The Revd Nadim Nassar (born 1964) is a Syrian-British Anglican priest, who is the Executive Director and Founder of the Awareness Foundation. He established the Awareness Foundation in 2003 with Bishop Michael Marshall in response to the growing need to study the Christian faith in the context of the 21st century. In 2018, Nassar's first book, "The Culture of God", was published by Hodder & Stoughton. The BBC's Edward Stourton said, 'So much of the reporting of the Middle East at the moment reflects war and human misery; it's inspiring to find, in this thoughtful and engaging book, a message of hope from what Fr Nadim calls "that region of the world that God chose to live in when he took human form"'

Background

Nadim was born in 1964, and raised in Lattakia, Syria. He is the only Syrian

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

. He studied at the

Near East School of Theology The Near East School of Theology (NEST), located in Beirut, Lebanon, is an interdenominational Reformed Protestant theological seminary serving Christian churches of the Middle East and North Africa, and also educates international students who ...

between 1981 and 1988, graduating with a

Bachelor of Theology The Bachelor of Theology degree (BTh, ThB, or BTheol) is a three- to five-year undergraduate degree in theological disciplines and is typically pursued by those seeking ordination for ministry in a church, denomination, or parachurch organization. ...

(BTh) degree. He was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

in the

as a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

in 2003 and as a

in 2004. From 2003 to 2011, he was an honorary

assistant curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

Holy Trinity, Sloane Street The Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity with Saint Jude, Upper Chelsea, commonly called Holy Trinity Sloane Street or Holy Trinity Sloane Square, is a Church of England parish church in London, England. It was built in 1888–90 at the ...

in the Diocese of London. He holds

permission to officiate A permission to officiate (PTO), also known as a licence to officiate, is a concessionary ministry licence granted by an Anglican bishop. It is most commonly issued to a retired deacon, priest, or lay reader over the age of 70 years. It allows th ...

in the

Diocese of Southwark The Diocese of Southwark is one of the 42 dioceses of the Church of England, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. It was created on 1 May 1905 from part of the ancient Dio ...

, and preaches at churches across London. He lectured in different universities in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, including the American Intercontinental University where he taught world religions, and

London Guildhall University London Guildhall University was a university in the United Kingdom from 1992 to 2002, established when the City of London Polytechnic was awarded university status. On 1 August 2002, it merged with the University of North London to form Londo ...

where he developed the 'Faith and Citizenship' seminar. Nassar became the editor of the ''Arabic Hymnal'' for a year in Limassol, Cyprus then went to Lattakia, Syria to be the minister of the National Evangelical Church in Lattakia which is a member of the National Evangelical Synod in Syria and Lebanon. He stayed in Lattakia for two years before he left to Germany to continue his theological education.

Lecturing, advising and speaking

Nadim Nassar is a member of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland's Inter Faith Theological Advisory Group, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on International Religious Freedom, and he advises the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Nassar lectures, speaks and teaches in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

and the US; he leads diocesan conferences in the US, UK and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. He gives frequent public lectures for many organisations, including the Ismaili Centre, the Christian Muslim Forum and Near Neighbours, and has contributed articles to Britain's '' Guardian'' and '' Daily Telegraph'' newspapers. He has been interviewed many times, including by the

Tony Blair Faith Foundation The Tony Blair Faith Foundation was an interfaith charitable foundation established in May 2008 by former British prime minister Tony Blair. Since December 2016 its work has been continued by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Launch ...

.http://www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/userevent/%E2%80%98people-syria-say-me-%E2%80%98father-we-can%E2%80%99t-dialogue-criminals%E2%80%99-i-say-yes-yes-we-can-dialogue

Notes

External links

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Interviewed on ANN TV 2015
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nassar, Nadim Syrian emigrants to the United Kingdom Syrian Christians 21st-century Anglican priests 21st-century Church of England clergy Christian writers Living people People from Latakia 1964 births