PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS OUR LIFE and MINISTRY in the HOLY LAND
by Munib A Younan

  As I visit many countries, I am often asked how long I have been a Christian. My answer is ‘since the early church’! If you read Acts 2:11, you will see Christians have had a continuous presence and witness in the Holy Land since the church was born at the first Pentecost. So we don’t think of ourselves as a minority – we think of ourselves as integral to the fabric of Arab society. Here we live, proclaim the gospel and administer the sacraments, as our ancestors have for millennia.

...Like all churches in Israel/Palestine, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) is experiencing a decline in numbers, as Palestinian Christians leave the Holy Land. Studies have found three reasons for this: 1) unstable political conditions, including the occupation; 2) a deficit of jobs; and 3) growing political religious extremism in both Israel and Palestine... Our vision for reversing this trend includes community-based education. This work prepares nearly 3,000 students to be proactive in building a modern civil society, through teaching how to live with people of other religions, promoting women’s and children’s rights and including peace studies in the curriculum.

We are exploring how we might help create jobs for Palestinians. We are tackling the affordable housing crisis by creating 84 apartments on the Mount of Olives. We are working to strengthen our Christian institutions, which serve all people, regardless of gender, race, religion or political affiliation. Palestinian Christians are less than 2% of the population, but our witness and impact is very much more.

With God’s help we are facing the challenges of our society... but one challenge we don’t face. I have been asked, ‘Are Palestinian Christians persecuted?’ I answered, we are not. Not by Muslims... Jews... the Israeli government or Palestinian Authority. But this does not mean we’ve turned a blind eye to persecution; rather, we consider ourselves called to serve churches that face difficult circumstances in Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Egypt. We stand ready to give them support so they may continue their witness and mission, for they are our sisters and brothers in Christ.

We Palestinian Christians are called by our Lord and Saviour to be instruments of peace, brokers of justice, ministers of reconciliation, apostles of love, defenders of human rights; initiators of interfaith dialogues and servants of humanity. Our call is not determined by our numbers. Our call is to serve all who are in need of our service, not only ourselves. We are grateful for all our international partners; in particular, for the good relationship we have with the Church of Scotland. We ask for your prayerful support of our ecclesiastical and educational ministries. Joy works for the Church of North India in their Resource Centre for Social Actions on Tribal Identity and Indigenous Rights, based at Ranchi in Jharkhand in Eastern India.