Just days after three of his church security guards were shot dead, the Vicar of Baghdad spoke about his attempts to bring reconciliation in the face of danger.

Canon Andrew White, pastor of the only Anglican church in Iraq, said three security guards were killed on Wednesday ahead of his talk in Leatherhead on Sunday.

Canon White told the Epsom Guardian many of his congregation and staff at St George’s in Baghdad had been killed over the last decade, adding: "It’s very difficult."

But he said: "It doesn’t matter what happens, you love your people. You are not going to leave them. I say to my people regularly: ‘I’m not going to leave you. Don’t leave me’."

Canon White, who suffers multiple sclerosis, said he has been involved in 160 kidnap negotiations, but only 43 of the hostages had come out alive.

He said: "I have done more kidnapping negotiations in Iraq than anyone else in the world. I have been kidnapped myself but got out."

Canon White said during the kidnapping he was thrown into a room with chopped-off fingers and toes. He keeps working despite significant threats to himself and repeated bombings of his church.

While working in Israel and Palestine for many years he helped to negotiate the end of a church siege in Bethlehem in 2002, but now works almost entirely in Iraq.

He said: "You have got to have relationships with those causing violence. That’s the reason why you can do things: because you are not with the nice people.

"You have got to know the means to get to them. Over the years you establish relationships with different people."

Besides being a vicar Canon White runs a school, hospital and promotes reconciliation among different religious groups through his Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East.

Canon White said he was the first person to have stem cell treatment for MS after his friend, a doctor working in Baghdad, offered to help him.

He said it was not a cure but the treatment got rid of his symptoms except for poor co-ordination. Of MS, he said: "It's a struggle. I can’t pretend it’s not. But you don’t give up."

His hospital now develops stem cell therapy and treats patients using stem cells taken from their own blood.

Gerald Coates, leader of Pioneer Engage Church in Leatherhead, said Canon White’s brilliant talk was accompanied by music and worship at Church Halls, in Church Road, Leatherhead, on Sunday.

Mr Coates said: "He’s one of the most amazing people I know. He’s remarkable."

He said the first time he went to hear Canon White speak someone asked him which churches he went back to in England. Mr Coates said: "He leaned over, pointed at me and said ‘I go to bonkers churches like his’."

Mr Coates, who founded the Pioneer Network of Churches both here and abroad, said it then emerged that Canon White had been to Spring Harvest and other events he has been involved in.

He said the audience on Sunday included Timothy Welby, the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby who has also heard Mr Coates speak.

Mr Coates said: "These people for years sat in on my meetings and now I’m looking up to them because of what they have done in their lives."

Mr Coates, an author, speaker and broadcaster, recently co-wrote a book to help men free themselves from pornography called Sexual Healing - Identity, Sexuality, Calling.