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It is a great honor and privilege to be among you. I would like to convey the greetings and love of your sisters and brothers in Christ in Palestine, Jordan and Israel. Let me introduce myself. I am an Arab Palestinian Christian Lutheran. Some would ask me: “How long have you been a Christian?” My answer is: “I have been a Christian before Christianity arrived in Europe or the United States of America.” If you read your Bible, in Acts 2:11 – the Arabs also received the Holy Spirit. The Early Church was a multicultural Church. Palestinian Christians are the descendants of the Early Church. Since then we have witnessed to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in word and deed. I am also an Evangelical Lutheran. Certainly Martin Luther never visited the Holy Land but this becomes an interesting story for mission. The mission of God is never static but always dynamic. It moves in a circle. The Gospel was proclaimed in Jerusalem to the end of the earth. But it also returned to Jerusalem from the ends of the world. The Evangelical Lutherans brought back the fresh Gospel of Christ. We in the ELCJ are also the outcome of the German mission. For this reason, Palestinian Christian Lutherans are part and parcel of the Palestinian Christianity. Our identity is molded by the fresh Evangelical witness. It shapes our identity in these ways:
Although Christians are less than two per cent of the total population, we do not have the complex of minority nor are we persecuted. We are an integral part of the Palestinian society that considers itself to be the salt of the society, the leaven in the dough. We are called to be a Church of martyria, to witness in our ecclesiastical, educational, diaconal, missional, dialogical and reconciliation work. The ELCJ and Its Witness: The Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCJ) has witnessed in the Middle East since the joint Jerusalem Bishopric between the British and the Prussians in 1841. This joint bishopric ended in 1887 due to theological, national, political and ecclesiological differences between Anglicans and Lutherans. Our Church was considered to be a German church. This is the reason that the First and Second World Wars were difficult times and directly affected our work. In 1948, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) sent an American minister, Dr. Moll, to strengthen the Lutheran witness in the Holy Land. It was LWF that rejuvenated our work. LWF encouraged us to establish a Synod, and our Church got its full recognition by the late King Hussein of Jordan in 1959. At that time the West Bank and East Jerusalem were under the control of Jordan and since then our name has been The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (ELCJ). In 1967 the borders changed and since then we have had difficulty in changing the name. Our Church is serving in Jordan, Palestine and Israel, with its headquarters in Jerusalem. In 1977 our relation with our partner churches changed from Mission Board to Church, so relationships were then Church to Church. Together we developed the Coordinating Committee for Overseas Partners for the ELCJ, called COCOP. The original Coordinating Committee included FELM, BMW, CSM and VELKD and the LWF as an associate member. Later on we officially welcomed more partners: ELCA in 1989; NMZ in 2001 and in 2002 the Church of Norway. EKD is now an affiliated member. COCOP in its role encouraged the establishment of a Palestinian Bishopric in 1979. I am the third Palestinian Lutheran Bishop in Jerusalem. Our witness is in ecclesiastical work. We serve in six congregations (in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Old City Jerusalem and Amman, Jordan) where we have the same Lutheran activities and services as any Lutheran congregation in the world, but with a Palestinian context. One of our strong services is our educational work. The ELCJ has five schools located in Ramallah, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem. We also have two boarding sections for children with social problems. According to the statistics, we have 3000 children in ELCJ schools from which only 6% are Lutheran. Muslim children are 35% of our school population and the rest are from other Christian denominations. We also have the Dar al-Kalima Lutheran Academy in Bethlehem, with college level instruction in theology, music and the arts. Many ask me: “Why should you keep the schools open while you have terrible deficits?” These are my answers:
This direct mission is important. Some people have asked how they can help the ELCJ with the mission of the schools. I often say that if a family would give 50 USD monthly for a student, that means you are educating a student for one year with 600 USD and giving hope in a hopeless situation. If you are interested in that, kindly contact Rev. David Lerseth in the ELCA DGM for details. The ELCJ and Diaconia: Diconia is never rich to poor. It never waits until the Church is rich enough to make visits and care for people. It is God’s call to the Living Church to serve all those in need regardless of their gender, religion, race or political affiliation. The ELCJ has been very active in developing our ministry, our diaconia, through our congregations. One can notice this in the Old City of Jerusalem with the Day Center for Elderly People. About 180 elderly people join this excellent program that offers many opportunities. Most of the senior citizens who come are Muslim, but it is our evangelical witness to care for the human being. Another part of ELCJ diaconia is the Meals on Wheels program in Ramallah that has a diverse, caring program for 62 senior citizens in Ramallah. Part of the program involves two hot meals each week that are brought to the homes, with health care, social programs and pastoral counseling also offered. In Bethlehem the Wellness Center at Dar al-Kalima Lutheran School opened recently and serves the children in the school, their families and others in the community. Exercise programs and health classes are offered, as well as audiological testing. Yet another caring ministry of the ELCJ is the social work in Beit Jala. From the social work office in the Lutheran church, needy people are being served in the whole town. In Beit Jala are located the two boarding sections the ELCJ offers. In the Lutheran Home for Boys there are 47 boys living as a family, attending schools in the area. At Talitha Kumi Lutheran School there are about 50 girls staying at the school, out of 850 students, both girls and boys. The boarding sections care for children from homes where there are serious social problems. In Amman, Jordan, we offer our center for organizing the humanitarian relief efforts to Iraq through the Middle East Council of Churches and Action of Churches Together.
Although Palestinian Christians are less than two percent of the total population, we are divided into four families of Churches:
One may ask, “How do you live the ecumenical life when thirteen patriarchs and bishops are living in the Old City of Jerusalem, about one square kilometer?” I have two answers to this question:
Our policy as Christian Heads of Churches is to . . .
The ELCJ is planning to build 84 apartments for Christian young couples on the Mount of Olives to help stop this emigration. We are hoping and praying that the Churches in the US, Canada and Europe will feel responsibility for this urgent project. Our motto in Jerusalem among the Christian Churches is this: Either we live together or we die together. We opt to live together with all the difficulties in the land of the Resurrection. The ELCJ is also part and parcel of Arab Christianity in the Middle East. This is the reason we take an active part in the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC). Being a part of the Evangelical movement in the Middle East, we initiated the MECC where Orthodox, Catholics and Evangelicals can work together. Sometimes we feel the shortcomings of the ecumenical movement in the Middle East and ask ourselves, “Why should we have an ecumenical body as such?” I answer, “With all our shortcomings and our incapabilities to hammer out mutual recognition agreements, the MECC remains the only platform of ecumenical movement in the Middle East. It is the only place where Middle East Christianity meets, talks, strategizes and tries to see Christ in the other. Although it is not easy, at least the MECC gives us the opportunity to live out a visible unity. It is fragile, but at least it has a strong diaconal approach to the Middle East, such as Iraq, Lebanon, Palestinian refugees, migrant workers and others, and develops a good relation between Arab Christianity and Islam. The Evangelical churches in the Middle East have been in fellowship since 1936. The Lutheran, Episcopal and Reformed churches have met informally but have been strong in witness and were the initiators of the ecumenical movement in the Middle East, the MECC, established in 1974. The Evangelical churches in the Middle East also initiated the establishment of the Near East School of Theology, a seminary in Beirut, Lebanon. NEST educates Evangelical pastors and leaders. At the moment we are facing a new challenge: Do we keep the name “Evangelical”? The Evangelical right wing groups have caused problems for us in the Middle East by their ideology, particularly in Muslim-Christian relations. It is very hard for the Muslim world to understand the differences between mainline Evangelical churches and the right wing groups who also use the name Evangelical. This leads to great misunderstandings of our Churches, including the Lutheran church which is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and Palestine. We think that no group can or should kidnap our name Evangelical from its original meaning in the Reformation – to proclaim the gospel purely and rightly administer the sacraments. In the last decade the Evangelical churches have been talking about mutual recognition agreements but so far we have not been able to act on this. We in the ELCJ want to be bridge builders in this matter and we plan to move ahead on two tracks:
If the ELCJ succeeds on these two tracks, we would be preparing fertile ground for a multi-lateral agreement in the future, such as the Anglican-Lutheran-Reformed agreement in France, the DeReuilly Agreement.
As Christians we are part and parcel of the Palestinian society. Every Palestinian, whether Christian or Muslim, is affected by what goes on in the Middle East. For example, I myself am a refugee from Beersheba since 1948. I have told the US Secretary of State Colin Powell that had not the Church embraced me, I do not know what would have become of me. I might be living with my compatriots in a refugee camp. I wonder, Would I have become a pastor or a bishop? Sometimes I’m asked, “Why should the Church raise its voice in this difficult political situation?” I answer the question with other questions: “How can the Church be silent when we are living under an inhuman political situation? How can the Church be silent when its members cannot move freely in their towns? Or church council or synod members cannot meet regularly? Or the young people cannot enjoy a retreat? Or parents cannot get to their work? Seventy percent of our Palestinian population is unemployed. Fifty-two percent of our population is living on $2.00 per day or less, which the World Bank has defined as the poverty level. How can the Church be quiet when land is confiscated and olive groves are bulldozed and houses are demolished? How can the Church possibly be silent when people on both sides of the conflict are being killed in spiral violence? It has always been our conviction that the Israeli military occupation must end because we believe occupation is a sin against God and humanity. It demoralizes the occupier and the ones being occupied. For me, I believe that the security of Israelis is dependent on the justice and liberation of Palestinians. The end of the illegal occupation will result in justice for both Israelis and Palestinians; it will liberate both the occupier and the occupied. Our Lutheran Church in Palestine is supportive of the Roadmap for Peace. I believe the Roadmap is a golden opportunity to find the ways to resolve the enormous problems which exist between Israelis and Palestinians. There are three reasons why I have described the Roadmap as being a golden opportunity:
The test of the Roadmap is not for negotiation but for implementation on both sides. For this reason, I believe the American administration and the Quartet need to put fixed dates for implementations for both sides. The benchmark dates are significant because the people at the grassroots will see there is a difference in the implementation of the Roadmap in comparison with previous plans which did not succeed. The Palestinians, and Israelis, too, are doubtful and hopeful at the same time. There have been numerous other occasions when peace seemed to be at hand and then everything fell apart, and usually the situation grew worse instead of better. This is why the Roadmap must not be a pacification but must address specific issues in order to bring about just peace and security for all. Those specific issues must include a plan to deal with the Israeli settlements on Palestinian land; a shared Jerusalem; a solution for Palestinian refugees right of return; and a fair distribution of the water resources. As I watched the recent terrible violence and bloodshed on both sides, I wept. Why is the world quiet, I wondered, allowing this violence to continue. These waves of spiral violence create such fear and insecurity among the people here. I still believe that a negotiated settlement should be possible in the Roadmap in order to stop violence and allow us all to walk in peace. We must listen to the fears and the problems of the other, and not listen only to the mass media. The Lutheran Church does not believe in violence of any sort. Rather the Church chooses to teach by word and example that non-violent methods will bring us to a just peace. We pray that the world communities will stand by their commitment to bring a just peace through continued negotiation and hands-on involvement, not becoming fearful and discouraged. We have hope, knowing that God’s will for all people is peace and reconciliation, and an abundant life. We must work on these issues to bring about a just peace – not only a time of no war and no peace. This is the time for the Middle East to jump into the bosom of justice. When the two-state solution succeeds, we will have moved from lip service into genuine implementation. I know there are some critical remarks about the Roadmap but a conflict of more than fifty years needs a serious track of justice and peace so this train will roll. The Roadmap is a golden opportunity because we are at the beginning of the right track of implementation. Unfortunately, there are evangelistic right wing groups who say in their campaigns, “The Bible is our Roadmap.” They consider the peace process and the Roadmap to be against the will of God. Based on their biblistic reading of the Old Testament and fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, they have created scenarios of war which include the destruction of the Dome of the Rock, the building of a Third Jewish Temple, the Rapture, and Armageddon. Their sick scenarios seem to be philo-Semitic now, but in the long run they become anti-Semitic because any Jews who have not become Christians will be killed for their unbelief. I think these Christian Zionist groups are really false prophets, as the Illinois Roman Catholic bishops recently stated. I myself have declared their ideologies to be a heresy because they do not seek the Christ of Love, but rather the Christ of the Sword. In the Middle East we are not in need of any kind of extremism -- political or religious. We are fed up with extremism. Whatever the religion – Judaism, Christianity, Islam – extremism denies the other their rights. In the Middle East we are in need of just peace and reconciliation. For that reason we call on you as our partners to be our advocate for a just peace in the Middle East. At the same time we call on the powerful US administration to be an honest broker of justice, peace and reconciliation. The world will look favorably upon the US administration and the US people if you allow your God-granted liberation to be experienced by those nations in the world that are longing for it.
The ELCJ and Interfaith Dialogue: The ELCJ is a Church that is living with Muslims and Jews. We have contacts with both. However, our interfaith dialogue follows three tracks: 1. Christian-Muslim
Dialogue I am asked, Is it easy to live with Islam? The problem for much of the world is that Islam is stereotyped and demonized, thus creating big misunderstandings. It may surprise you to know that Muslims make good neighbors. It is not true that all Muslims are extremists. Just as we Christians are divided into groupings, so the same is true of Muslims. We cannot put all the eggs of Islam into one basket. We have to understand Islam as it wants to be understood, not as we see it from the outside. When we dialogue with Muslims we discuss several issues:
I believe it is essential for others to learn from our experience about how to live with Islam because it is a fast-growing religion throughout the world. We are ready as Palestinian Christians to share with you our experience, to share our paradigm of co-existence with Islam. 2. Jewish-Christian
Dialogue Why did we start the dialogue? Sometimes religions ignore each other when they live in the same place. But dialogue is very important because I have noticed that the Palestinian Christian agenda and the Israeli Jewish agenda are both different from the European and Western agenda. We are not moved by guilt feelings because the conflict we are now experiencing is political, not religious. We as Palestinian Christians have never persecuted Jews in regard to religion. On the contrary, we have lived together. It is necessary for us to discuss with our Jewish partners the issues that are contextual for our co-existence:
Let me give you two examples about understanding each other.
My purpose was to challenge Palestinians and Israelis, Christians and Jews, to see that the question was not really about self-defense but whether we can co-exist and live together in the future. Can we make business and friendships together, with all the hard feelings that exist on both sides? Can we love the enemy? These challenges continue to be questions for us in these difficult times. 3. Jewish-Christian-Muslim
Dialogue What is the purpose of tri-lateral dialogue? I believe the purpose is to build reconciliation between the three religions. The way to do that seems to be through learning to understand the difficulties and problems of the other. Locally, the ELCJ has an excellent opportunity to encourage such learning and understanding at Abraham’s House in Beit Jala. It is a retreat and study center with a guest house where youth and adults of all three faiths can gather to build understanding and reconciliation. Tri-lateral discussions on the international scene have been instrumental in developing the Alexandria Declaration, a process in which high ranking religious leaders from Judaism, Christianity and Islam signed an agreement to build peace, end the occupation and end spiral violence. In October 2002 religious leaders who are connected to the Alexandria Declaration met at Lambeth Palace in England at the invitation of then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey. Two problems quickly became evident in our discussions:
You may ask, if there is such disagreement, why bother with a dialogue or trialogue at all? History teaches us that religious leaders have a great role to play in times of conflict. They build bridges between different groups and they raise the consciousness of the grass roots for justice, peace and reconciliation. Religious leaders in the Middle East are to play a major role to save humanity from injustice, oppression and spiral violence. I can share with you two things:
It is the duty of us all to make mea culpa, to confess we have not been an instrument of peace. We must dare to come to our Lord and confess our sins. Once we have confessed we can see the pain of the other. One of my Jewish rabbi friends, Ehud, and I had an experience of shared pain. In one of our Jewish-Christian dialogues I had told the story of my five-year-old son who jumped off a four meter high wall (about twelve feet high) because he became frightened of Israeli soldiers coming down our street. I told Ehud and the other rabbis that I didn’t want my son to grow up in hatred. Ehud then told of his own fears that his little daughter would be stabbed if she came into the Old City of Jerusalem. He expressed his pain, and in that moment Ehud’s pain had found my humanity in my pain, and I had found his humanity in his pain. Once we find and understand the pain of the other and walk the Via Dolorosa together, then resurrection will come sooner than we expect. My friends, now is the KAIROS of reconciliation for justice and peace. Now is the time to act together to stop the human tragedy in the Middle East and give hope in a hopeless situation. God calls us as the ELCJ and the ELCA to work together for this reconciliation, asking God’s blessing upon us. I hope you will accompany us Palestinian Christian Lutherans on this journey.
Yes, the ELCJ and Palestinian Christians are the minority, but we never consider ourselves to have a minority complex. Instead we see ourselves as being
We see ourselves to be instruments of peace, brokers of justice, initiators of dialogue among religions, bridge builders between Israelis and Palestinians, defenders of human rights, promoters of women’s rights, ministers of reconciliation and apostles of love. So we ask you as partners in mission:
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