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Bishop and Suad Younan had the privilege of participating in the wedding of their daughter, Anna Liza, to Nazeeh Khoury on July 17. The service was at the Orthodox Church in Nazareth, as the custom in Palestine is to get married in the man's home town and home church. This wedding had a strong ecumenical presence, as Bishop Younan was allowed by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilis III to deliver a message, which is not the custom. The wedding party was both ecumenical and interfaith, which gave joy to the parents as they celebrated with Muslims, Christians and Jews. Although in any other country this would be a normal family reunion, it was especially special because some of the cousins from Ramle, Ramallah and Jerusalem who hadn't seen each other in years were able to reconnect. Even though they live 40 kilometers apart, they hadn't seen each other in 6 years.
Bishop Younan, Anna Liza and Andrea Younan are above right.
A delegation of youth and adults from the Southeast Michigan Synod of the ELCA visited the ELCJHL
and its youth in late June. The group spent three days with the youth of Bethlehem, Beit Jala and
Beit Sahour, first working at the Beit Sahour school, painting lines for the soccer field and
planting/cleaning the grounds. They toured the wall in Bethlehem and a refugee camp there and
together they added their creative expressions to the wall. In Jerusalem, they helped with a day
camp, were invited to a home for a meal and were led on a tour of Jerusalem by Shukri Merizian,
tour guide extraordinaire. They worshipped in Ramallah and went with their youth group to a
local village park and pool.
Heads of churches in Jerusalem have welcomed the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum launched in Jordan last week. They voiced satisfaction with the new advocacy initiative at meetings with World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia during his 21-26 June visit to the Holy Land.
In addition to heads of local churches, the WCC delegation visited the staff and some ecumenical
accompaniers from the WCC Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel, formed in
2002 as the result of a plea for help from Christians world wide. The accompaniers work side by
side with Palestinians and Israelis working for a just peace. The delegation visited Hebron,
where accompaniers walk children to school to protect them from violence by settlers, and a
refugee camp in Bethlehem, where accompaniers work with children teaching English and other
skills. They also visited holy sites, government and religious leaders and Yad Vashem.
Video: Rev. Dr. Kobia's greeting to heads of churches
Video: Rev. Dr. Kobia on what it will take to bring just peace
A new ecumenical advocacy initiative launched at the culmination of a World Council of Churches (WCC) conference in Jordan this week, is to help churches worldwide work for a just peace in Palestine/Israel.
Called the "Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum," the initiative intends to be an instrument to "catalyze and co-ordinate new and existing church advocacy for peace". While aimed at "ending the illegal occupation in accordance with UN resolutions," it will be an expression of churches' "commitment to inter-religious action for peace and justice that serves all the peoples of the region".
In his closing remarks to over 130 representatives from churches and Christian organizations from six continents attending the 18-20 June conference "Churches together for peace and justice in the Middle East," WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia said the forum will be a "participatory group of churches and organizations meeting, interacting and cooperating in order to further a common cause".
"We expect churches worldwide to speak out with a clear voice and to stand by us in active solidarity in face of a tragic conflict that keeps Palestinians suffering and Israelis living with fear and that can only be solved with a just peace," said Bishop Munib Younan, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, speaking to journalists at the end of the conference.
As a "journey to seek peace," Kobia said, the forum ultimately "depends on everyone here and on the many churches looking with expectation to what we have begun in their name". The promise that the forum encompasses is that "wherever it is made, a united and credible witness of churches together changes the course of events".
"The Amman Call," the forum's founding document adopted by the conference, acknowledges the fact that in Palestine/Israel "children of God - Christian, Muslim and Jew - are imprisoned in a deepening cycle of violence, humiliation and despair". But it also affirms that "the role of the churches is to heal and to bring all sides to reconciliation".
The Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum is to be guided by three fundamental imperatives: the ethical and theological imperative for a just peace; the ecumenical imperative for unity in action; and the Gospel imperative for costly solidarity.
Among the forum's top challenges is the need to "liberate all peoples of this land from the logic of hatred, mutual rejection and death, so that they see in the other the face and dignity of God," the document says.
A series of premises for the forum's action are based on WCC policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: pertinence of UN resolutions and Geneva conventions; two-state solution with self-determination, viability and legitimate security needs guaranteed to both; Palestinian refugees' right of return; open and shared Jerusalem; rejection of all violence whether perpetrated by Israelis or Palestinians; illegality of Israeli settlements and "separation barrier" in the Occupied Territories; and the centrality of the local churches' life and witness for worldwide church advocacy.
Read More: WCC article, "Church Representatives From Six Continents Launch Forum For Peace in Palestine / Israel
View full text of the Amman Call
Bishop Younan joined religious and civil leaders at a gathering last Saturday to urge Palestinians to focus on the common goal of ending the Israeli occupation and achieving the two-state solution of two equal, viable states living side by side in peace and justice.
"What joins us should be greater than what divides us: our just and legitimate struggle for an end to the occupation and a Palestinian state," he said.
He quoted Proverb 14:34, "righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people," calling the recent infighting and violence "the shame of our people."