Friday, July 12, 2019

Friendship between Virginia and Palestine churches leads to support for the wider community

From Virginia-

The deep, enduring friendship between the people of Grace Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Virginia, and St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Nablus, Palestine, has its roots – as so many important things do – in a Sunday school lesson.

When Tim Wilder arrived home in 2002 after serving with the State Department at the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, he and his wife, Susan (who is a pastor), were asked to teach an adult Sunday school class on the state of political turmoil between Palestine and Israel. The Middle East Working Group grew out of those conversations as an effort to answer the question: As people of faith, what should our response be to what we’ve learned? 

According to Grace’s current pastor, Ben Trawick, members of the working group put in a great deal of time doing research and exploring possibilities for engagement in Palestine. Ultimately, in 2007, with the help of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) staffer Doug Dicks, a partnership between Grace and St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Nablus – a city of 350,000 people in the northern West Bank – was born.

More here-

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