Jerusalem bishop, partners aim to coordinate mission in Middle East
Episcopal News Service. November 6, 2009 [110609-01]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The small Christian community that remains in the Middle East is united in its effort to "witness to the living Lord," Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem Bishop Suheil Dawani said this week in New York.
Dawani, who spent Oct. 29-Nov.1 visiting with the diocese's partners and forging new relationships, told Episcopal News Service in an interview that "the absence of peace" causes the greatest challenge to the diocese.
"We never lose our hope," he said. "We have to keep faith and hope in the minds of our people, but I believe that this time in which there is some violence … it worries me a lot because the absence of genuine peace will encourage more young people to leave so stability is very important for our present and for our future. Not for us, but for all the peoples of the land."
Young people are leaving the area, Dawani said. "They believe that there's no future for them there," he said. "If you don't have young people with us, how can we build up the future?"
The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem encompasses Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel and is part of the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. There are 27 parishes that minister to the needs of their communities. The Cathedral Church of St. George the Martyr in Jerusalem has both Arabic- and English-speaking congregations.
The church supports 33 institutions, which include hospitals, clinics, kindergartens and schools, vocational training programs, as well as institutions for the deaf, the disabled and the elderly, reaching out to interfaith partners. Education and health head the list of the diocese's ministries.
"The work of the diocese is really happening through the ministry of healing and teaching," the bishop said. "Our Lord used to teach and heal, and I believe this work is very important to our witness to the living Lord in Jerusalem" through the diocese's schools and hospitals.
Dawani said he hopes that the diocese's educational program and scholarship efforts will encourage more young people to stay in the region. Referring to those young people he said "we are doing our best to keep the living stones in the country."
The diocese has established a special department for peace and reconciliation work, Dawani said.
"I believe that this part of our ministry. Reconciliation is on the top of our priority list," he explained. "This is basic. Our Lord called us to be peacemakers and this is what we are doing through our interfaith work, through the schools we are introducing peace education."
Calling the work "our contribution as a church there," the bishop said peace education that was introduced at St. John's Episcopal School in Haifa, Israel will soon be expanded to other diocesan schools.
Working for peace stems partly from the unity of the small Christian community in the region, according to Dawani.
"We are doing our best to strengthen our presence there -- and Christians and as Anglicans -- because we are diminishing as a Christian community," he said. "In practicality -- in real life -- they are very much united. All of the Christian community is very united.
Educational efforts figured into Dawani's week in the United States. He met with officials of the Alexandria-based Virginia Theological Seminary and the Episcopal Church-affiliated Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York to discuss current and future partnerships.
Dawani visited Trinity Episcopal Church in Southport, Connecticut; St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in White Plains, New York; Trinity Wall Street and St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York City and preached Nov. 1 at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
"It was really good in connecting with people, with new friends and building up relationships with churches and clergy and bishops," he said. "We are strengthening this relationship" between the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Jerusalem.
Dawani spent time with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on Nov. 2 and on Nov. 4 met at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City with representatives of many of the diocese's U.S. partners, including the American Friends of the Diocese of Jerusalem. The meetings were a continuation of two previous gatherings aimed at coordinating those partners' work around the needs of the diocese.
"We came up with very good ideas for short-term and long-term strategies for the future, how they can support the Diocese of Jerusalem, taking into consideration that we have a the vision -- a hope -- that in four or five years with what we are doing and with investment we will come into a self-sufficient situation," Dawani said. "Through this time I think we need some support and this is what we are trying to coordinate."
A steering committee was set up to plan for another meeting in 2010 meeting, he said.
Such coordination is need because "it is very important to work as one group working for Jerusalem," according to the bishop.
"We are doing the work together as one body of Christ, so this is our oneness in Christ in that part of the world," he said.