Was it a homecoming celebration for Assis Naim and Cedar Duaybis returning to Galilee where they had, like Jesus, spent so many formative years? Or was it another of Sabeel Nazareth’s events attracting 100’s of local Palestinian Christians to an ecumenical and interfaith gathering? Or was it a time for the Interim Director with Samia Khoury to meet with the Sabeel team and committee in Nazareth to shape the future?

It was all three of these things and more.

On Friday evening March 27 at the St Anton Centre more than 180 locals came out, after a long week, to hear a talk by Rev Ateek and Cedar on the “The Ministry of Sabeel and Liberation Theology”. One observer afterward said: “We really needed to hear this and learn more about Palestinian Liberation Theology Assis Naim explained so well what it is all about, and Cedar explained why it is so important Everyone should have been here for this. It was so inspiring and informative.

In fact those who were not there can click on here to see a video recording of exactly what was said (in Arabic):

After the Q and A session, and some wonderful Eastern Orthodox singing from a cantor and choir, the crowd feasted on a great array of (lenten) goodies. And then the local committee with the founders and leaders of Sabeel discussed the many future opportunities and ideas moving forward.

When Jesus told his disciples to return to Galilee and to preach the good news to all the world, His Spirit is with us as we spread the good news of the prophetic witness and work of Sabeel and the Followers of Jesus today who spread the gospel of justice and peace for all people.

“I believe that the Bible rightly interpreted can be a word of God for liberation, salvation and redemption. It can contribute to the achievement of justice, peace and reconciliation among people.”

This was one of the messages of Sabeel co-founder and father of Palestinian Liberation Theology Rev.
Naim Ateek at the March 24th launch of Sabeel’s new book The Bible and the Palestine Israel Conflict. Over 65 people came to the Dominican Church in Jerusalem to learn about the book, which explores topics of biblical authority, the occupation of the Bible, the future of the Bible, realities on the ground in Palestine and Israel, and international law, among others.

Tragically, Ateek said, in our Christian history the Bible has been used to rationalize many wrongs including war, slavery, and apartheid. This includes, he said, the ideology of Zionism, which in large part has been implemented in the name of God and the Bible. “…today the Bible has been used to justify the oppression of the Palestinians, the demolition of their homes, and the violation of their human and political rights,” he said.

Cedar Duaybis, Sabeel co-founder and co-editor of the book, highlighted author quotes from the book, which is a compilation of presentations and papers from Sabeel’s 9th International Conference in Jerusalem in 2013. The authorsrepresent different denominations, religions, and countries.

Chapter author Father David Neuhaus, from Israel, stressed the importance of Bible readers to consider context and history. “Very often those who are manipulating, in some sense suffocating the word through their manipulation, are using the word without the world, the text without a context, and revelation without history,” he said.

Another chapter authorRev. Du Brul, of Bethlehem University, said the Bible will have a future as long as people can respond to its challenge. He described the challenge like climbing a mountain. “… the top is different for different people; they are climbing for different reasons, but they might never get to the top before they say they’ve had enough,” he said.

Rev. Nancy Cardoso, from Brazil, highlighted the difficulty of the US’s support of Israel as an ideal in one of her chapters. “Like the U.S., it is an ideal of White Europeans invading a country far from home, declaring it to be empty, and then emptying it of its original inhabitants, and proclaiming that it is all God’s will,” she said.

Ateek said that because the Bible is a huge, diverse, pre-modern and pre-scientific book, it is possible to prove many things if one selects the texts and verses. Because of this, he said, the conflict over Palestine cannot be resolved on the basis of the Bible, but on the basis of international law.

In looking forward, friend of Sabeel from Diakonia in Sweden, Bo Forsberg, said in one of the final chapters that his organization funds400 organizations around the world working for democracy, economic justice, human rights and peace. He said, “…but the one I love most is Sabeel. It’s true, because Sabeel has a wonderful way of combining life for everyone in dignity, telling the truth based on international rules and laws, and, in the middle of it all, Jesus Christ.”

On Monday March 23, as we in Jerusalem entered the final weeks of Lent in preparation for the Passion, Sabeel invited local community members to enter in to the Old City’s Via Dolorosa, and to walk the 14 Stations of the Contemporary Way of the Cross. This “Contemporary Way of the Cross” has been developed as an act of worship rooted in the land where Jesus was born, lived and died, linking the original events of Good Friday with the continuing suffering of the occupied people who live in that land today. It seeks to help others to understand something of the events which have shaped this troubled place over the last century and draw attention to the very real constant suffering of the Palestinian people. It strives to provide an honest account of the situation, and simply ask those who take part in this act of worship to listen, to pray for us and to pray with us as we look towards a just, comprehensive and enduring peace. (See more on our website at: http://www.sabeel.org/wayofthecross.php

For William Roberts, the Interim Executive Director, it was his first time experiencing the profound connection of current Palestinian suffering with the devotion to Suffering Servant in the heart of Jerusalem. Even though the words, prayers and songs were all in Arabic and expressed by local Palestinian Christians, the images, the sounds, the context was itself deeply moving.

And one image that rose up through the ancient brick stone walkways and into inspiring contemporary memory, is of a woman carrying the cross, accompanied by two other women. These daughters, these women of Jerusalem, are not weeping, not following, not passively standing at the foot of the cross. These women on March 23 2012 are actually carrying the cross itself, symbolizing the heavy crosses that women around the world carry. It is an image now riveted into memory, into contemporary experience of Palestinian women, with oppressed women everywhere who hold up half the sky, and journey on in faith, hope and love.

March 20, 2015 — Jesus taught us to help the poor and the marginalized of our societies. So in this spirit during the Lenten season, Sabeel organized an egg hunt event for low-income and high-risk children in the Jerusalem and Bethlehem areas. The both Muslim and Christian children, ages 2-16 years old, enjoyed a children’s theatre show and meal, and cheerfully ran throughout the Mary Doty Garden (Bethlehem) searching for brightlycolored eggs prepared by the Sabeel women and young adults. The event brought many charitable organizations in the area together, and showed the love of the community for these children. Whether by donating money or materials for the event, or coloring eggs, or volunteering at the egg hunt, so many were involved in this joyful day in some way.

March 19– In light of the theme of our spring Cornerstone issue “Towards Jerusalem,” Sabeel hosted an open forum on Jerusalem for the local community to weigh in on the topic and express their concerns about the current political situation in the Holy City. The timing could not have been better, as Holy week was fast approaching, and on the minds of the local Christian community was the violence that often happens this week due to the restrictions Israel imposes on accessing churches for the holiday celebrations and worship. Founder of Sabeel Rev. Naim Ateek led the forum, which was the last of a two-part series on Jerusalem. He spoke about the importance of the city and highlighted what the Bible says about Jerusalem.

Sophronius was the Patriarch of Jerusalem from 634 A.D. until his death, and is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

The following encounter of Sophronius and Muslim caliph Umar ibn Al-Khattab, as well as Christian Muslim relations, was the purpose of a special meeting on March 12 with the leading scholar in interfaith dialogue Dr. Jiries Khoury and a group of 23 young adults in Jerusalem.

In 637, after the conquest of Jerusalem with no bloodshed by Muslim armies, the Muslim caliph (Supreme Leader) Umar ibn al-Khattab came to Jerusalem and toured the city with Sophronius. During the tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the time for the Muslim prayer came. Despite Sophronius’s offer to Umar to pray inside the church, Umar chose to pray outside.

The caliph’s reason for declining to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was fear of future Muslims might say that Umar prayed there and could use it as an excuse to build a mosque there. His decision to pray outside now means that Muslims are not allowed to build a mosque there.

So appreciating the caliph’s intelligence, Sophronius gave the key of the church to him for safeguarding. Unable to refuse it, the caliph gave it to a family of Muslims from Medina and asked them to open the church and close it; the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre still remain with this Muslim family today.

Through learning from the past, the Sabeel young adults reflected on the present and were encouraged to continue building bridges for the future.

Again, with our new jointly published book with Al Liqa Center, Sabeel is a pioneer in developing and promoting contextual theology and spirituality to the world. The new book titled “Non Violent Resistance in Islam and Christianity” rediscovers and highlights the resistance to injustice through peaceful manners. Every page of the new book the reader discovers the emphasis of nonviolence in both Christianity and Islam. Both AlLiqa and Sabeel decided to have the first launch of the book in Nablus city. Nablus city is nicknamed the “Mountain of Fire” during the Palestinian Intifadas by the media for its powerful resistance to the British Mandate and later to the Israeli Military occupation. The second launch was made at Bethlehem University, in the town that witnessed the birth of our role model in nonviolent resistance, Jesus Christ.

Although in previous years many attempts have been made to encourage resistance not based on violence, few if any were faith based. The theologians, scholars and activist organizations that contributed to this book made a groundbreaking event by resurrecting this spirituality.

In both events the book launch attracted over 150 participants that shared their support and appreciation of the activity.

Last week the greatest season of all started, the season of Lent. With Lent comes fasting and love. Not only is fasting important but our actions that reflect our Christian spirit. With this spirit, the local community of Sabeel went on February 24th to the elderly home, Notre Dame des Douleurs (Our Lady of Sorrows), to share the Lenten spirit with them. A total of 25 participants joined together, and we left our Sabeel offices around 2:30 pm. In addition, Fr. Shimon from the Assyrian Orthodox Church was able to come with us. We had also invited 2 other clergy men to join us, but unfortunately the timing did not fit with their schedules.

The local community was very gracious in donating items that the elderly needed. The people were generous with their hearts as well when we all met the elderly in their dining hall, exchanging smiles and hellos. This turned into a big warm welcome, and we started dancing and singing with them right after Fr. Shimon spoke a word of wisdom about this Lenten season, and we all prayed together. One of our young adults even played the piano, and others danced. It was a true connecting moment with family, friends and new acquaintances.

We were supposed to have a Catholic priest with us to lead the reflection on the Lenten season, but due to a death in his congregation, he apologized. Mrs. Sawsan Bitar from Sabeel presented the 10 points, also called “modern commandments,” that were spoken by Pope Francis recently along with the new way of fasting that he spoke about such as “don’t gossip,” “don’t judge, ”don’t fear commitment,” and “be happy”…etc. Then we discussed them all together.

The participants appreciated the time given to them for reflection and also for being a part of this important program of giving.

February 10th– In light of the theme of our spring Cornerstone issue “Towards Jerusalem,” Sabeel hosted an open forum on Jerusalem for the local community to reflect more on the challenges that are facing Jerusalemites in general and Christians in particular. Some of the challenges identified among the 30 participants were:

1. Being a minority as Palestinian Christians
2. The lack of unity among Christians
3. Insecurity
4. The identity issue
5. Christian emigration
6. The Church not serving the community, and this leading people away from the Church

Also discussed at the forum, led by Sabeel co-founders Mrs. Samia Khoury and Rev. Naim Ateek, was the issue of extremism in different sectors in Jerusalem.
We hope that by knowing the concerns of our local community, we can learn how to support each other as Jerusalemites. All of the concerns were sent to the Former Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah and a committee consisting of several clergy for follow-up.

years ago, Sabeel started the tradition of an annual solidarity trip to remote villages with a Christian presence in the West Bank. As of today, there are nine villages in the northern part of the West Bank with a minority indigenous Christian population, varying from one Christian up to 65 Christians. Because of the rising tensions and sectarian violence in the Middle East, we decided this year to bring together the clergy and their spouses and a group of young adults to give these isolated Christians more moral support. In Palestinian culture, the more guests visiting one’s home, the more support and status one gets in the village.

We all left the meeting point in Nablus and headed towards the villages with determination to empower the few Christians remaining in the villages. To our surprise, village after village, the testimonies the people shared with us were of perfect coexistence and unity among all the people living in the villages, regardless of their faith. For example, Em Saed, an elderly woman living in the Nus Jbail village, shared with us that all her Muslim neighbors cook for her and provide her with all necessary groceries. In fact, she is considered the “grandmother of the village.” Likewise, we learned that George, from the village of Jalameh, is considered the most popular and trusted building contractor in all the neighboring villages. He was actually handpicked to make renovations in the village mosque. Also Maria, from the village of Dier Ghazaleh, is getting married this summer and is planning to stay and start a new family in her village. At every village and with every person we visited, we were amazed by the power of love and coexistence we saw. On the bus trip home, the clergy and youth alike reflected on the day. When the sun rose in the morning, we were determined to empower these communities; but by sunset, we realized the opposite had happened—they had actually empowered us. We were strengthened by the witness of these candles of hope in every one of these villages.