St Thomas Online Coffee Hour: Promised Land or Land of Promise? • Part 3

Christian ministries of the Episcopalians of Israel and Palestine
by Mary Pneuman

Care of the poor, the widow, the sick and the stranger has been a touchstone of Christianity since its earliest days. Jesus calls on us to be merciful to the “the other” when he answers the question who is my neighbor? by commanding us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Since its inception in 1845, the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem (D of J) has sought to respond to His call. Today, five healthcare ministries provide compassionate inpatient, outpatient and specialty care to all neighbors, regardless of political or religious affiliation or ability to pay. Seventeen educational ministries, which extend from preschool to high school and include special schools for the blind, deaf or disabled, play a vital role in maintaining respect and peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims and helping to reconcile Arabs and Jews.

In late November, thirteen pilgrims from the Diocese of Olympia embarked on an eight day tour to “Come and See” Israel and Palestine with Iyad Qumri, a Palestinian Christian guide with 20 years of experience and licensed to lead tours in Israel. Born in Jerusalem and a graduate of St. George’s School for Boys, he has deep roots in the land, and is the only Episcopalian Christian guide, he said.

In addition to visiting traditional Biblical sites, our group met with Bishop Suheil Dawani and his wife Shafeeqa, seven Arab Palestinian Episcopal clergy and some of their parishioners, and the leaders of ten schools and health care institutions supported by the Diocese of Jerusalem. For a visitor, covering the ground is possible because distances between one point and another In Israel and Palestine are small and there is a “tourist” passage through most of the checkpoints between the two.

With some 7,000 parishioners, the Diocese of Jerusalem has 27 parishes and 30 priests and operates 30 schools, clinics, and specialty rehabilitation centers in four countries. It hires about 1500 employees, both Christian and Muslim; the schools serve some 6400 students; and there are 160 beds in its two hospitals. In addition to liturgical, pastoral and administrative duties in at least one church, nearly every parish priest is in charge of overseeing a healthcare or educational institution. There is no secretarial support or office staff in the parishes, which rely heavily on volunteers.

The steady decrease in the number of Palestinian Christians (from up to 20 percent before Israel became a state to less than 2 percent at present) poses many challenges for the churches. Discriminatory laws, restrictions, and diminished employment and economic opportunities make everyday life difficult and encourage Christian emigration, especially among the young. Christian educational and healthcare institutions play a reconciling role in a land fraught with fear and conflict, and we were inspired (and humbled) by the steadfast faith and hope of those who remain to put their faith into action.

Is it true that the Christians are leaving because of Muslim persecution? Israeli advocates try to show that the minority Christians are being driven out by militant Muslims. On the contrary, as Dr. Bernard Sabella of Bethlehem University writes in Palestinian Christians—Challenges and Hopes:

"This tradition of good Christian-Moslem relations has evolved through centuries of coexistence and exchange in the cities of Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Ramallah and in the rural areas such as Zababdeh, BirZeit and other towns and villages where Moslems and Christians live side by side and interact in their pursuit of daily pre-occupations and concerns."

Responses to repeated inquiries of both Christians and Muslims in churches, schools and the marketplace firmly point to Israel’s oppressive military occupation as the cause. We share a common culture and language, they tell us—we may have our disagreements, but we are one people.

This conviction was born out again and again during our visit as we observed Christian and Muslim school children working and playing together and Christian and Muslim teachers and caregivers working in unison. Seeing classrooms at the Arab Evangelical school complex in Ramallah, a Christian speech pathologist working with a deaf Muslim child at Princess Basma School for Disabled Children in Jerusalem, or a Muslim nurse caring for a Christian patient at St. Luke’s Hospital in Nablus bears witness to the long tradition of bridging religious divides.

It would be hard to conclude that the preservation of the historic Arab Christian presence and the peacemaking role of faithful Palestinian Christians are not vital to the future stability of the region. To this end, it is most important that Christians everywhere recognize the moral and political issues involved and help to address the causes for the exodus of the “living stones” before it is too late.