Kidnapped IT worker 'still alive' says Baghdad vicar

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Kidnapped-worker-alive-says-Baghdad-vicar/article-1469263-detail/article.html

The vicar helping to negotiate the release of a kidnapped IT worker in Iraq believes he is still alive.

Canon Andrew White leads the only Anglican church in Baghdad and came to Leicester last night to give a lecture.

Canon White is parish priest to more than 3,000 people at St Georges Church in Iraq and has been involved in trying to secure the release of kidnapped IT worker Peter Moore, 36, whose father Graeme lives in Wigston.

He was one of five hostages taken by armed men at the finance ministry in Baghdad on May 29, 2007.

The bodies of three of the hostages were received by officials earlier this year. Mr Moore and Canon White say they have received information which suggests Peter is being held alive.
Canon White said: "I can't really talk about what I have been doing with Peter's release, all I can say is I'm very involved and I'm not without hope.

"There are two of them who I believe are still alive, which is Peter and Alan McMenemy."

On Sunday, the vicar received the news that his church was one of a group of buildings blown up in a bomb blast which killed 153 people.

Among the dead were colleagues of Canon White.

He said: "I was on the way to London when somebody called to say what had happened.

"Every day I feel like I can't move things forward but you have to keep going, it's very easy to give up but you would leave thousands of people desperate."

Delivery driver Graeme Moore, 59, could not attend the lecture last night but said: "One of my contacts told me on Saturday that they were holding Peter on this own but that he was alive."

Canon White gave the 2009 Provost Derek Hole annual public lecture at the University of Leicester. His talk, The Inter-religious Search For Peace In Iraq, spoke about the delicate relationships between different religious leaders in the country.