He couldn’t find work there and he couldn’t live there for any length of time. So he returned to Baghdad but he’s in hiding. That’s one more person to take care of in Haifa’s family.
This is the same sort of story that’s repeated over and over. Conditions are not good in Syria. They can’t go back to Iraq. They aren’t allowed to find work in Jordan. The Jordanian government made a deal with the UN. They would allow Iraqis to stay, as long as they didn’t compete for local jobs. If an Iraqi is found working, they are deported back to Iraq.
April DeConick is a professor and historian of early Jewish and Christian thought. She’s witnessed Mandaean baptisms and she’s certain the rituals are very old because of descriptions from early Gnostic texts she’s studied. The participants wear a very simple white garment and head covering that hasn’t changed style in over a thousand years.
The priest is consecrated and then he stands in the water. She said, “The belief is that he’s become like an angel, a being from the world of light and he’s inviting the person on the shore to join him to come into the world of light.” There’s a ritual exchange back and forth between the priest and the person on the shore and then the one that’s being baptized comes into the water. The priest splashes water over their heads a number of times. She says, “It’s a remarkable ceremony and its done in flowing water in a river. I think it’s pretty ancient.”
Wisam Breegi was over forty years old before he saw a Mandaean baptism practiced in the open, without fear. He said, “We were hiding a lot of the traditions, the culture and the language. People stopped speaking the language for fear of persecution.”
They are baptized many times in their lives. It’s seen as purification and prayer rather than an initiation ritual. In their traditions, the baptism must take place in a clear running stream. For a long time their temple in Baghdad was downstream of the sewer system. “It was a very unpleasant experience but we didn’t have any other choices,” Breegi said.
Today, there’s a large community in Texas and they’ve found clear, running streams that are perfect for their rituals. Breegi was overcome with emotion the first time he saw this group, clothed in white and drenched in pure water. A group of Americans came to the river with their canoes but waited patiently in their car for the ritual to end.
To Breegi it was an incredible experience because he’s never encountered such tolerance and respect before. This is the freedom that America promised and he believes that it is the greatest country in the world.
The Mandaeans were never able to build great cathedrals. Their contribution to humanity is a religion of non-violence that has preserved teachings for millennium. If they were a building instead of a belief system, surely they would be on list of world treasures. It will be one more tragedy of the Iraq war and invasion if these gentle people and their religion with an unbroken tradition going back to the dawn of Christianity are wiped off the face of the earth.
You can’t convert to the Mandaean faith. Only people born to parents that are both Mandaean are considered Mandaean. A priest must have an unbroken and unblemished family tree that goes back seven generations. There are only four Mandaean priests of the highest or Ganzevra level left in the world. When they go, the interpretations of their sacred texts will go with them.
“They preserve a whole cognitive world that Christian don’t have , that Jews don’t have, that Muslims don’t have but is very ancient.” DeConick said, “We’re losing a piece of Humanity.”
This is the same sort of story that’s repeated over and over. Conditions are not good in Syria. They can’t go back to Iraq. They aren’t allowed to find work in Jordan. The Jordanian government made a deal with the UN. They would allow Iraqis to stay, as long as they didn’t compete for local jobs. If an Iraqi is found working, they are deported back to Iraq.
April DeConick is a professor and historian of early Jewish and Christian thought. She’s witnessed Mandaean baptisms and she’s certain the rituals are very old because of descriptions from early Gnostic texts she’s studied. The participants wear a very simple white garment and head covering that hasn’t changed style in over a thousand years.
The priest is consecrated and then he stands in the water. She said, “The belief is that he’s become like an angel, a being from the world of light and he’s inviting the person on the shore to join him to come into the world of light.” There’s a ritual exchange back and forth between the priest and the person on the shore and then the one that’s being baptized comes into the water. The priest splashes water over their heads a number of times. She says, “It’s a remarkable ceremony and its done in flowing water in a river. I think it’s pretty ancient.”
They are baptized many times in their lives. It’s seen as purification and prayer rather than an initiation ritual. In their traditions, the baptism must take place in a clear running stream. For a long time their temple in Baghdad was downstream of the sewer system. “It was a very unpleasant experience but we didn’t have any other choices,” Breegi said.
Today, there’s a large community in Texas and they’ve found clear, running streams that are perfect for their rituals. Breegi was overcome with emotion the first time he saw this group, clothed in white and drenched in pure water. A group of Americans came to the river with their canoes but waited patiently in their car for the ritual to end.
To Breegi it was an incredible experience because he’s never encountered such tolerance and respect before. This is the freedom that America promised and he believes that it is the greatest country in the world.
The Mandaeans were never able to build great cathedrals. Their contribution to humanity is a religion of non-violence that has preserved teachings for millennium. If they were a building instead of a belief system, surely they would be on list of world treasures. It will be one more tragedy of the Iraq war and invasion if these gentle people and their religion with an unbroken tradition going back to the dawn of Christianity are wiped off the face of the earth.
You can’t convert to the Mandaean faith. Only people born to parents that are both Mandaean are considered Mandaean. A priest must have an unbroken and unblemished family tree that goes back seven generations. There are only four Mandaean priests of the highest or Ganzevra level left in the world. When they go, the interpretations of their sacred texts will go with them.
“They preserve a whole cognitive world that Christian don’t have , that Jews don’t have, that Muslims don’t have but is very ancient.” DeConick said, “We’re losing a piece of Humanity.”
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