Bethlehem

We arrived at our hotel in Bethlehem late last night and it was only in the morning that we could appreciate the view from our bedroom windows. The concrete separation wall stood high across the road, obstructing the view beyond. The wall now dominates Bethlehem. In the case of this house the wall now encloses it on 3 sides. It has ruined their business and made their house worthless.

Not only is it extremely visible, with some very imaginative graffiti, including some by the famous graffiti artist Banksy, it also dominates the lives of many of those who have to travel the few miles towards Jerusalem to work each day.

Thousands of men and some women start queuing at 02:00 every morning in order to be able to get through the checkpoint in the barrier to get to work. They stand (or sometimes sleep) in the caged walkway along the wall. The gate sometimes opens at 04:00, sometimes at 05:00, but the workers cannot be certain how long it will take to get through and so arrive early just to be on the safe side. Keeping their job is very important when so many Palestinians are unemployed. They pass through a series of airport-style security checks where permits, belongings and finger-prints are checked every day.

The Ecumenical Accompaniers are there watching the checkpoint shortly after 4 am every day, and today was no exception. We met Susan Palmai from Canada and Sabine Blum from Switzerland, 2 of the 4 member EAPPI team in Bethlehem. They’d counted 2768 people going through the checkpoint this morning. 800 had been waiting at 04.45 and when we arrived shortly after 8 o’clock there was still a steady flow of mainly men heading off to work.

Amin is also at the checkpoint early every morning, but for him it is to sell coffee to the waiting people. He is the only member of an extended family with regular employment and somehow he manages to earn enough to support his elderly parents, his wife and children as well as a disabled brother and sister who has been abandoned by her husband. His story is not unusual and explains why so many are willing to cope with the indignity of the daily checkpoint in order to keep their job.

As we stood and watched a man spontaneously told us how thankful he was that the EAs were there. This appreciation of their work was evident wherever we went in Bethlehem, as it was in Hebron the day before. We were invited to sit and drink tea and welcomed as friends throughout the morning. As we walked back to our hotel a shop-owner insisted on closing his shop and driving us personally to the hotel and then on to the checkpoint as we headed off back to Jerusalem and back to the airport.

We have been overwhelmed by the warmth and generosity of a people who have lived through difficult times but hope for a better future. As one man said to us, "without hope we cannot live".

Hebron

I was told to expect my heart to be broken during our visit. It happened yesterday in Hebron. We travelled to Hebron to meet Ecumenical Accompaniers Gerry O’Sullivan from Ireland and Sofia Hammarstrom from Sweden. Hebron is a lively, bustling Palestinian town but the Old City tells a different story. The Cave of Machpelah/Tomb of the Patriarchs, at the centre of Hebron, is said to be the burial place of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Leah. This place is therefore sacred to all three monotheistic faiths but to Jews it is second only to the Western Wall and to Muslims it comes second in the Holy Land only to Jerusalem’s Haram esh-Sharif.

For centuries a small Jewish community has lived in relative peace in Hebron. However in 1929 in a wave of Arab riots the violence in Hebron was especially fierce and most of the Jewish population were killed and the few who survived fled. Initially after the 1967 war the Israeli government banned Jews from settling here, but after significant pressure a settlement was allowed to be created on the edge of the city. In 1979 a group of settler women and children illegally occupied Beit Hadassah in the heart of the Old City and after an eight month sit-in they were given permission to stay. There are now 4 settlements and they are a focus of on-going tension.

We walked through the narrow market streets beyond Bab Al-Zawya, the entrance to the Old City. In places a wire netting protects the streets below from the rubbish and missiles thrown down by the settlers’ flats above. At the end of the street are a series of checkpoints before reaching the Tomb of the Patriarchs. The building has now been split in two, one side a mosque, the other a synagogue. As it was the Sabbath we were not allowed in to the Jewish side.

However on returning along the parallel market road, Al-Shuhada Street, the contrast was stark. All the shops that once lined this street were closed. It felt like a ghost town with the exception of a few settler children on the street. Before entering the settler area, which Palestinians are prevented from doing, the street was split in two, Palestinians are allowed to walk down only one side, the road is for Israelis only. On the walls of some of the buildings are murals and signs which make clear the beliefs of the settlers. It was very reminiscent of walls in Belfast or Derry in Northern Ireland.

We’d had the opportunity earlier to see the impact on the city of the settlements and the numerous army lookouts by looking across the rooftops of the Old City from the house occupied by a Christian Peacemaker Team. CPTs are international teams that enter in conflict zones around the world and have been in Hebron since 1995. They aim to reduce violent situations by “getting in the way”. We listened to how they, like the EAs, support school patrols, accompany those at risk of house demolition and monitor soldiers as they search homes.

Gerry and Sofia showed us the steps up which Palestinian children had to be escorted to reach their school adjacent to the settler area. We were later to see a film showing settlers attacking children and their teachers coming down these steps on their way from school. In one such incident the daughter of Hashem al’Azzeh suffered a broken arm.

Hashem and his family live in a house up the hill close to the school. In 1984 a group of settlers occupied the land directly overlooking his home and the house they built now obstructs the entrance to his home. It means that the only way in is not to climb up the steep banking behind the house. The family have suffered physical and verbal abuse from their neighbours ever since. His wife has had 2 miscarriages as a result of assaults, their home has been broken in to and an attempt was made to burn it down. His olive trees have been cut down and it is too dangerous to try and collect the remaining olives. Yet despite the violence and intimidation, Hashem is adamant that this is his home and he will not be forced to leave. Whilst the settlers repeatedly say to him “Your house, your land is promised by God to us”, his response is “you can kill me physically but you will never kill my ideals”.

He has been protected in large part by the interest of the international community. He has hosted film crews and journalists from around the world, a many clips of what he and his family have had to endure are on the video site You-Tube. He is though cynical about what the international community have achieved in seeking an end to the occupation of Palestinian territory, but if full of praise for the role of the ecumenical accompanier programme.

We left the heartbreak of Hebron and drove on to Bethlehem were we met a group of leaders of Christian organisations, many of whom had been involved in writing the Kairos Document. Usama Nicola and Lucy Talgieh from the Palestinian Conflict Resolution Centre, Nidal AbuZuluf from the Joint Advocacy Initiative of YMCA, Rifat Kassis of Defence for Children International and George Rishmawi of the Siraj Centre for Holy Land studies all told us how important they felt the Kairos document was for them, not just as a message to their own people but also to the international community. They were disappointed that the Churches were so slow to respond to the situation in Palestine. They called on the Church to be pro-active, courageous and prophetic.

We then made the short journey to Beit Sahour, were the Evangelical Lutheran Church scout group were hosting an evening’s fundraising event. In 2 years of restarting the Shepherds Scout group they have grown to 120 members. The hall was packed with friends and family, including a group of 6^th Form students on an exchange from Sweden. There was singing, music and dancing, and even a favoured Palestinian activity – bingo. The hall was full of smiles and laughter, love, joy and hope. It restored our broken hearts.

The Kairos Palestine Document

On the 11 December last year, a group of Palestinian Christian leaders launched an important statement known as the Kairos Palestine Document. An English version can be found at the World Council of Churches web site:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/other-ecumenical-bodies/kairos-palestine-document.html

Led by the former Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, His Beatitude Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah, together with 14 others, the hope was that this document would provide a clear and unified call from Palestinian Christians to all those in the world seeking a just peace to the situation in Israel/Palestine. It was hoped that it would receive strong support and was modelled on the South Africa Kairos document of 1985, which at the time proved to be a tool in the struggle against apartheid.

This morning we met one of the authors, Rev Dr Naim Ateek, a Palestinian Anglican priest who is the president and director of Sabeel, an ecumenical theological centre in Jerusalem, which he founded to develop a liberation theology for Palestinians. Sabeel means “the way” and has a focus on education, working for justice and peace and more recently developing inter-faith understanding by bringing together Muslims, Christians and where possible Jews. Sabeel is currently planning their 3^rd national clergy conference to which orthodox, catholic and protestant clergy will attend, but in addition for the first time 40 Muslim clerics will also be present. This is an important step for Palestine by helping to break down the barriers within their own society.

Dr Ateek was keen to stress how important it was for Christians around the world to read, study and respond to the Kairos Document which was a year in the drafting. They feel that for too long the international community has remained silent on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, and as they say “our word is a cry of hope, with love, prayer and faith in God.” The forthcoming Methodist Conference in Portsmouth clearly provides an opportunity to do as Palestinian Christians are asking.

Naim Ateek is often invited to speak around the world and as a result groups known as “Friends of Sabeel” are springing up in many countries, including Britain. Every Tuesday friends receive an email that starts a wave of prayer around the world.

Ramzi Zananiri, the Executive Director of the Near East Council of Churches Committee for Refugee Works, is also a keen advocate of the Kairos Document. We met him in his office and he told us about their work since 1949 when large numbers of Palestinians fled to refugee camps following the war. Initially their work was focused on short term relief, but 60 years later, and with refugee camps still in existence, the focus now is on community development, education, water and food security.

They have a clear sense that access to water could lead to serious conflict in the future. It was hard to imagine today as we walked around in the rain, but the area has suffered a number of years of drought, the evidence of which is seen in the low level of Lake Tiberius. But drought is not the only problem. We were told that settler communities are using 6 times more water than equivalent Palestinian communities, and Palestinians are only allowed limited access to underground water supplies. The Committee is responding in a small way by supplying rainwater harvesting tanks which can store up to 4 months worth of water for a family.

Ramzi Zananiri reflected on the increasing number of barriers preventing Palestinians meeting with Israelis but remembered that whilst the situation was not ideal, this was not the case in the 1970s and 80s when there was relatively free movement between different areas. His belief is that with the right will on both sides it should be possible to return to this situation. As he said “physical barriers are temporary and can be easily removed, but we must remove the barriers within our hearts first and foremost.”

This afternoon we didn’t let the cold and rain put us off joining other pilgrims walking down the Mount of Olives in the footsteps of Jesus. We stopped at the Church of Dominus Flevit, traditionally the site that Jesus wept for Jerusalem (Luke 19.41). We looked out, as he would have done, across the Kidron Valley to the old city of Jerusalem, and we too felt a pain and sorrow for this holy land. But then this evening we were taken by Rev Kjell Jonasson, a Swedish minister working with the World Council of Churches, to a lecture at the Swedish Christian Study Centre about the Christian community at the time of the Crusades and Ayyubid period 900 years ago. It made us realise that this land has always had a complexity beyond many peoples understanding and that despite the many current difficulties and “facts on the ground” hope for justice and peace remains.

Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel

David and I arrived in a cold and wet Jerusalem last night and after a good night’s rest we embarked on an intensive day of briefings and visits around the city. We have been invited to Israel/Palestine by the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel which is a programme of the World Council of Churches. Our visit was an opportunity to see and affirm what they are doing as well as to meet with Church leaders and other groups trying to work for peace and justice in this troubled part of the world.

I had been inspired to make this visit after hearing one of my predecessors as Vice-President, Jan Sutch Pickard, speak of her own experience as an ecumenical accompanier at the Methodist Conference nearly 3 years ago, and so it was wonderful to be greeted by Jan at the Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre this morning. She has returned to act again as an ecumenical accompanier for the next 3 months in the village of Yanoun. Jan had been told by the Deputy Mayor of Yanoun how important the EAs were, “Your pens and cameras are more powerful than guns” he said. She has seen for herself how true that is, with the levels of violence and intimidation of local Palestinians by settlers in Yanoun having significantly fallen since the EA team arrived.

There have been over 600 Ecumenical Accompanists from 15 different countries since the programme started over 6 years ago, and now there are 24 people working in 6 teams for a 3 month period. They work in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, and in the north of the West Bank in Jayyous, Yanoun and Tulkarem. Their role is to witness and record events as Palestinians try to use the many checkpoints through the separation barrier being constructed by the Israeli government, to provide protection by their presence, and to tell their stories when they return home. Their work and witness is inspiring and is undoubtedly appreciated by the countless people they have stood alongside.

The scale of the difficulties for those searching for a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in this land was made clear by Ray Dolphin from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. UN-OCHA monitor in detail the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory. Whilst the UN acknowledges that Israel is within its rights to build a separation barrier, it objects to the route that the barrier is taking which it makes clear is against international law. 85% of the 709 km barrier will be in occupied Palestinian territory when it is completed. The route means that 9.5% of the West Bank is on the Israeli side of the barrier, much of which is some of the most fertile Palestinian land. It has separated communities from each other and farmers from their fields.

Israel says that the separation barrier is being built to ensure security for its people, but it is not the only initiative being employed to achieve this. In addition to the 68 checkpoints and 22 partial checkpoints in the main barrier, there are also barriers created by enclosed roads in the West Bank for Israelis only, 100 road gates, 66 road blocks and 174 earth mounds, all of which make it very difficult for ordinary Palestinians to make the most basic of journeys. To get to a hospital in time to deliver a baby or in a medical emergency can sometimes be almost impossible.

UN-OCHA reports can be found on their website (ochaopt@un.org). One report focused on the Bethlehem governorate which comprises of 660 square km. After four decades of Israeli occupation only approximately 13% of the land remains available to Palestinian use and much of this is fragmented. Access to East Jerusalem has been severely restricted. This is because of the expansion of Israeli settlements and settlement outposts, construction of the separation barrier and classifying significant portions of land as a military area and a nature reserve. This situation is replicated at several other places in the West Bank.

Faced with these daily challenges, many Palestinian Christians have moved abroad. Now Christians form only 2% of the population. Yusef Daher, the Executive Secretary of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre, who had organised our visit, told us of his own experience of being a Palestinian Christian living in Jerusalem. There are 21 in his close family. His brother has had to travel to Ramallah to get work and by living there he and his family have lost their residency status for Jerusalem. His sister has lost her residency status by living and working in America. Another brother has married an American woman but she needs an annual permit to live in Jerusalem which is proving difficult to obtain. It means that within a few short years only half of his close family are now able to live in Jerusalem. Yusef’s story is not atypical and is one reason why the number of Christians living in Jerusalem is falling so quickly.

B’Tselem is one of many Israeli NGOs working to improve human rights in the country. It is committed to ensuring their own country lives up to the highest ethical standards, promoting accountability, the rule of law and universal respect for human rights. They were founded 20 years ago and have now developed an international reputation as a source of reliable and comprehensive information for journalists, researchers and diplomats. They have pioneered the use of video as a tool for human rights advocacy, and Risa Zoll and Lizi Sagi (pictured) told us how giving cameras to Palestinian families under threat from settler communities nearby has both enabled them to document human rights abuses but also helped to reduce violent incidents.

Rabbis for Human Rights is another impressive organisation. Their Executive Director, Rabbi Arik Ascherman told us about their work which focused on both human rights issues inside Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territory. For instance they have run an olive tree campaign, re-planting trees for local farmers after they have been cut down by settlers and they support families facing house demolition, offering both legal support and a physical presence should a demolition take place. Rabbi Ascherman’s philosophy is that they offer a coalition of hope, believing that it is only if both sides of the conflict empower each other and start to trust each other that a just peace can be found.

Our day concluded with a meeting with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Fouad Twal. He welcomed our visit and encouraged the Methodist Church, and all Christian communities around the world, not to forget their sisters and brothers in Israel/Palestine. In this he echoed the words of the Kairos Document, an important statement made by Palestinian Christian leaders a few months ago.

As the sun set we were able to make a brief visit to the heart of the Old City, and witness prayers being said at the Western Wall and above, on Temple Mount hearing the Muslim call to prayer. It was a parable of how close these two great faiths and communities are and yet the fact that barriers increasingly prevent one community from meeting with another, the reality, at least for the moment, is that the distance between one community and another is greater than ever.

Kent College Canterbury - 125 years

My journey to the Methodist Council meeting on Monday was by way of Canterbury. I had been invited to share in the celebratory service in Canterbury Cathedral to mark 125 years of Kent College, one of our Methodist Schools. The preacher was the Revd the Lord Griffiths of Pembrey and Burry Port. There were readings, prayers and reflections by current and former students (including the current Head Boy and Head Girl); items by the Senior Choir, Choristers and Symphony Orchestra. Baroness Richardson and I led an act of dedication. Welcomes were given by the Head Master, Dr David Lamper, and the Dean of Canterbury, the Very Revd Dr Robert Willis, who also pronounced the blessing at the close of the service. One of many highlights in the service was a setting of Psalm 100, Jubilate Deo, composed for the service by Stuart McIntosh, Director of Music.

(Picture shows Head Master, Dr David Lamper; Baroness Richardson; Head Boy, Charlie Lloyd-Hughes; and the Revd the Lord Griffiths of Pembrey and Burry Port. Younger members of the school are holding special 125th banners.)

Methodist Council

We’re back at High Leigh Conference Centre in Hertfordshire, this time for the Methodist Council. There are two significant differences between our last meeting here for the Connexional Leaders Forum in January. The snow has gone (compare this picture with the earlier one on the blog), although it feels just as cold outside, and the paperwork for this meeting is significantly greater, a few pages for CLF compared with an inch thick agenda of over 350 pages for Methodist Council. This is a sign of the immense amount of work going on as we now head towards Conference.

We started the meeting remembering the situation in Fiji and Haiti receiving updates about the difficult situation in both countries. The military Government in Fiji has now announced that anyone who criticizes the government led by Commodore Josaia Vorege (Frank) Bainimarama, or even passes on an email containing such criticism, faces life imprisonment for treason. This leaves Methodist Church in Fiji leaders very anxious about what the future holds, and even more in need of our prayerful support.

Email, blogs, Facebook pages and tweets can be powerful things but they can also be destructive when people post something they later regret because of the hurt it causes others who become aware of the posting. It has been recognised that the Methodist Church should develop guidelines in this area and therefore Council discussed a paper about the respectful and responsible use of social media, a paper which itself had been the focus of much discussion on a number of internet sites.

Council did not shy away from some difficult and challenging areas. We discussed a paper about the “Living Wage” and the response to the Conference resolution asking that the 1976 statement on the abortion should be revised. We revisited the decisions of Conference about how to make fair changes to the ministers’ pension fund. We discussed our response to racism and extreme views within the Church and we read with sadness about the situation in Israel/Palestine in a report prepared by the working group set up by Conference. The latter was a well timed report as tomorrow David and I travel to Jerusalem to see for ourselves the reality of daily life there.

A whole series of papers helped us to consider our future strategy with respect to our World Church partnerships, and in particular the forthcoming all-partners consultation that will take place before Conference in June. We also looked at the implications of devolution for the Methodist Church in Britain, and what we understand by our Connexionalism.

Early this morning David presided at a service of Holy Communion at which I preached. It was a clear sign of our partnership. Later Council was invited to explore the possibility of a change to the current pattern of having a President and Vice-President, instead moving to a President with 2 co-Presidents, one lay and one from the Diaconal Order. Offices could be held for 1 year as at present, or for 3 years. This led to a very interesting discussion which concluded with an agreement that the Conference should be offered an increased number of options for possible change from which it could choose, including whether the Presidency/Presidium should include 2 or 3 people.

Despite the size of the agenda, and the major issues to be covered, we managed to complete our work on time. We are though conscious of the large amount of work we continue to ask others to do on behalf of the Council, Conference and Church.

EMYC - European Methodist Youth and Children

This has been quite a month for me, in various ways. As well as the visits already described on this blog, we had a very important family celebration. On the 18th January, our young son, Joe, became 21. I'd made sure to keep the weekend free in my diary, so was able be part of the celebrations. But when your youngest becomes 21, it's another reminder that you're not as young as you used to be. So it was rather nice to go to Frankfurt with Mike Seaton for a meeting of the Executive of EMYC (European Methodist Youth and Children).

Back in the Autumn, while I was sitting relaxing in Colombo, Sri Lanka, I received an email informing me that I'd been elected as the next President of EMYC. This came as good news. Years ago, when I was Children's Secretary at the then Division of Education and Youth, I attended EMYC for a number of years ands was its Vice-President. Over a decade later, to be elected as President is a great honour and I'm really looking forward to it. It's a four-year post, generally undertaken by Bishops or Ex-Presidents of the different European Methodist Churches.

We met at the same time and place as the Executive of the European Methodist Council (co-chaired by Chris Elliott) and held a joint session (pictured, left) in which the main item under discussion was a forthcoming European Methodist Festival, at Kracow in 2012.

I seem to be experiencing extremes of weather this month. Snow in London was followed by the warmth of Ghana. In Frankfurt it was both snowy and foggy. The photo below shows a plane landing while we waited for ours, which was delayed over an hour because of the weather conditions and the need to de-ice the wings before we could set off. I wonder what Palestine will be like next week?