Porter Speakman Interview from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.
Porter Speakman shares about his new film “With God on our Side” For more information see withgodonourside.com
“With God On Our Side takes a look at the theology of Christian Zionism, which teaches that because the Jews are God’s chosen people, they have a divine right to the land of Israel. Aspects of this belief system lead some Christians in the West to give uncritical support to Israeli government policies, even those that privilege Jews at the expense of Palestinians, leading to great suffering among Muslim and Christian Palestinians alike and threatening Israel’s security as a whole.
This film demonstrates that there is a biblical alternative for Christians who want to love and support the people of Israel, a theology that doesn’t favor one people group over another but instead promotes peace and reconciliation for both Jews and Palestinians.”
The title for our film, “With God on Our Side” was inspired by the verse:
…while Joshua was there near Jericho: He looked up and saw right in front of him a man standing, holding his drawn sword. Joshua stepped up to him and said, “Whose side are you on—ours or our enemies’?” He said, “Neither. I’m commander of God’s army. Joshua 5:13-14a (The Message)
We believe this verse is still true today, that God does not take sides with certain people groups, nations or agendas. Rather He is for all people. Throughout history, those who have claimed God was on their side have used it to justify atrocities done in the name of Jesus. We believe once again certain Christians are approaching the people in the Middle East claiming God is on their side in a way that disregards human rights and gives unilateral support to a secular State, elevates one people group over another while using the Bible as justification. We believe there is a better way, a way of justice, peace and love for Jews and Palestinians. One that is inclusive, not exclusive. That is the heart of God.
See http://www.withgodonourside.com
The issues surrounding the situation with Israel and Palestinians whether they be Historical or Political bring up very passionate displays of support and activism on all sides. However, it has been my experience that when theology, whether it be Islamic, Judaic or Christian is mixed in with these issues, these passions spill into a new level and becomes a “holy war” in itself.
I also saw that once people understood the political and historical consequences Christian Zionism has on people in the Middle East, they began to question some of the things they have always just taken for granted.
There are several purposes for making this film:
To bring a different perspective to some of the historical, political and theological viewpoints we just taCase for granted involving Israel and the Jewish people.
To look at the consequences Christian Zionism has on the local people in the Middle East, especially Palestinian, who are most directly influenced by Christian political support for the State of Israel and it’s policies, which are then defended using the Bible.
To raise awareness that there are Palestinian Christians, and these consequences affect them as well Muslim Palestinians.
We believe there is an alternative approach to Christian Zionism. An approach that sees both Jews and Palestinians as equal in God’s sight and one that promotes reconciliation, justice and peace.
We recognize that most people who adhere to a Christian Zionist theology have the best intentions in mind. They love and support Israel and the Jewish people out of sincere hearts and what they feel is the Biblical approach to this situation.
We also recognize that being “Pro-Israel” in the minds of most Christian Zionists is not synonyms with being “Anti-Arab”. However, this is why it is important to look at what we believe alongside with how it affects people. Good intentions can still have devastating effects. Some of the most tragic events in history have occurred from a bad interpretation of biblical texts and understanding of who God is. Any approach to the Middle East must be one that sees the needs of all people, not just one, because at the heart of who God is the God of love who commands us to love one another, whether that be our neighbor or someone we consider our enemy.
These are not easy issues to look at and we are all continuing to learn. However we feel it is important to ask questions and we believe no topics are off limits, when the goal is truth.
The “Key Issues” section of this site has some general information on Christian Zionism, History, and Current Events. These are just small snippets of information on subjects addressed in our film. For those who want to learn further, we strongly recommend looking at our resource page for further studies. We also strongly recommend that books from people offering differing perspectives be read.
Porter Speakman, Jr.
Director / Executive Producer “With God on Our Side”
With God on our Side: Film Launch on Sunday 28th February, Christ Church, Virginia Water, GU25 4PT, 2:30pm
“With God On Our Side takes a look at the theology of Christian Zionism, which teaches that because the Jews are God’s chosen people, they have a divine right to the land of Israel. Aspects of this belief system lead some Christians in the West to give uncritical support to Israeli government policies, even those that privilege Jews at the expense of Palestinians, leading to great suffering among Muslim and Christian Palestinians alike and threatening Israel’s security as a whole.
This film demonstrates that there is a biblical alternative for Christians who want to love and support the people of Israel, a theology that doesn’t favor one people group over another but instead promotes peace and reconciliation for both Jews and Palestinians.”
Middle Eastern Perceptions of Western Christians
Issue of “Balance” When Sharing the Palestinian Narrative
Gary Burge on the Biblical View of Justice & the Middle East
The title for our film, “With God on Our Side” was inspired by the verse:
…while Joshua was there near Jericho: He looked up and saw right in front of him a man standing, holding his drawn sword. Joshua stepped up to him and said, “Whose side are you on—ours or our enemies’?” He said, “Neither. I’m commander of God’s army. Joshua 5:13-14a (The Message)
We believe this verse is still true today, that God does not take sides with certain people groups, nations or agendas. Rather He is for all people. Throughout history, those who have claimed God was on their side have used it to justify atrocities done in the name of Jesus. We believe once again certain Christians are approaching the people in the Middle East claiming God is on their side in a way that disregards human rights and gives unilateral support to a secular State, elevates one people group over another while using the Bible as justification. We believe there is a better way, a way of justice, peace and love for Jews and Palestinians. One that is inclusive, not exclusive. That is the heart of God.
Amnesty International Report on Water in Palestine from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.
Israeli settlers enjoy lush lawns and swimming pools while Palestinians reduced to a trickle of water
In a new report published today (27 October) Amnesty International has accused Israel of denying Palestinians the right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over shared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies.
In this Premier Radio programme with John Pantry, Geoffrey Smith of Christian Friends of Israel and I debate the merits of the Amnesty International Report.
Amnesty’s 112-page report – Troubled Waters: Palestinians denied fair access to water – shows how Israel uses over 80% of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20%. The Mountain Aquifer is the only source of water for Palestinians in the West Bank, but only one of several for Israel, which also takes all the water available from the Jordan River.
On average, Palestinian daily water consumption barely reaches 70 litres per person a day, while Israeli daily consumption is more than 300 litres per day – four times as much. In some rural communities Palestinians survive on barely 20 litres per day, the minimum amount recommended by aid organisations for domestic use in emergency situations.
Some 180,000-200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities have no access to running water and the Israeli army often prevents them from even collecting rainwater. In contrast, Israeli settlers, who live in the West Bank in violation of international law, have intensive-irrigation farms, lush gardens and swimming pools. Numbering about 450,000, the settlers use as much or more water than the entire Palestinian population of some 2.3 million.
Amnesty International Israel and the OPT researcher Donatella Rovera said
“Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies. In Gaza the Israeli blockade has made an already dire situation worse.
“Over more than 40 years of occupation, restrictions imposed by Israel on the Palestinians’ access to water have prevented the development of water infrastructure and facilities in the OPT, consequently denying hundreds of thousand of Palestinians the right to live a normal life, to have adequate food, housing, or health, and to economic development.
“Water is a basic need and a right, but for many Palestinians obtaining even poor-quality subsistence-level quantities of water has become a luxury that they can barely afford.
“Israel must end its discriminatory policies, immediately lift all the restrictions it imposes on Palestinians’ access to water, and take responsibility for addressing the problems it created by allowing Palestinians a fair share of the shared water resources.”
As Amnesty’s report makes clear, in the Gaza Strip 90-95% of the water from its only water resource – the Coastal Aquifer – is contaminated and unfit for human consumption. Yet, Israel does not allow the transfer of water from the Mountain Aquifer in the West Bank to Gaza.
Meanwhile, stringent restrictions imposed in recent years by Israel on the entry into Gaza of material and equipment necessary for the development and repair of infrastructure, have caused further deterioration of the water and sanitation situation in Gaza, which has now reached crisis point.
To cope with water shortages and lack of network supplies many Palestinians have to purchase water – of often dubious quality – from mobile water tankers at a much higher price. Others resort to water-saving measures which are detrimental to their and their families’ health and which hinder socio-economic development.
Troubled Waters explains that Israel has appropriated large areas of the water-rich Palestinian land it occupies and barred Palestinians from accessing them. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem it has also imposed a complex system of permits which the Palestinians must obtain from the Israeli army and other authorities in order to carry out water-related projects in the OPT. Applications for such permits are often rejected or subject to long delays.
Restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of people and goods in the OPT further compound the difficulties Palestinians face when trying to carry out water and sanitation projects, or even when just distributing small quantities of water. Water tankers are forced to take long detours to avoid Israeli military checkpoints and roads which are out of bounds to Palestinians, resulting in steep increases in the price of water.
In rural areas, Palestinian villagers are continuously struggling to find enough water for their basic needs, as the Israeli army often destroys their rainwater harvesting cisterns and confiscates their water tankers. In comparison, in nearby Israeli settlements, irrigation sprinklers water the fields in the midday sun, where much water is wasted as it evaporates before even reaching the ground.
In some Palestinian villages, because their access to water has been so severely restricted, farmers are unable to cultivate the land, or even to grow small amounts of food for their personal consumption or for animal fodder, and have thus been forced to reduce the size of their herds.
Read more here
Download the Amnesty Report here
See also Donald McIntyre in the Independent
Listen here
Bethlehem Bible College in Palestine
Cordially invites you to attend an International Conference
“Christ at the Checkpoint:
Theology in the Service of Peace and Justice”
March 13– 17, 2010
Location: The Campus of Bethlehem Bible College
And the Intercontinental Hotel, Bethlehem
Equipping the Evangelical Church to:
- · Read scripture in the service of the Gospel in the Palestinian context
- · Discus theology in an Evangelical context
- · Encounter theologically the realities “on the ground” in the Holy Land
Lectures…..Workshops…..Panel…..Discussion Groups
On site visits to refugee camps, villages, settlements
Sunday worship with local congregations
Cultural events
Who are God’s Chosen People? The Bible, Israel and the Church from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.
This seminar was delivered at the University of Dundee Chaplaincy on Saturday 17th October 2009.
It is not an understatement to say that what is at stake is our understanding of the gospel, the centrality of the cross, the role of the church, and the nature of our missionary mandate, not least, to the beloved Jewish people. If we don’t see Jesus at the heart of the Hebrew scriptures, and the continuity between his Old Testament and New Testament saints in the one inclusive Church, we’re not reading them correctly.
The key question is this “Was the coming of Jesus and the birth of the Church the fulfilment or the postponement of the promises God made to Abraham?”
Christian Zionists see the promises of identity, land and destiny as part of an ongoing covenant God has with the Jewish people. In this book I unpack this question and show that Christian Zionism is a recent manifestation of a heresy refuted by the New Testament.
For an outline of this seminar see http://www.cc-vw.org/articles/zcs2.pdf
The End Times: A Christian Perspective from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.
A paper delivered at the University of Dundee on Thursday 15th October 2009, entitled ‘A Christian Perspective on the End Times’
Professor Saeed Bahmanpour, Principal of the Islamic College, London, also delivered a paper on the ‘End Times’ from a Muslim perspective. Afterwards we had a lively debate on the similarities and differences between the two perspectives.
The presentation was based on a chapter from my book Zion’s Christian Soldiers stephensizer.com/books/zions-christian-soldiers/
You can view some photos here
Last night I spoke at the Albury History Society. The subject was “Edward Irving, the Albury Circle and the Origins of the Middle East Conflict”. I explained how the Arab-Israeli conflict could be traced right back to the eccentric views of Edward Irving and his colleagues, who met in the home of Henry Drummond in Albury, Surrey, during Advent 1826. Irving was largely responsible for popularising the notion that God had a separate purpose for the Jewish people apart from the Church and restored to Palestine. John Darby took these ideas further and fashioned them into what became known as Dispensationalism which is now the domnant theological framework of Evangelicals, Fundamentalists and Pentecostals in the USA. It is this constiuency that is underwriting financial and political support for the agenda of the Zionist Lobby, and hence a major obstacle to peace in the Middle East.
The full text is available here. Listen to the presentation here
The feedback was encouraging. I received this letter from the chairman following the presentation:
“I have never experienced such a positive reaction to a guest speaker as came about last night, and has continued to this morning. The audience was both numerous and responsive, and as one member put it to me “it is going to be a hard act to follow”. I think that we shall be talking about Christian Zionism for some time, having long harboured suspicions of chicanery in high political circles, and now being presented with conclusive evidence of it. We could also have brought in the French pope who set off the chain of crusades for his own political preservation.
I express my gratitude to you on behalf of the Albury History Society and thank you for a superb presentation, technically faultless, and intellectually challenging. With kindest regards…”
Gary Burge has written not one but two short and very readable books for Zondervan – The Bible and the Land and Jesus, The Middle Eastern Storyteller. Both are about 110 pages long, easy to read and bursting with glorious photos and simple maps.
Jesus, the Middle Eastern Storyteller
In Jesus, the Middle Eastern Storyteller, the parables of Jesus come alive as never before when Gary uncovers the culture that gives them their deepest meaning. His expert, illustrated guide shows in everyday terms how the customs, literature and values of the ancient world can inform and grow your faith in today’s digital age.
Storytellers made history, and Jesus was the greatest of them all. But how can modern readers know what he actually meant in such iconic parables as the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan? Jesus, the Middle Eastern Storyteller combines the readability of a popular novel and the authority of scholarship to uncover the hidden meaning of references too often misinterpreted or left shrouded in mystery. The first volume in the Ancient Context, Ancient Faith series drives to the heart of readers’ desire to know the culture
behind the Scriptures. Colorful maps, photos, and illustrations enhance the context of the times that shaped Jesus’ vivid communication of core truths. This expert guide is an invaluable resource for study groups, teachers, leaders, and inquiring Christians who want to dig deeper and enrich their spiritual life.
The Bible and the Land
In The Bible and the Land Gary offers a rare exploration into the world of the Bible and how its land, culture, and traditions contribute to a unique understanding of a life with God. Insights into numerous biblical passages reveal how cultural assumptions lie behind countless biblical stories.
As the early church moved away from the original cultural setting of the Bible and found its home in the west, Christians lost touch with the ancient world of the Bible. Cultural habits, the particulars of landscape, even the biblical languages soon were unknown. And the cost was enormous: Christians began reading the Bible as foreigners and missing the original images and ideas that shaped a biblical worldview.
This new book by New Testament scholar Gary Burge launches a multivolume series that explores how the culture of the biblical world is presupposed in story after story of the Bible. Using cultural anthropology, ancient literary sources, and a selective use of modern Middle Eastern culture, Burge reopens the ancient biblical story and urges us to look at them through new lenses. Here he explores primary motifs from the biblical landscape—geography, water, rock, bread, etc.—and applies them to vital stories from the Bible.
Listen in on a Q & A with Gary over these two new books:
Q: Does culture always affect one’s understanding of spiritual life?
A: Every community of Christians throughout history has framed its understanding of spiritual life within the context of its own culture. Byzantine Christians living in the fifth century and Puritan Christians living over a thousand years later used the world in which they lived to work out the principles of Christian faith, life, and identity. The reflex to build house churches, monastic communities, medieval cathedrals, steeple-graced and village-centered churches, or auditoriums with theater seating will always spring from the dominant cultural forces around us.
If it is true that every culture provides a framework in which the spiritual life is understood, the same must be said about the ancient world. The setting of Jesus and Paul in the Roman Empire was likewise shaped by cultural forces quite different from our own. If we fail to understand these cultural forces, we will fail to understand many of the things Jesus and Paul taught.
Q: If we fail to consider cultural context, are we in danger of misinterpreting scripture?
A: We must be cautious interpreters of the Bible. We must be careful lest we presuppose that our cultural instincts are the same as those represented in the Bible. We must be culturally aware of our own place in time-and we must work to comprehend the cultural context of the Scriptures that we wish to understand. Too often interpreters have lacked cultural awareness when reading the Scriptures. We have failed to recognize the gulf that exists between who we are today and the context of the Bible. We have forgotten that we read the Bible as foreigners, as visitors who have traveled not only to a new geography but a new century. We are literary tourists who are deeply in need of a guide.
Q: Why did you write the Ancient Context, Ancient Faith series?
A: The goal of this series is to be a guide-to explore themes from the biblical world which are often misunderstood. In what sense, for instance, did the physical geography of Israel shape its people’s sense of spirituality? How did the story-telling of Jesus presuppose cultural themes now lost to us? What celebrations did Jesus know intimately (such as a child’s birth, a wedding, or a burial)? What agricultural or religious festivals did he attend? How did he use common images of labor or village life or social hierarchy when he taught? Did he use humor or allude to politics? In many cases-just as in our world-the more delicate matters are handled indirectly, and it takes expert guidance to revisit their correct meaning.
In a word, this series employs cultural anthropology, archaeology, and contextual backgrounds to open up new vistas for the Christian reader. I wrote the first two volumes of the Ancient Context, Ancient Faith series to connect modern readers with ancient life. If the average reader suddenly sees a story or an idea in a new way, if a familiar passage is suddenly opened for new meaning and application, this effort has succeeded.
Q: Do I really need to understand ancient Middle Eastern culture in order to understand the Bible?
The stories we read in the Bible sometimes presuppose themes that are completely obscure to us (e.g. the scarcity of water; see next question). Moreover, when we read the Bible, we may misrepresent its message because we simply do not understand the cultural instincts of the first century. We live two thousand years distant; we live in the West and the ancient Middle East is not native territory for us.
Q: How does water highlight the simple yet profound differences between ancient Middle Eastern life and ours today?
A: Those of us who live in North America or Europe think little about water. Rainfall averages are generally ample; if anything, we may experience flooding. This is the opposite of life in the Holy Land. The people of the Middle East think about water constantly: it is the “oil” of the Holy Land. And if you control it, you have power. Glimpses of this reality are hidden behind many political struggles. When the rains failed to come during biblical times, the springs dried up and the wells went dry, drought and famine became a reality.
Judaism also distinguished between “living” water (which came from the hand of God via rain, a spring, a river) and common water (held in a cistern or “lifted” by human hand). Many Jewish purification rituals had to take place in such living water; living water had the power to cleanse and purify. So when Jesus offers “living water” to the Samaritan woman at the well, he is offering an inner life-giving spring for cleansing. This significance would not have been lost on a woman who had probably been barred from her community’s ritual baths of purification.
Q: How is an understanding of the Holy Land’s geography, topography, and agriculture vital to interpretation of scripture?
A: The Holy Land itself gives us a window into God’s purposes for life. The Promised Land is not an easy land-it is not paradise, neither today nor in biblical times. The land has a spiritual architecture that incorporates elements we desire (good cities with ample rainfall and rich soil) and things we would prefer to avoid (wilderness). But this is life. And when God brought his people to this land, he built into it those elements that would provide a framework for his people to understand life with him.
The land is itself the cultural stage-setting of the Bible. Biblical stories assume we know something about altars, sheepfolds, cistern water, and the significance if the wind blows west out of the desert. To project European or American notions of farming (seed distribution) or fishing (cast and trammel nets) or travel (at night or day) onto the Bible is to immediately distance oneself from what the Bible may have intended to say.
Q: How did Jesus’ storytelling fit the context of his culture?
A: Jesus lived in a storytelling world and he was well known for his ability as a storyteller. Jesus himself was theatrical, and this was feature of his teaching strategy. Rather than giving a speech about a corrupt temple, he ransacked it. His culture valued the clever image, the crisp story. Jesus himself was clever and in this brilliance, people intuited his sophistication. However, Jesus’ best figurative stories contain a surprise. They are like a box that contains a spring-and when it is opened, the unexpected happens. They are like a trap that lures you into its world and then closes on you.
Q: Do we need to become more like the ancient world in order to live biblically?
A: No, we do not need to imitate the biblical world in order to live a more biblical life. This was a culture that had its own preferences for dress, speech, diet, music, intellectual thought, religious expression, and personal identity. And its cultural values were no more significant than are our own. Modesty in antiquity was expressed in a way we may not understand. The arrangement of marriage partners is foreign to our world of personal dating. Even how one prays (seated or standing, arms upraised or folded, aloud or silent) has norms dictated by culture. There is no ideal cultural standard; we must each learn how to live biblically within the context of our own culture.
Gary M. Burge (PhD, King’s College, Aberdeen University) is a professor of New Testament in the Department of Biblical & Theological Studies at Wheaton College and Graduate School.
I am delighted to endorse a new film being launched this autumn produced by Porter Speakman Jr and Rooftop Productions.
“With God On Our Side takes a look at the theology of Christian Zionism, which teaches that because the Jews are God’s chosen people, they have a divine right to the land of Israel. Aspects of this belief system lead some Christians in the West to give uncritical support to Israeli government policies, even those that privilege Jews at the expense of Palestinians, leading to great suffering among Muslim and Christian Palestinians alike and threatening Israel’s security as a whole.
This film demonstrates that there is a biblical alternative for Christians who want to love and support the people of Israel, a theology that doesn’t favor one people group over another but instead promotes peace and reconciliation for both Jews and Palestinians.”
Launch: Autumn 2009. More news soon.
A responsive reading with Scripture and song
Reading from Psalm 85
Almighty and eternal God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we glorify and praise you. You are our only refuge in this troubled world.
We glorify and praise you, our God.
Merciful God, in the birth of your Son Jesus Christ in Bethlehem you became one of us, sharing and understanding our humanity, our suffering and problems.
We glorify and praise you, our God.
We thank you that you took refuge to Egypt, identifying yourself with all who are refugees and victims of political power.
We thank you, our God.
We thank you that you grew up in Nazareth and ministered to the people in Galilee, and spread your kingdom in a new way.
We thank you, our God.
We thank you that you were crucified in Jerusalem, identifying yourself with every person who suffers and lives under occupation and injustice. On the cross you carried the sin and the suffering of all human beings and reconciled us with you and with our fellow human beings.
We thank you, our God.
Reading from Isaiah 40:28-31
Our Heavenly Father, we come before you with all the troubles and pains experienced by your people in the Middle East.
Lord, have mercy on us.
We pray for all the victims of injustice and violence in the present situation. We pray also for those who are responsible for injustices and all forms of violence.
Lord, have mercy on us.
We pray for laborers who cannot enter to their places of work. We pray for youth who are losing their hope for the future.
Lord, have mercy on us.
We pray for mothers who are fed up with bloodshed, killing, and the use of arms. We pray for the bereaved families, who lost their dear ones. We pray for the quick recovery of the injured. We especially pray for those who live with permanent disability.
Lord, have mercy on us.
We lift up to you the names of children whose lives were cut short by violence: Ahmed Ismail Khatib, Yasser ‘Adnan al-Ashqar, Noor Faris Njem, Odai Tantawi and the hundreds of other Palestinian and Israeli children who remain unnamed.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Jesus, our Savior, our eyes look to you, our only help in these troubled times.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We pray, that you open the eyes of the world, and of Israelis and Palestinians, for justice and reconciliation. Help us all to see that the security and freedom of the one people is depending on the security and freedom of the other.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We pray for the politicians, that they may realize that the security and peace we all long for will not come by the use of arms and force, but by having justice done so that the two peoples can reconcile and together work out an equitable coexistence for the future.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We pray for leaders around the world who have power to work for peace: Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas, Barak Obama, Gordon Brown, leaders of the European Union, and leaders of other Arab countries.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Lord Jesus, you have called us to be your followers. Give us your love for our fellow human beings. Free us, and our children, from hatred, bitterness, and the denying of the rights of others; and fill us with love, truth, and justice, so that we can recognize and respect the dignity and the rights of one another.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Lord Jesus, you have shown us that forgiveness is not forgetting one’s rights but asserting them. We know that forgiving is to see Christ in our enemies, and to love them as our neighbors. Help the Palestinians to see you in the Israelis, and help the Israelis to see you in the Palestinians. Help all of us to see you in one another. Lead us all to affirm and respect that our humanity is a gift from you, as we are all created in your image, and give us courage to mutually recognize one another’s human, religious, civil, and political rights.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Reading from Ephesians 2:11-22
Holy Spirit, giver of life and new beginnings, help us to faithfully respond to God’s call to be ministers of reconciliation.
Come, Holy Spirit, renew us all.
Help your people everywhere find ways of encouraging people to open their hearts and confess their part in the past injustices and find ways to build a just and secure future for our children. Give us wisdom and courage in this difficult task. When the pressures of the situation make us despair, come with your Holy Spirit and renew our strength and hope.
Come, Holy Spirit, renew us all.
Sustain with your power those who in the midst of all difficulties are quietly building the culture of reconciliation, justice, and peace. They may not be many right now, but we remember that the work for God’s kingdom among us started with only a handful of faithful and committed people.
Come, Holy Spirit, renew us all.
We pray for those who people and organizations in the Holy Land who are committed to building peace: Naim Ateek, Sabeel, Mitri Raheb, International Center of Bethlehem, Michael McGarry, Rabbi Ron Kronish, Elias Jabbour, Bishop Suheil Dawani, Arik Ascherman, Rabbis for Human Rights, Bishop Munib Younan, Douglas Dicks, Catholic Relief Services, Givat Haviva, Joudeh Majaj, Suhaila Tarazi, B’tselem, and others whose steps toward peace are overlooked.
Come, Holy Spirit, renew us all.
Come, Healing Spirit, and change us and open ways for us to change others. Remove all injustice and fill our land with just peace. Remove all hatred and fill us all with true love.
Come, Holy Spirit, renew us all.
Remove all insecurity and bring in real security. Remove all occupation and bring in freedom for all.
Come, Holy Spirit, renew us all.
Merciful God, accept our prayer and yearning. You are the only strength we have. No one can take the power of prayer away from us. In the name of Jesus – our Liberator and Redeemer – we pray.
Amen
Written by Munib A. Younan, the Lutheran Bishop in Jerusalem. Also used at the Triennial Clergy Conference of Guildford Diocese, May 2009.
