Last week Bishop Jo took part in an East-West dialogue, known as The Magi Initiative. Organised by the Bible Society leaders from the major Christian denominations of the Middle East gathered in Cambridge for dialogue, prayer and fellowship with a diversity of UK church leaders.

"In effect it was one long and very exciting bible study, focusing on the theme of Exile and finding the synergy between Eastern spirituality and Western scholarship.'

"I led a session on ‘The Grace of Exile: Biblical Perspectives on character formation through hardship’ after which there were reflections and responses from those who live with the reality and risks of current exile. It was heart-wrenching to hear some of the daily realities for the courageous Christians who remain in Iraq, Armenia, Syria, even Lebanon. Owing to war and persecution, their numbers are reduced by an estimated 90%.

"Please pray for them and express solidarity wherever possible – they need help to rebuild homes and livelihoods if any public witness to the gospel is to be sustained in the region where the church first began. And my goodness, all those whom I met – whether Armenian Apostolic Orthodox or Armenian Catholic or Maronite or Roman Catholic or Syrian/Coptic Orthodox or Lutheran, Anglican or Pentecostal – they have guts when it comes to faith and witness, determined to shine as lights no matter the darkness!"