Friday March 8th, 2013
Irtas monastery – Bethlehem
17 clergy from Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, Beit Jala and Jerusalem attended the clergy meeting on March 8th, 2013 at Iras Monastery – Bethlehem.
The meeting started with a prayer led by the Orthodox priest from Jerusalem and accompanied by an Eastern Hymns by the participants.
Rev. Naim expressed his appreciations to the clergy for their commitment to the clergy program during his absent on Sabbatical last year. Clergy expressed as well their appreciations for the work that Sabeel is doing in regard to the ecumenical work.
As a preparation for the Sabeel 9th International Conference, which will be focusing on the Bible and the Palestinians, we asked Fr. Issa Hijazeen, a young Catholic priest from the Latin Patriarchate who is studying the Bible at the Franciscan Seminary to present the Old Testament in today’s reading and interpretation.
Fr. Issa spoke about several things concerning the Challenges that we all face in Old Testament including the Promise Land, or the Land of the promise, he presented a great interpretations to many scriptures and passages in the Bible, explaining some of the Jews Ideologies.
A very good discussion took place regarding the challenges that we are facing in living in one area with different mentalities and cultures and in learning how to accept the others.
After Fr. Issa‘s presentation, we took a break and enjoyed the Nuns in the Ertas Monastery ‘s cookies and warmly hospitality, and then when back to a very good discussions and interpretation for 1 hour.
After the meeting again we enjoyed the wonderful meal that was served to us and done by the nuns in the convent.
The meeting finished at 2pm.