Christmas cards to president initiative launches year-long campaign for Middle East peace
Episcopal News Service. December 2, 2010 [120210-02]
ENS staff
Churches for Middle East Peace is urging Christians throughout the United States to send Christmas cards to President Barack Obama to highlight their prayers for his efforts towards ending the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
The initiative launches a year-long national interfaith campaign, For the Peace of Jerusalem, to engage Christians nationwide in public advocacy for Israeli-Palestinian peace. It is organized by CMEP, a coalition of 24 national denominations and church organizations, including the Episcopal Church.
The card, designed by a Palestinian Christian in Bethlehem, includes the biblical passage from Matthew 5:9, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God."
Send a Christmas card to the president here.
"We at Churches for Middle East Peace, and the thousands who have already joined us in this effort, understand that this is a vital time in the peace process," Ellen Massey, CMEP deputy director, told ENS. "This campaign is emblematic of the Christian community's decades of work on this issue, and our belief that as Christians we can play an important role in working for peace and advocating for a just, secure and viable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
The Episcopal Church, based on resolutions passed at General Conventions regarding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, remains committed to a just peace that ends the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, and guarantees Israel's security and Palestinian aspirations for a viable sovereign state with Jerusalem as the shared capital of both Israel and Palestine.
"Our Christian faith calls on us to work and pray for peace," said Warren Clark, CMEP executive director, in a CMEP press release. "Our government has a vital role to play in pursuing a just and lasting agreement for peace with security. In our democracy, each of us has an important role to play in working for that solution, regardless of our particular faith tradition."
The CMEP campaign "comes at a time when there is grave concern about the decline in the indigenous Christian population in the Holy Land and elsewhere in the region," according to the release.
Further information about the campaign is available here.
"We, as Christians across the United States, are taking up our role as peacemakers to work for peace in the historic Holy Land," notes the campaign website. "During this season of Advent, the time of anticipation of Christ's birth and God coming to dwell among us through the birth of a child, we are calling on you to join us in working for the birth of peace.
"Join thousands of Christians across the United States in wishing the president a joyous Christmas and telling him that you believe in peace, you expect peace with justice and security for all, and you expect it soon."
CMEP works "to encourage U.S. government policies that actively promote a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ensuring security, human rights and religious freedom for all the people of the region," according to the website.