Since the protest movement began in October, 400+ have died, twelve of them security personnel. Over 17,000 people have been injured. ‘The situation is a disaster, with weapons in every corner’, said the Chaldean archbishop of Basra. ‘As a church, we are close to young people in the streets, providing them with food and shelter.’ But violence has forced his diocese to suspend all such pastoral activities. The Chaldean church called for three days of prayer and fasting, and out of respect for the dead and in solidarity with all the injured, Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako cancelled all public and church-based celebrations of Christmas. As the Church in Iraq trades tree decorations and holiday receptions for prayers of intercession, let us pray for the current government’s corrupt structure to end and for the protesters to achieve the dissolution of parliament and widespread reforms. May hope and prosperity enter Iraq in 2020, and may Iranian ballistic missiles and US troops and defence systems leave. See