Celebration of lives of Martyrs, father Raghid and three deacons, in Melbourne Australia

From Kamil Kunda, Melbourne Australia
On the evening of Sunday (17/06/2007) a celebration of lives (for father Rahid and three deacons) was held at Ishtar reception in Melbourne and was attended by more than 200 people. The event was organised by an ad hoc committee of faithful and attended by representatives from all Middle Eastern churches and Dominican fathers except for, regrettably, representative of Chaldean church in Melbourne, despite that the four martyrs were all Chaldeans. The event also was attended by Christine Campbell member of Victoria state parliament and Gary Gungworth Myer of Hume City Council.

It was a day of remembrance to remember these four martyrs (and all martyrs of our nation) who were killed by Islamic extremists in Mousel, Iraq, two weeks ago. Guests who gathered for this occasion listened for more than two hours to speeches and prayers. Each church delivered a speech and a prayer by their teams. The churches were, Assyrian Church, The Ancient Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox church, the Maronite church and Dominican fathers. Letters were read by friends of the priest and a wonderful poem was read by Piatrees Youel. The emotional final speech came from Pius Hanna Esho brother of one of the Murdered deacons (Waheed Hanna Esho); everyone in the audience shared his grief and shed tears after hearing details of hideous and senseless crime.

The full names of these martyrs are:

Father Raghid Aziz Ganni
Deacon Ghassan Isam Bedaweed
Deacon Basman Yousif Dawood
Deacon Waheed Hanna Esho