International Church Action for Peace in
Palestine and Israel, 4-10 June 2008
A joint
advocacy initiative convened by the World
Council of Churches
Fourteen
countries and three international ecumenical
organizations are involved to-date. The
four action categories proposed for
participants in the week are: Pray,
Educate, Advocate, Public Action.
Jerusalem & Bethlehem: One worldwide prayer
for peace, many languages
¨Churches in about 100 countries have
received the Jerusalem Prayer for
Sunday, June 8,2008
from the Heads of Churches in
Jerusalem. The prayer is intended for
parish use. Available in English, Arabic,
French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Swedish,
Norwegian so far. Palestinian parishes in
the Bethlehem enclave and elsewhere will be
praying it too.
¨An
Ecumenical Service in Jerusalem
will anchor the global week of church
action.
¨Church-related organizations are planning a
public commemoration on Sunday, June 8, in
Bethlehem. The ceremony will include a
60-year 'human clock' in Manger Square
that marks six decades of Palestinians
living as refugees and uprooted people.
There may be on-line sharing of the event to
link action week participants worldwide.
¨Jerusalem churches plan to issue a
public
statement concerning the 1948 'Nakba'
(catastrophe) for the Palestinian people.
¨Bil'in, a Muslim-Christian community cut off
from its land
by the Separation Barrier, will hold an
international conference, June 4-6, as part
of on-going protests against the barrier's
route.
Australia:
Inter-church planning
groups are active in Canberra, Melbourne and
elsewhere. Peace and justice offices of the
Uniting Church, Catholic Church and others
are involved including World Vision
Australia.
¨Australian heads of churches will hold a
press conference at Parliament House at
the start of the action week in Canberra,
issuing a joint statement on national
policy.
¨An action week
information kit for
nationwide distribution, designed for
people new to the issue, will offer joint
church statements, Jerusalem prayer, action
week message It's Time for Palestine
and more.
¨NCC Australia adopted its
first-ever
resolution on the conflict (http://icappi.org.au/),
an example of on-going worked linked in part
to the annual action week.
¨Pray, educate, advocate and public
action
ideas are available on-line for parish
and community planning nationwide http://icappi.org.au/.
¨Various groups are planning prayer and
education events.
¨Several heads of churches in Australia held
a joint visit with the ambassador of
Israel (2/08), a
follow-up
in part to last year's
action week.
Austria:
¨Pax Christi is distributing the action week
message and prayer to members and
parishes.
¨There will be a
special service in Linz
during the week, with Lutheran and Reformed
churches invited.
Canada:
¨2000
subscribers of Kairos receiving
Invitation to Action, the Jerusalem prayer
and the It's Time for Palestine
message -- plus request to join the action
week.
¨Some church groups are working on a joint
response with the Alliance of Concerned
Jewish Canadians.
France:
¨Message and prayer distributed widely
in the Paris area by Pax Christi France.
¨Action week materials have gone to a church
Middle East network.
¨Various Christian organizations are
members of 'Palestine Platform' a civil
society coalition organizing an event in
Paris in May.
¨50 cities have new olive trees,
planted in March with church organizations
involved, as signs of hope for peace after
60 years of conflict.
¨Christian leaders are meeting in April to
decide further responses to the action week.
Germany:
¨Conscious of their ability to act, pastors
in one area of southern Germany began organizing daily events for the action week
after hearing about the initiative.
¨Message and prayer for the week
circulated to 15,000 subscribers of the
Schneller mission magazine in Germany and
Switzerland, and available on-line at: www.ems-online.org/home_en.html
¨Pax Christi Middle East Commission Germany
has the ecumenical action week as the focus
of a consultation in Bad Boll in
June.
¨The secretariat of Church and Peace
International is publicizing the action week with its
membership in Germany, France, Switzerland
and beyond.
¨WCC member churches are considering further
national and inter-regional involvement.
Ireland
¨Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and
Anglican leaders will use the Jerusalem prayer and action
week message in Ireland in June, as well as
during an ecumenical service at Shepherds
Field, Beit Sahour, in April.
Norway:
Nine
organizations are involved -- Church of
Norway, Christian Council of Norway,
YMCA/YWCA, Friends of Sabeel, Karibu
foundation, the Norwegian Church Academies
and Norwegian Church Aid. Plans for the week
include:
¨Sunday, 8
June, congregations asked to focus
church services on "Peace in Palestine and
Israel". Norwegian versions of Jerusalem
prayer and the It's time for Palestine
message to go to all congregations in April.
¨Churches will be challenged to
invite
former Ecumenical Accompaniers to speak
during the services.
¨Congregations will be
informed about the
Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum and
its Amman Call, which provide a common
platform for the action week and other
church advocacy.
¨A
multi-religious "peace service" to
be held in Oslo, with the action week
message and Arab and Jewish music.
¨Saturday, 7 June: Hope to stage a
public
demonstration in Oslo organized by
Ecumenical Accompaniers. May use Women in
Black signs with "Stop the Occupation" in
Hebrew, Arabic, English and Norwegian.
¨Prominent
Palestinian Church leaders will
meet with politicians, during visits to
Norway throughout the year.
Netherlands:
¨Inviting
congregations
to join in the Jerusalem prayer and liturgy.
¨Concerts in
four citiesby Palestinian-Dutch symphony will
commemorate the 60 years since the 'Nakba'
with Arab and Western classical music.
¨Plan to launch youth website on Israel and
Palestine.
¨Invite congregations to see and discuss a
Palestinian village film, Bil'in My
Love.
¨Screening of
documentaries from Israeli
points of view of the conflicthas church-related sponsorship.
¨Pax Christi
IKV
is taking part in the action week.
Pax Christi International:
¨The
Invitation to Action, message and
prayer have gone out to some 100 member
organizations around the world.
¨Pax Christi
leaders from Europe and North
America will participate in the action
week during a June 5-6 meeting in Antwerp,
Belgium.
South Africa:
¨Church leaders meeting received the
four-action plan. Details pending.
¨South
Africa Council of Churches
executive committee has held discussions
also.
¨Ecumenical Accompaniers, active in previous
action weeks, likely to participate again.
Sweden
¨Swedish translations of Jerusalem prayer,
It's Time for Palestine message and
other materials are going out to parishes
for the action week.
¨Participation of former Ecumenical
Accompaniers is being sought.
Switzerland:
¨EPER (Swiss Protestant Aid) supports the
week and is preparing for the 60-year
commemoration of the Palestinian
'Nakba'/catastrophe of 1948.
UK:
¨Jerusalem prayer
is going out to Methodist, Baptist, United
Reformed and Quaker congregations.
¨Action week is on the agenda of Action of
Churches Together in Scotland.
¨Scottish Episcopal Church is supporting the
week and sending a newsletter with action
ideas to church membership.
¨Scottish Parliament's cross-party group on
Palestine may be asked to take an action as
part of the week.
¨40 priests
led by a former Archbishop of Canterbury
brought the action week prayer and
It's Time for Palestinemessage home for parish use, after a visit
to Jerusalem.
United States:
Reporting in process
World Vision International
¨Endorses the initiative and the action week
message "It's time for Palestinians and
Israelis to share a just peace".
¨Seeking opportunities to contribute to the
hope for peace, justice and reconciliation
and to support those caught in the conflict
including Palestinian and Israeli children
to achieve a dignified life.
World Council of Churches:
¨Convenor
of the action week.
¨The
Invitation to Action, It's
Time for Palestine message, Jerusalem
prayer, planning news and advocacy policies
are available on the WCC website in English,
French, Spanish and German: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/icappi-2008.html
¨Translations of the
It's Time for
Palestine message and the Jerusalem
prayer are also available from national
participants (above) in
Arabic, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian.
It's Time for Palestine
It's time for Palestine.
It's time for Palestinians and Israelis to
share a just peace.
It's time to respect human lives in the land
called holy.
It's time for healing to begin in wounded
souls.
It's time to end 60 years of conflict,
oppression and fear.
It's time for freedom from occupation.
It's time for equal rights.
It's time to stop discrimination,
segregation and restrictions on movement.
It's time for those who put up walls and
fences to build them on their own property.
It's time to stop bulldozing one community's
homes and building homes for the other
community on land that is not theirs.
It's time to do away with double standards.
It's time for Israeli citizens to have
security and secure borders agreed with
their neighbours.
It's time for the international community to
implement 60 years of United Nations
resolutions.
It's time for Israel's government to
complete the bargain offered in the Arab
Peace Initiative.
It's time for those who represent the
Palestinian people to all be involved in
making peace.
It's time for people who have been refugees
for 60 years to regain their rights and a
permanent home.
It's time to assist settlers in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories to make their home
in Israel.
It's time for self-determination.
It's time for foreigners to visit Bethlehem
and other towns imprisoned by the wall.
It's time to see settlements in their
comfort and refugee camps in their despair.
It's time for people living 41 years under
occupation to feel new solidarity from a
watching world.
It's time to name the shame of collective
punishment and to end it in all its forms.
It's time to be revolted by violence against
civilians and for civilians on both sides to
be safe.
It's time for both sides to release their
prisoners and give those justly accused a
fair trial.
It's time to reunite the people of Gaza, the
West Bank and East Jerusalem.
It's time for all parties to obey
international humanitarian and human rights
law.
It's time to share Jerusalem as the capital
of two nations and a city holy to three
religions.
It's time for Muslim, Jewish and Christian
communities to be free to visit their holy
sites.
It's time in Palestine as in Israel for
olive trees to flourish and grow old.
It's time to honour all who have suffered,
Palestinians and Israelis.
It's time to learn from past wrongs.
It's time to understand pent-up anger and
begin to set things right.
It's time for those with blood on their
hands to acknowledge what they have done.
It's time to seek forgiveness between
communities and to repair a broken land
together.
It's time to move forward as human beings
who are all made in the image of God.
All who are able to speak truth to power
must speak it.
All who would break the silence surrounding
injustice must break it.
All who have something to give for peace
must give it.
For Palestine, for Israel and for a troubled
world,
It's time for peace.
For the song on “It’s Time for
Palestine,” developed by the Vision Music
Centre in Abu Dis.
