IN an unusual move, Peter Lin, The Anglican Bishop of South Western Sydney, has issued a statement saying a local minister Sami Youkhana is not part of the Sydney Anglicans. “Sami Youhana is not associated with the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney, nor has he been since July 2019,” Bishop Lin’s Statement reads.
“He is not authorised or licensed for ministry in the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney. Any actions or comments made by him are his alone and they are not representative of or not endorsed by the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney.”
An Instagram site, that claims to speak for followers of the Mandaean religion, mandaean_academia, alleges Youkhana is “a leader in the Anglican Church of Hoxton Park”, and ” “runs an anti-Mandaean Facebook group with over 7,000 followers.”
Whatever links Youkhana may or may not have had to that Sydney Anglican church or any other has been severed. As to whether that FNB group exists or not, or the truth or otherwise of what Youkhana is alleged to have said about the Mandaean religion, The Other Cheek simply does not know.
Mandaeans believe that John the Baptist was the final and most important prophet. The Mandaean community of Iraq fled after the the rise of Islamic extremism followed by the 2003 invasion of that country.
Image: Mandaeans celebrating Creation day. Image Credit: AlRased TV,