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.
UPDATE: Youkhana was ordained a deacon at St Andrew’s Cathedral in 2018. “Arabic ministry got a boost with the ordination of Sami Youkhana, who leads the Arabic congregation at Hoxton Park,” SydneyAnglicans.net reported. “’We have been here four years and the Lord has blessed us, I am really grateful for what the Lord did in everything here, for the ministry.’”’ Mr Youkhana said.”
He is not listed as licensed in the 2020 Yearbook.
In a 2017 interview on Hope 102.3 Youkhani describes coming to australia as a refugee from Raq via Jordan where he became a Christian, planting a church and working for Australia Post. He described going into ministry full-time: “I left the work. I’ve seen the church is multiplying the numbers of people because that is really, it’s a blessing and a great encouragement for us at this moment. I have two churches, not only one church. I planted another church last March too…. I would love people hear about the gospel. That’s more my heart and my role with Anglicare is very big at this moment. I dispute a lot of Bibles for free through the Anglicare. They took it from the Bible Society around 2000 Bibles. We got it. And we’re still giving to people. It’s Arabic and English, all Testament and New Testament.”
Image: Mandaeans celebrating Creation day. Image Credit: AlRased TV,