Friday, December 26, 2008

We need peace urgently, say Holy Land leaders


CHRISTIAN LEADERS in the Holy Land have asked for worldwide prayers for peace in the Middle East. In particular, they ask for international assistance in finding a solution to the crisis in the Holy Land itself.

In a Christmas message, 13 Patriarchs and heads of Churches in Jerusalem — including the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt Revd Suheil Dawani — speak of there being even more than the usual “darkness, conflict, and despair in the world around us”.

They say that they needed “the light of Christ to shine on this land to enable us to work more realistically for a two-state solution which would end the burden of restrictions arising out of [Israeli] occupation”.

The Jerusalem church dignitaries add that they were praying that the US President-elect, Barack Obama, and other heads of state and other world leaders would “see the urgent need for peace in the Middle East, and not least in this land”.

The 13 signatories also call the world’s attention to the Gaza Strip, where one-and-a-half million Palestinians have been living under an Israeli blockade for many weeks. Christians, the church leaders say, need “to see the situation in which many are suffering” in Gaza, and make “a determined effort to bring them urgent relief”.

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=67986

No comments: