The Evangelical Lutheran Church

The Evangelical Lutheran Church
October Newsletter
October 28, 2004

Salaam and grace to you from the Land of the Sacred Olive Tree.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away.
See, everything has become new! (2 Cor 5:17)

In Palestine, olive trees are members of the family. So, when Adnan was cut off from one of his favorite olive trees after the Separation Barrier was built, and he wasn't going to be able to water it or care for it, he was beside himself. If it was going to die, he decided, he would make it a quick death and not have it suffer day by day. So he cut it down.

Five months later, when he was allowed to go back to his land, he found that the branches were growing out of the stump. He got down on his knees, kissed the ground, and was apologizing to it, saying "I'm sorry, if I'd have known, I wouldn't have cut!" His wife, following behind him, thought he had finally lost his marbles. "Are you mad!! Who are you talking to?!"

So he told his wife, and asked her what she thought it meant. She said, "It's a Palestinian tree. It can grow without water. It can grow without food. As long as its roots are in the Land, it will grow."

Martin Luther was asked once what he would do if the world was going to end tomorrow, and he said he would go out and plant a tree. If he had been Palestinian, I'm sure it would have been an olive tree. These trees are a testament to resilient life, and in many ways mirror the resiliency of many of the Palestinians. During this season of olive harvesting, please keep this land, the people and these gnarled old ancestors in your prayers:

More than 130 Palestinians, 31 of whom were children, died during the more than 2 weeks of Operation "Days of Penitence" in Gaza that began in late September after 2 Israeli children were killed in Sderot by a Qassam rocket launched from northern Gaza. The Jerusalem heads of churches issued a statement Oct. 2 calling for an end to the violence:

Statement from the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem
Concerning the Escalation of Violence in Gaza

We, the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, are greatly distressed at the increasing bloodshed and violence in Gaza by both sides of the dispute.

Large numbers have been killed and injured. Very many homes have been destroyed. Fear and anxiety are rampant.

When God sent his Son Jesus Christ to share our human life He intended us to become aware of His true nature of love and compassion working together to enable humanity to enjoy peace with justice.

So, in the name of God, we say to Israeli and Palestinian alike, stop the violence and the growing hatred of each other. Return once again to the Road Map for Peace; discuss with each other and use all methods of diplomacy but hold fast to the sanctity of human life.

To the world at large we plead for your prayers for Peace in this Holy Land whilst urging all political leaders to add their voices to ours in urging an end to war.
10/2/2004

Christian Peacemaker Teams Assaulted Walking Children to School
Two teams of Christian Peacemakers (CPT) have been assaulted this month while walking children to school in a village south of Hebron near the settlement Ma'On. In the first attack, five assailants, armed with chains and a bat, attacked two CPT members while the children fled. One victim was hospitalized with massive bruising and a punctured lung, and the other suffered bruising, a broken arm and an injured knee. In the second attack, 8 settlers attacked a CPT team of 5. Ecumenical Accompaniers and additional CPT members are filling in to protect the children so they don't have to give up school. The assignment had only recently started after harassment of the school children by the settlers had grown increasingly threatening.

Bishop Younan Receives Awards in Norway and the US
Bishop Munib Younan was awarded the Betanien Award Tuesday, Oct. 19, from the Batanien (Bethany) Foundation in Oslo, Norway. The foundation, begun by the Methodist Church in 1897, has supported and promoted diaconal work throughout its history.

According to the foundation, Bishop Younan was chosen for his work in "prophetic diaconia," which means service to the poor and the powerless in a way that goes beyond charity to justice. They noted three areas: 1) the Bishop's work to continue the witness of Arab Palestinian Christianity in the HolyLand; 2) Leadership in working for peace, justice and reconciliation through dialogue between Christians, Muslims and Jews; and 3) his service with Augusta Victoria Hospital as Chair of the Board.

In his acceptance speech, the Bishop thanked the Foundation on behalf of the Palestinian Christians. He also thanked his friends and colleagues in Norway for their partnership and support. During his acceptance speech, he talked about the mission of the Palestinian Christians:

This makes our Palestinian Christian Church a Church of Martyria, serving suffering people with the love of God, even as it is suffering itself. As long as the Palestinian Church witnesses through its suffering service, it will have a future. In that future, it will continue to promote justice, peace and reconciliation for Israelis and Palestinians. This is God's call to the Palestinian Church.

While in Norway, the Bishop lectured at the University of Oslo seminary about differing views of the significance of Jerusalem. He was also asked to address a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) meeting about "Cultural Diversity: A Cause of Conflict or The Key to Peace and Development?" The Prime Ministers of Norway also addressed the debate and met with the Bishop after the event.

Bishop Younan is now in the United States, receiving another award from the Holyland Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF) conference in Washington, DC. Both Bishop Younan and Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, of the Episcopal Diocese in Jerusalem, were chosen to receive HCEF Awards for working to keep Christianity in the Holy Land. Both will address the conference. Bishop Younan will speak on "Non-Violence and the Struggle for Justice."

Oct. 31- Nov. 2 the Bishop will attend the Faith, Reason and World Affairs Symposium Moorhead, Minnesota "The Future of the Reformation," The Bishop will speak on "the Future of the Reforming Church from the Perspective of Arab Palestinian Christianity."

Thirteen ELCA representatives of DGM and other ELCA organizations made a whirlwind 5-day immersion into the life of Palestinians in September. The group stayed at Abraham's Guesthouse in Beit Jala, and from there traveled throughout Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Ramallah and parts of the West Bank.

The trip was an immersion in poverty, designed to explore the reality, causes and effects of growing poverty in the region. They visited many ELCJ ministries going on in the midst of and despite these conditions.

The group learned that about 60% of Palestinians live under the poverty line of $2 a day, and about the same number are unemployed.

Several in the group, who have traveled extensively in developing countries, voiced frustration that much of this poverty is largely man-made. During the last 4 years of heightened conflict, the Palestinian economy has been virtually shut down by restrictions on movement from checkpoints, closures, curfews and now the Separation Barrier. In addition, loss of farmland and property have further reduced income.

The International Center in Bethlehem held a planning conference in September to develop a conference on Land, Peoples and Identity to be held November 6-13, 2005. About 12 people, local and internationals, gathered to experience and explore how the identities of Palestinians, Israelis, Christians, Muslims and Jews are shaped by their understandings of their relationships to the land. The conference will include speakers and experiences from different faith perspectives and will combine a variety of educational, experiential and cultural experiences.

Pastor Ramez Ansara, of Lutheran Church of Hope in Ramallah, and Outi Merila from Finland were married Sunday, Oct. 10, at the church. Bishop Munib Younan performed the ceremony, which had representatives from many churches, including the Greek Catholics, the Anglicans and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, where Outi is a Deacon.

Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem and the Evangelical Lutheran Good Shepherd Church in Amman were pleased to have Confirmation Services Sunday, Oct. 3. It was particularly meaningful for both churches because they haven't had confirmation for several years. At Christmas Lutheran Church they have not had a confirmation service for 5 years due to all the closures, curfews and chaos that kept interrupting normal life. This year's confirmation service at Good Shepherd confirmed 10 students, having a service for the first time since 2000.

Hellos and Goodbyes at the Swedish Theological Institute
At a reception honoring St. Birgitta at the Swedish Theological Institute (STI), outgoing directors Tina and Anders Blomquist were thanked for their service, and incoming director, Mats Hoegelius and his wife Kerstin, were welcomed. The STI works closely with the ELCJ in ecumenical work in Jerusalem.

At the start of this new school year, the Lutheran Schools are pleased to be standing at the start of a new age. We are opening our doors to the world through a variety of communication and dialogue programs with schools and partners abroad. We look forward to a year of new discoveries and new relationships, and we pray for a year in which our students’ right to education is unhindered by violence, curfews, and injustice.
Dr. Charlie Haddad, ELCJ Schools Director

ELCJ Educators Take a First-Hand Look at Education in Denmark
Does a Danish high school, a couple thousand miles away, look anything like a Palestinian one? Do teachers and students interact in similar ways? Do Danish 8th graders always do their homework? As summer vacation was coming to a close this past August, nine ELCJ educators had the opportunity to ask these and a variety of other questions when they embarked on a week-long trip to Denmark to visit Danish schools, meet Danish teachers and school administrators, and lay the groundwork for a long-term partnership between the ELCJ Schools and Gymnasieskolernes Lærerforening (GL), the union of upper secondary school teachers in Denmark.

“We had the opportunity to meet new people, experience a new environment, and see a number of new teaching methods,” said Nida’ Sarras, a biology teacher from the Dar al-Kalima School in Bethlehem who participated in the trip. “It makes you think about the teaching methods you use and about the way you run your classroom.”

Planning for an ELCJ Schools trip to Denmark began in January of 2004, when a group of GL representatives visited the ELCJ Schools to discuss possibilities for cooperation and dialogue related to educational issues. ELCJ Schools Director Dr. Charlie Haddad, Andy Willis from the ELCA, and a number of ELCJ teachers and administrators worked with the visiting Danish educators to develop a multi-year plan for an educational dialogue, beginning with the Palestinian delegation’s visit to Denmark and continuing with classroom-to-classroom electronic correspondence, cooperative lesson-planning, and a series of educational seminars to be held in Palestine throughout 2005 and 2006. Funding for the project was obtained from Projektrådgivningen-Minipuljen, a Danish development agency.

“Student and teacher exchange programs in which educational, cultural, political, and other topics are examined and discussed are a priority for the Lutheran Schools at this time,” said Dr. Haddad. “The GL project is an important structured program that we believe will develop further and continue long into the future.”

The ELCJ delegation consisted of two teachers from each of the four ELCJ Schools and one school principal. The teachers represented a variety of subjects, including mathematics, German, English, physics, and information technology. In Denmark the delegation first spent time together with their hosts in Copenhagen, receiving a briefing on the Danish educational system and visiting the Ministry of Education, before splitting into two smaller groups for visits to a number of schools outside Copenhagen. ELCJ teachers met with their peers in the Danish schools, shared their experiences of educating young people in the two countries, and discussed practical ways in which both groups could learn and benefit from one another’s experience.

“It opened our eyes,” said Salameh Bishara, principal of the Evangelical Lutheran School in Beit Sahour. “We saw both similarities and differences to our system in the Lutheran Schools.” Mr. Bishara noted that one of the strongest commonalities he saw was a drive to make education a democratic endeavor: “Students and teachers are very involved in decisions related to school life in Denmark,” he said. “In the Lutheran Schools we are proud to be a leader in education for democracy and peace-building in Palestine.”

The nine delegation members will serve as leaders for the educational dialogue program in the ELCJ Schools in the coming years. The first of the educational seminars is scheduled to be held in Bethlehem in January of 2005.

The Dar al-Kalima Lutheran School in Bethlehem opened its doors this September with some additional learning space. During the summer months construction was completed on a new classroom, built to serve the school’s 12th grade class with funds donated by Nordelbisches Missionszentrum in Germany. The school’s enrollment has grown dramatically since the building’s construction in the year 2000, and there is already a need for additional school facilities.

“The new classroom is fully equipped to accommodate the students in grade 12 this year. The ELCJ hopes to secure funding in the near future for the construction of a second school building to house science labs, additional classrooms, and school administration.

This year’s 12th grade students will be the first to graduate from Dar al-Kalima (the school has been gradually adding upper grades since its opening four years ago).