Canon Andrew White

Andrew White (born 1964) was the vicar of St George's Church, Baghdad, the only Anglican church in Iraq, until his departure, ordered in November 2014 by the Archbishop of Canterbury due to security concerns. He was dubbed the "Vicar of Baghdad" following a documentary in 2013. Former president of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East. He was previously Director of International Ministry at the International Centre for Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral, England. He qualified and worked as an operating department practitioner prior to becoming ordained. At the age of 33 years he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a condition which for many years affected his mobility and his speech. He has been undergoing a new stem cell treatment for MS at a clinic in Baghdad that utilizes his body's own stem cells and he has said, "It had completely transformed my life." He has had as many as 35 Iraqi bodyguards.

White grew up in Bexley, in the suburbs of south-east London in Kent. His family was very religious, between strict Baptist and Pentecostal. He visited an elderly house-bound woman, and got to know an Anglican priest who visited her to give her communion.

White studied at St Thomas' Hospital, London, and qualified as an operating department practitioner in 1985. He worked in anaesthetics and was a member of the cardiac arrest team. He spent a short time in Derby and became an active member of the Elim Pentecostal church there. One day he realised that he had done everything he had set out to achieve and asked himself, "what next?". He decided to become a Church of England priest. He studied theology, training for the priesthood at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, where he decided to learn about Judaism and Islam. He also spent time at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was ordained in 1990, and became a curate at St Mark's, Battersea Rise in the Diocese of Southwark. During his time at Southwark White had his first appearance on TV when was interviewed on the street by a member of the That's Life! team. He first saw his wife from the pulpit when she was in the congregation, and when six weeks later he asked her to marry him, she initially said "maybe". He later became a vicar of the Church of the Ascension, Balham Hill in the same diocese.