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Easter Messages
~March 2008~ From: CMEP Staff March 21, 2008 On this Good Friday, CMEP's staff conveys its wishes for a Happy Easter to everyone in the CMEP network. This is a time for hope, rekindling of faith and celebration in the miracle of the Resurrection. We welcome your support as we continue as partners in the search for peace in the Middle East, especially a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, starting with an agreement on peace this year. The joyous celebration of Jesus' triumphant return to Jerusalem was soon followed by his suffering and death on the cross. The uncertainties and anxieties created by those events led many people to give up hope or become apathetic to the possibility of the change they were seeking. Those that understood Jesus' message and ministry courageously took them up and made possible our witness today. As we look for peace in the Middle East, we see a anxiety, insecurity and suffering in the region. The size of the Palestinian Christian community is declining as political and economic instability continues. Israelis and Palestinians alike hope for the promise of peace started in Annapolis. The peace process faces many obstacles and there is widespread skepticism. Yet we do not succumb to despair or disbelief. Palestinian Christian leaders witness to the suffering of Churches in the Holy Land. They decry the violence and call for reconciliation among peoples and faiths, paving a road to peace. US Christians, too, are called to witness to the conflict and to call for reconciliation among Jews, Muslims and Christians, Israelis and Palestinians. We witness to our Administration and policymakers and urge them to take positive, forward-moving steps to bring a lasting peace in the Holy Land. Our witness and the need for peace become more urgent as violence and despair threaten to overtake hope in Israeli and Palestinian communities. This Easter, let us never forget that we are commanded to love one another and let us recommit ourselves, individually and in community, to the search for a just and lasting Middle East peace. Below are excerpts from and links to Easter messages from Holy Land Church leaders and partners: the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, individual messages from the Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan and Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah (soon to be retiring), and a message from Dr. Bernard Sabella, a Palestinian Roman Catholic sociologist and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for Jerusalem.
Easter Message 2008, Heads of Churches in Jerusalem
"...Having told the disciples of the spiritual power He is giving them Jesus then makes it clear that the Church has a specific function in the world to explain and convince people that men and women have a respons¬ibility to confess their sins. If they truly repent and relieve then their sins are forgiven. It is very normal that we bring the same message to our Land. Similarly we have to take away the many burdens on people's lives caused by Occupation, bloodshed, violence and killings and mutual hatred, as well as the wrong ways followed so far to reach security. In all these situations of death we demonstrate that we are the apostles of the resurrection, with its joy and hope. We have to tell the people that the present situation in which we are living is part of the world's sin, but it must also be part of the new power given to us by the Risen Lord. Hence we invite them to make penitence, to admit their involvement in the sin of the world, to be forgiven and to become able to see the right ways that lead to security and peace. We say this to our Leaders in Palestine and Israel. The ways used until today to reach security must be changed. If not, we will remain in the same positions in a permanent cycle of violence. For you, Leaders of this Land, we ask that God give you light and strength to take away from it death and fear so as to restore in it peace with security..." "...there are hundreds of thousands in both the Palestinian and Israeli societies who send an outcry: peace...peace. And they are ready to make 'peace now'. But we see also extremists on both sides who are prisoners of their own ideologies and call in the name of God to kill their brothers, while God tells them all: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. We are in need of leaders who can make peace because this is the sole path to put an end to extremism and to start the true way towards security and tranquility. To say that peace is a risk that we cannot take means to keep all of us in the cycle of death and violence. The leaders have to choose between two paths: either peace or increasing extremism and insecurity. We need leaders who are ready to offer their lives for the sake of peace not leaders who issue orders to kill and assassinate and send others to kill or to get killed...Dear brothers and sisters, this is my last Easter Message as a Patriarch of the Holy Land. I have said earlier and I repeat: I shall continue to pray and walk with you on the difficult path of peace and justice, and on the path of sanctity that God requires from anyone who wants to live and rule this land. I wish everyone a Happy and Holy Easter and a new life full of the spirit and grace of God..." "...People ask me if I am optimistic about peace. I tell them I am not optimistic about the political atmosphere. And really, whether I am optimistic, pessimistic, realistic or idealistic doesn't really matter. What matters it that the church has not survived 2000 years since the First Pentecost because we were optimistic, pessimistic, realistic or idealistic but because we are witnesses to the resurrection. We have experienced the Light and we try to walk as people of the Light, understanding that God uses us to be witnesses for life in this blessed but often battered land. We say not, I am realistic or pessimistic or idealistic or optimistic but I have hope...Everyday here - even in the midst of the fear and the suffering - small bursts of community, hope and reconciliation are happening through extraordinary people, Israelis, Palestinians, Jews, Muslims and Christians. In our schools, programs and churches, we try to plant hope and the resurrection through our children, our people and all those whom we serve - regardless of creed, belief or political belief. In all of our ministries, we seek to express the hope of the resurrection. In interfaith dialogue, we revive the hope that religion promotes life and life abundantly for all..." Resurrection and Its Message, Dr. Bernard Sabella, Jerusalem, March 17, 2008 "...The celebration of resurrection and its fulfillment necessitates action on our part. In Palestine and Israel, the conflict needs to stop. Those who believe that their interests require a continuation of the present situation of conflict are inviting future disasters and denying all of us the chance to experience the exhilarating challenge of peace. Those who insist that the other side understands only the language of military might are inviting vengeance and revenge that will further plunge all of us in desperation. With the Jewish, Muslim and Christian celebrations that coincide with the welcoming signs of Spring in the Holy Land, all of us are called upon to turn our ways from war to peace and from death and destruction to life and hope. We cannot achieve this alone and the whole world, especially those deemed influential and powerful, is called upon to ensure that all of us here will go forward in the ways of Peace and Resurrection..."
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