians were a familiar part of the social and cultural landscape. Particularly startling for our time traveler would be modern-day Turkey as a Muslim land.Historically speaking, until very recently, Christians were as familiar a part of the Middle Eastern scene as Jews are in the United States, or Muslims are in Western Europe. At the dawn of the 20th C, Christians of the Middle East were about 11% of the population while American Jews are only about 2%!The destruction of the Middle Eastern Christian community is an historic transformation of the region.The decline of Christianity in the Near East occurred in two distinct phases.The first occurred during the Middle Ages and largely as a result of the Crusades. But even then, Christians suffered more or less regionally. The Syriac Church was virtually annihilated while the Egyptian Copts held their own. Reduced to a minority status, they entrenched & proved durable.But the second phase of hostility against Christians began about a century ago with the advent of a new & virulent form of Islamism. Now Christians are being systematically eradicated; either by aggressive assimilation or outright persecution. The 20th C saw the emergence of a form of Islam intolerant of any other faith.The Ottoman Turks began as a rather small power in Asia Minor. After the Mongol invasions destroyed the Seljuks, the Ottomans used the wars that followed to create a power base in Asia Minor. They gradually spread over what had been the Christian Byzantine Empire. By the time they took Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire included the Balkans, and by 1500 they controlled the Black Sea. By 1520 they ruled most of the Muslim world west of Persia, as far as Algiers, and became the main enemy for European Christians. Their European conquests advanced rapidly through the 16th C under such Selim I & Suleiman the Magnificent. In 1526, the Turks conquered Hungary, destroying what was at that time a major European power. Turkish advances weren't reversed until the their loss at Vienna in 1683.Selim I took the title of caliph, and took his role as head of Islam seriously. He ordered the confiscation of all churches, many of which were razed, and Ottoman authorities forced thousands of conversions. A century later, the sultan Ibrahim planned the total extermination of Christians. From the 15th C onward, the pressure to convert to Islam was massive. Throughout Christian territories held vassal by the Turks was levied the “tribute of children” by which Christian families had to give a number of their sons to be raised by the state as slaves, or as elite soldiers, called Janissaries. These janissaries became some of the most feared warriors in the Sultan's army against the Europeans.Ottoman warfare was extremely destructive because it drew on methods stemming from the Turkish heritage of Central Asia. Ottoman forces massacred entire Christian populations, targeting clergy and leaders. In 1480, the Turks destroyed the Italian city of Otranto, killing 12,000 and executing priests by sawing them in half. The destruction of Nicosia in Cyprus in 1570 was a crucial loss to Europe. Accounts of Ottoman warfare and punishment include such gruesome techniques as impaling, crucifixion, and flaying. When a Christian leader in Wallachia, named Vlad decided to use these very same tactics against the Turks, it gave rise to the legend of Dracula.From the 15th thru the 19th Cs, the Turks ruled over a large Christian population on European soil. They called Christians rayah, “the herd,” and treated them as animals to be sheared and exploited. A Bosnian Muslim song says >> “The rayah is like the grass; Mow it as much as you will till it springs up anew.”Though pressure to convert was strong, Christianity survived, and managed to recover in a few places like Greece & Bulgaria. But the Eastern Orthodox Church now followed the way of their earlier cousins, the Nestorian and Jacobite Churches & passed under Muslim rule.As the Near East fell under the control of Islamic states, Western European nations had an ever-greater incentive to find alternative trade routes. This they did by exploiting the seas. Well into the 15th C, explorers dreamed of linking up with the fabled Prester John, and renewing the alliance against Islam. In the mid–15th C, the Portuguese explored the Atlantic & shores of Africa. By the 17th C, Europeans were well on their way to global domination. Rising economic power led to urbanization, and the share of the world's population living in Europe and in European overseas colonies grew dramatically. Demographic expansion vastly increased the relative power of European Christianity.Expanding commercial horizons brought Europe's churches into contact with the tattered shreds of the ancient Eastern Christian groups. Tensions between European and non-European churches were of ancient origin. As early as 1300, Catholic missions in China had met sharp opposition from Nestorians, who naturally saw the newcomers making inroads on their ancient territories. Now, however, the Latin powers were far stronger than before, and better able to enforce their will. During the great period of Spanish and Portuguese empire building from the mid-16th to 17th C, the leading edge of Christian expansion was the Roman Catholic Church, fortified by the militancy of the Counter-Reformation. As Catholic clergy and missionaries roamed the world, they found the remnants of many ancient churches, which they determined to bring under papal control.So long-standing was the separation of Western and Eastern churches that the 2 sides never stood much chance of an alliance. As Christianity fell to such dire straits outside Europe, Catholics dismissed foreign traditions as marginal or even unchristian. After the fall of Constantinople, Pope Pius II wrote to the victorious sultan, effectively denying that the non-Catholic churches were Christian in any worthwhile sense: they were “all tainted with error, despite their worship of Christ.” He more or less explicitly asserted the identity of Christianity with the Catholic tradition and, even more, with Europe itself.As Western Christians traveled the world, many were skeptical about the credentials of other churches. In 1723, a French Jesuit reported that “the Copts in Egypt are a strange people far removed from the kingdom of God…although they say they are Christians they are such only in name and appearance. Indeed many of them are so odd that outside of their physical form scarcely anything human can be detected in them.”Latins were troubled by the pretensions of these threadbare Christians, who nevertheless claimed such grand titles. In 1550, a Portuguese traveler reported that the 40,000 Christians along the Indian coast owed their allegiance to a head in “Babylon,” someone they called the “catholicos.” Bafflingly, they had not so much as heard of a pope at Rome. Some years later, envoys dispatched by the Vatican were appalled to discover India's Nestorians called “the Patriarch of Babylon the universal pastor and head of the Catholic Church,” a title that in their view belonged exclusively to the Roman pontiff.For the first time, many Asian and African churches now found themselves under a European-based regime, and were forced to adjust their patterns of organization and worship accordingly.Around the world, we see similar attempts at harmonization. From the 1550s, factions in the Nestorian church sought Roman support, and much of the church accepted Roman rule under a new patriarch of the Chaldeans. Like other Eastern churches, the Catholic Chaldeans retained many of their customs and their own liturgy, but this compromise was not enough to draw in other Nestorians who maintained their existence as a separate church. The Jacobites split on similar lines, with an independent church remaining apart from the Catholic Syrians.The most controversial moment in this process of assimilation occurred in 1599, when Catholic authorities in southern India sought to absorb the ancient Syriac-founded churches of the region, the Thomas Christians. The main activist was Aleixo de Menezes, archbishop of the Portuguese colony of Goa, who maneuvered the Indian church into a union with Rome at a Synod in Diamper. In Indian Christian memory, de Menezes remains a villainous symbol of European imperialism, who began the speedy Romanization of the church, enforced by Goa's notoriously active inquisition. The synod ordered the burning of books teaching Nestorian errors as well as texts teaching practices Europeans deemed superstitious. A substantial body of Syriac and Nestorian tradition perished. Many local Christians reacted against the new policy by forming separate churches, and in later years the Thomas Christians were deeply fragmented.Yet despite this double pressure from Muslims and Catholics, Eastern Christian communities survived. At its height, the Ottoman Empire encompassed the Middle East, the Balkans, and North Africa, & in Europe included millions of subject Christians. Even in 1900, Muslims made up a little less than half the empire's overall population.This survival seems amazing when we think of the accumulated military catastrophes and defeats between 1300 and 1600, and the tyranny of sultans like Selim I. Yet for all these horrors, the Ottomans also found it in their interest to maintain a stable imperial order. After Sultan Mehmet II took Constantinople, he formally invested the new patriarch with his cross and staff, just as the Christian emperors had done previously. Christian numbers stabilized as the Ottomans granted them official status under a system dating back to the ancient Persians. They had their own patriarch who was both religious and civil head. This system endured into the 1920s.Within limits, Christians often flourished, to the puzzlement of western Europeans, who could not understand the distinctive Ottoman mix of tolerance and persecution. Particularly baffling was the extensive use the empire made of non-Muslims, who were in so many other ways denied the most basic rights. Sultans regularly used Christians and former Christians as administrators, partly because such outsiders would be wholly dependent on the ruler's pleasure: eight of the nine grand viziers of Suleiman the Magnificent were of Christian origin.Making their life under the new order more acceptable, Christians actively proved their loyalty. Above all, Orthodox believers were not likely to work with foreign Catholic powers to subvert Turkish rule. The Orthodox found the Muslims no more obnoxious than the Catholic nations, whose activities in recent centuries had left horrendous memories. Apart from the Latin sack of Constantinople in 1204, later Catholic invaders like the Venetians had been almost as tyrannical to their Orthodox subjects as were the Turks. Even in the last days of the empire, a Byzantine official famously declared, “Better the Sultan's turban than the Cardinal's hat!” Matters deteriorated further when the Orthodox saw how Catholics treated members of their own church in eastern Europe.By far the worst sufferers from the carnage of the 14th C were the old Eastern Syriac churches, precisely because they had once been so powerful and had posed a real danger to Muslim supremacy. Neither Jacobites nor Nestorians ever recovered from the time of Timur. If we combine all the different branches of these churches, we find barely half a million faithful by the early 20th C, scattered from Cyprus and Syria to Persia. This implosion led to a steep decline in morale and ambition. Instead of trying to convert the whole of Asia as they had originally envisioned and seemed within their grasp, the Syrian churches survived as inward-looking quasi-tribal bodies. Succession to the Nestorian patriarchate became hereditary, passing from uncle to nephew. Intellectual activity declined to nothing, at least in comparison with its glorious past. Most clergy were illiterate, and the church texts that do survive are imbued with superstition and folk magic.Well …That brings us now back to Europe and the monumental shift the Western Church had been moving toward for some time, as we've tracked over 8 episodes in our series, The Long Road to Reform.We'll pick it up there in our next episode.

The title of this episode is Coping.It's time once again to lay down our focus on the Western Church to see what's happening in the East.With the arrival of Modernity, the Church in Europe and the New World was faced with the challenge of coping in what we'll call the post-Constantine era. The social environment was no longer favorable toward Christianity. The institutional Church could no longer count on the political support it enjoyed since the 4th C. The 18th C saw Western Christianity faced with the challenge of secular states that may not be outright hostile but tended to ignore it.In the East, Christianity faced far more than benign neglect for a long time. When Constantinople fell in 1453 to the Turks, The Faith came under a repressive regime that alternately neglected and persecuted it.While during the Middle Ages in Europe, Popes were often more powerful than Kings, the Byzantine Emperor ruled the Church. Greek patriarchs were functionaries under his lead. If they failed to comply with his dictates, they were deposed and replaced by those who would. When the Emperor decided reuniting with Rome was required to save the empire, the reunion was accomplished against the counsel of Church leaders. Then, just a  year later, Constantinople fell to the Ottomans. Many Eastern Christians regarded this calamity as a blessing. They viewed it as liberation from a tyrannical emperor who'd forced them into a union with a heretical church in Rome.The new Ottoman regime initially granted the Church limited freedom. Since the patriarch fled to Rome, the conqueror of Constantinople, Mohammed II, allowed the bishops to elect a new patriarch.  He was given both civil and ecclesiastical authority over Christians in the East. In the capital, half the churches were converted to mosques. The other half were allowed to continue worship without much change.In 1516, the Ottomans conquered the ancient seat of Middle Eastern Christianity in Syria and Palestine. The church there was put under the oversight of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Then, when Egypt fell a year later, the Patriarch of Alexandria was given authority over all Christians in Egypt. Under the Ottomans, Eastern Church Patriarchs had vast power over Christians in their realm, but they only served at the Sultan's pleasure and were often deposed for resisting his policies.In 1629, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Cyril Lucaris, wrote what was considered by many, a Protestant treatise titled Confession of Faith. He was then deposed and executed. Fifty years later, a synod condemned him as a “Calvinist heretic.” But by the 18th C, the Reformation wasn't a concern of the Eastern Church. What was, was the arrival of Western philosophy and science. In the 19th C, when Greece gained independence from Turkey, the debate became political. Greek nationalism advocated Western methods of academics and scholarship. The Greeks also demanded that the Greek Church ought to be independent of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Conservatives wanted to subsume scholarship under tradition and retain allegiance to Constantinople.During the 19th and early 20th Cs, the Ottoman Empire broke up, allowing national Orthodox churches to form in Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania. The tension between nationalist and conservative Orthodoxy dominated the scene. In the period between the two world wars, the Patriarch of Constantinople acknowledged the autonomy of Orthodox churches in the Balkans, Estonia, Latvia, and Czechoslovakia.Early in the 20th C, the ancient patriarchates of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch were ruled by Arabs. But the newly formed states existed under the shadow of Western powers. This was a time when out of a desire to identify with larger groups who could back them up politically and militarily, a large number of Middle Eastern Christians became either Catholic or Protestant. But an emergent Arab nationalism reacted against Western influence. The growth of both Protestantism and Catholicism was curbed. By the second half of the 20th C, the only nations where Eastern Orthodox Christianity retained its identity as a state church were Greece and Cyprus.The fall of Constantinople in 1453 was viewed by Russian Christians as God's punishment for its reunion with the heretical Rome. They regarded Moscow as the “3rd Rome” and the new capital whose task was to uphold Orthodoxy. In 1547, Ivan IV took the title “czar,” drawn from the ancient “Caesar” a proper name that had come to mean “emperor.” The Russian rulers deemed themselves the spiritual heirs to the Roman Empire. Fifty years later, the Metropolitan of Moscow took the title of Patriarch. The Russian Church then churned out a barrage of polemics against the Greek Orthodox Church, Roman Catholics, and Protestants. By the 17th C, the Russian Orthodox Church was so independent when attempts were made by some to re-integrate the Church with its Orthodox brothers, it led to a schism in the Russian church and a bloody rebellion.Now—I just used the term “metropolitan.” We mentioned this in an earlier episode, but now would be a good time for a recap on terms.The Roman Catholic Church is presided over by a Pope whose authority is total, complete. The Eastern Orthodox Church is led by a Patriarch, but his authority isn't as far-reaching as the Pope. Technically, his authority extends just to his church. But realistically, because his church is located in an important center, his influence extends to all the churches within the sphere of his city. While there is only one pope, there might be several Patriarchs who lead various branches of the Eastern Orthodox Church.A Metropolitan equates loosely to an arch-bishop; someone who leads a church that influences the churches around it.Peter the Great's desire to westernize a recalcitrant Russia led to an interest on the part of Russian clergy in both Catholic and Protestant theology. Orthodoxy wasn't abandoned; it was simply embellished with new methods. The Kievan school adopted a Catholic flavor while the followers of Theophanes Prokopovick leaned toward Protestantism. In the late 19th C, a Slavophile movement under the leadership of Alexis Khomiakov applied some of Hegel's analytics to make a synthesis called sobornost; a merging of the Catholic idea of authority with the Protestant view of freedom.Obviously, the Russian Revolution at the beginning of the 20th C put an end to all this with the arrival of a different Western Philosophy - Marxism. In 1918, the Church was officially separated from the State. The Russian Constitution of 1936 guaranteed “freedom for religious worship” but also “freedom for anti-religious propaganda.” In the 1920s, religious instruction in schools was outlawed. Seminaries were closed. After the death of the Russian Patriarch in 1925, the Church was forbidden to name a successor until 1943. The State needed all the help it could get rallying the population in the war with Germany. The seminaries were re-opened and permission was given to print a limited number of religious books.In the late 20th C, after 70 years of Communist rule, the Russian Orthodox Church still had 60 million members.In a recent conversation I had with a woman who grew up in Czechoslovakia during the Soviet Era, she remarked that under the Communists the Church survived, though few attended services. Freedom of religion was the official policy under the Soviets. But in reality, those who professed faith in God were marked down and passed over for education, housing, and other amenities, thin as they were under the harsh Soviet heel. You could be a Christian under Communism; but if you were, you were pretty lonely.Several years ago, when Russia opened to the rest of the world, I had a chance to go in with a team to teach the Inductive Study method as part of Russia's attempt to teach its youth morality and ethics.A senior citizen attended the class who between sessions regaled us with tales of being a believer under Communism. He looked like something straight out of an old, grimy black and white photo of a wizened old man with thinning white hair whose wrinkled face speaks volumes in the suffering he'd endured. He told us that he'd spent several stints in Russian prisons for refusing to kowtow to the Party line and steadfastly cleaving to his faith in God.It's remarkable the Church survived under Communism in the Soviet Bloc. Stories of the fall of the Soviets in the early '80s are often the tale of a resurgent Church.There are other Orthodox churches in various parts of the world. There's the Orthodox Church of Japan, China, and Korea. These communions, begun by Russian missionaries, are today, indigenous and autonomous, with a national clergy and membership, as well as a liturgy conducted in their native tongue.Due to social strife, political upheavals, persecution, and the general longing for a better life, large numbers of Orthodox believers have moved to distant lands. But as they located in their new home, they often transported the old tensions. Orthodoxy believes there can only be a single Orthodox congregation in a city. So, what to do when there are Greek, Russian or some other flavor of Eastern Orthodox believers all sharing the same community?Keep in mind not all churches in the East are part of Eastern Orthodoxy. Since the Christological controversies in the 5th C, a number of churches that disagreed with established creeds maintained their independence. In Persia, most Christians refused to refer to Mary as Theotokos = the Mother of God. They were labeled as Nestorians and declared heretical; though as we saw way back when we were looking at all this, Nestorius himself was not a heretic. Nestorians are more frequently referred to as Assyrian Christians, with a long history. During the Middle Ages, the Assyrian church had many members with missions extending as far as China. In modern times, the Assyrian Church has suffered severe persecution from Muslims. Early in the 20th C and again more recently, persecution decimated its members. Recent predations by ISIS were aimed at these brethren.Those churches that refused to accept the findings of the Council of Chalcedon were called Monophysites because they elevated the deity of Christ over His humanity to such a degree it seemed to make that humanity irrelevant. The largest of these groups were the Copts of Egypt and Ethiopia. The Ethiopian church was the last Eastern church to receive State support. That support ended with the overthrow of Haile Selassie in 1974. The ancient Syrian Monophysite Church, known more popularly as Jacobite, continued in Syria and Iraq. Its head was the Patriarch of Antioch who lived in Damascus. Technically under this patriarchate, but in reality autonomous, the Syrian Church in India has half a million members.As we saw in a previous episode, the Armenian Church also refused to accept the Chalcedonian Creed, because it resented the lack of support from Rome when the Persians invaded. When the Turks conquered Armenia, the fierce loyalty of the Armenians to their faith became one more spark that lit the fuse of ethnic hostility. In 1895, 96, and again in 1914 when the world was distracted elsewhere by The Great War, thousands of Armenians living under Turkish rule were massacred. A million escaped to Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Greece, France, and other Western nations where the memory of the Armenian Holocaust lives on and continues to play an important role in international relations and the development of foreign policy.