Andrew Ashdown
 Andrew Ashdown      | |
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 Revd Andrew Ashdown and Vanessa Beeley | |
The Reverend Andrew Ashdown is an Anglican priest who, since being ordained in 1991, has served in parishes in Yorkshire, Surrey and Hampshire, and also worked for a time as the Regional Desk Officer for South Asia, for the Anglican Mission Agency United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG).
He has travelled widely throughout Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and for a while, held responsibility for Diocesan links with West Africa.[1]
Background
Andrew Ashdown was brought up in Zimbabwe of missionary parents during the Rhodesian war. After completing his education in England, he spent a while working in banking in the City of London, before going to spend 2 years as a volunteer Teacher at a Christian school in a remote part of Central India. On returning to England he studied Theology at King’s College London before training for ordination.
Middle East
In the past 20 years, Rev Ashdown had a particular passion for the Middle East and its people, regularly leading groups to the region, and visiting privately. Some of those experiences are illustrated in his book published in 2007 by Christians Aware: "The Stones Cry Out: Reflections from Israel and Palestine."
Since 2014, he has undertaken 5 visits to Syria: travelling around the country; meeting with faith and community leaders, and meeting with members of every section of society. In 2016, he led a group of Peers and Faith leaders on a visit to the country and became the first British group to visit Aleppo since the beginning of the conflict.
East Ghouta
In February 2018, Andrew Ashdown wrote on Facebook:
- "Desperately sad to hear that several members of one family of friends of mine were injured in one of the 30 missiles that landed in just one residential area of Damascus today...missiles fired by the western-backed terrorists holed up in the Damascus suburbs of East Ghouta and Jobar (who seem to have an unending supply of sophisticated weaponry.) Western media is silent about the onslaught launched in the past weeks by extremist militants who are being supported by British tax-payers, killing and maiming dozens of innocents. And it colludes with the illegal attacks by Israel and USA on Syria, even as she defends her territory from numerous international extremist groups, which of course Syria has every right to do. This is a crazy, twisted and morally bankrupt world in which we live, and it is the innocent who suffer."[2]
