The remarkable Canon Andrew White:

He is visiting Israel at the moment.

More here:

The “Vicar of Baghdad” is visiting Israel this week, and he’s brought a little good news, a great deal of bad, and endless reserves of faith.

The Vicar of Baghdad is a larger-than-life figure — a big, exuberant presence with a cane (he suffers from multiple sclerosis), a large silver cross around his neck, and today a deafening bow tie — and he needs to be. He’s lived in the constant shadow of death for eight years in a heavily barricaded compound surrounded by razor wire in the Iraqi capital, prevented by the Iraqi Army from taking so much as a step outside, with bombs exploding all around. He is permanently surrounded by dozens of army guards. When he wants to leave — like he did just now, to come to Israel — he is driven out of the compound in an Iraqi army convoy.

The Vicar of Baghdad reopened the Iraqi capital’s St. George’s Church in 2003, along with Justin Welby, a fellow member of the Anglican clergy with whom he had worked at England’s Coventry Cathedral. Welby is a good ally to have; three weeks ago he was enthroned as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican church. St George’s, which was founded in 1863, was closed down by Saddam Hussein. It now has the largest congregation of any church in Iraq, at 6,500. About 600 of its regulars are Muslims.