Planning Begins for Bethlehem Observance of Christ's 2,000th Birthday

By the Rev. L. Humphrey Walz

There have been many discussions in recent years of how Christians might most significantly observe the 2,000th birthday of Jesus Christ. The idea of a global bi-millennial Christmas celebration focused on Bethlehem, His birthplace, seems to be gathering momentum.

At his home last summer, Bethlehem's Christian mayor, Elias Freij, responded sadly to such a suggestion from his long-time American family friend, Bonnie Jones Gehweiler. The economic constraints on Christians in Bethlehem and throughout the West Bank, he told her, would make it difficult for them to provide the necessary cooperation or appropriate extra festivities in the foreseeable future.

Upon returning home to North Carolina, Ms. Gehweiler, who is the coordinator of Volunteers in Mission (VIM) for the United Methodist Southeastern Jurisdiction (SEJ), reported this incident to the Rev. Dr. Joe Hale, who promptly took it up with the World Methodist Council, of which he is president. It endorsed the general idea and is encouraging initiatives for pursuing it. "There are conversations going on at this time with several world Christian communities about celebrating the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus' birth all together," Dr. Hale told the Washington Report. "The thought is to celebrate together at some time near Christmas Eve, 1999, and continue through the year 2000. The celebrations hopefully would be quite simple, in the spirit of the night of the birth."

Not surprisingly, an early, perhaps spearhead, response came from the VIM/SEJ, whose directors unanimously supported the concept at their October board meeting. As a first step, to be further developed in consultation with other Christian bodies, they authorized creation of a "Bethlehem 2000 Initiative." Its purpose is to pave the way by fostering stronger first-hand relations and cooperation with the Palestinian Christians—whom they consider an "endangered species."

VIM/SEJ has had considerable experience in work-study-travel programs along lines long familiar in other denominations as well. These enable churches to send small volunteer teams for short-term projects in or for an assigned Christian institution where local Christians will work along with them. In 1994 alone VIM/SEJ arranged for more than 9,000 members to participate in such teams. Paying their own way and supplying the materials for repairing, refurbishing, or building anew, American participants invariably return home with a broadened, deepened empathy for a whole new segment of humanity. Their motto is "Christian Love in Action." The hope of the Bethlehem 2000 Initiative is to bring this love to Palestinians in a way that will enable them to stay in their homes into the Third Christian Millennium.

"Christian Love in Action"

In recent years Ms. Gehweiler has personally led work on projects in the Holy Land: at the Four Homes of Mercy in Bethany, at a kindergarten in nearby Beit Jala, in Beit Sahour—traditional site of the angelic call for "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will" (Luke 2:14). In each case, she reports, the Palestinian residents were delighted to have the Americans work with and for them. The visiting teams, in turn, "were overwhelmed with the hospitality and graciousness of the Palestinians," and amazed at their bold, nonviolent resistance to, among other phenomena, taxation without representation.

To explore and work out details for much more such teamwork between now and 2000, the VIM/SEJ asked Dr. Hale and Ms. Gehweiler to take an unrestricted number of volunteers with them to combine a Lenten pilgrimage to holy sites with lively activities and discussions with Palestinian fellow-Christians. They agreed and set March 6-17 as the time frame. Some 150 "pilgrim-volunteers" signed up.

Jerusalem Latin (Roman Catholic) Patriarch Michael Sabbah accepted the invitation to give an informal official welcoming address. Father Elias Chacour of Ibillin in Galilee, recipient of the 1994 World Methodist Peace Award (whose books have been AET Book Club perennials) set up the program for their itinerary and local contacts in Galilee. Other arrangements, including hospitality in Palestinian homes and visitation of possible work sites, were developed with the help of Rev. Bob and Peggy Hammun, United Methodist Liaison in Jerusalem (P.O.B. 1248, Zip 91190). We hope to report some of their insights and findings which, we expect, will stimulate many more such ventures and give impetus to more vital and vigorous celebrations of Christmas 2000. Meanwhile Ms. Gehweiler (421 Ridge Road, Waynesville, NC 28786) will gladly send Washington Reportreaders the names and details of projects they found especially worthwhile, along with a booklet on the whole idea of the Bethlehem Initiative.

Memorial Service Honors Peacemaking Couple Killed in Jordan Crash

McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago held a memorial service Jan. 22 for its Old Testament professor, the Rev. Dr. Robert G. Boling, 64, and his wife, the former Jean Gade, 62. They died in a traffic accident on the busy Ras en Naqb- Aqaba highway just after finishing a complex six-month archeological assignment with the American Center of Oriental Studies in Amman, Jordan.

Colleagues, former students and members of the Chicago Presbytery who thronged the event hailed the tribute to the couple jointly written by the seminary's interim president, G. Daniel Little, and President-Elect Cynthia M. Campbell.

"Jean and Bob were peacemakers—in the Middle East, in Chicago, in daily relationships, in the integrity of lived commitment, and in a signature-humor which bestowed God's peace on us all," the joint letter recalled. The couple's first trip to the Middle East was in the summer of 1957 with the Drew-McCormick Archeological Expedition to ancient Shechem. Since then Bob Boling led many similar expeditions to the Middle East, always accompanied by his wife, whose "job," they used to say, was to keep him "organized."

He had served also as visiting professor at Pacific Theological College in Fiji and had been the annual professor at the Albright Institute of Archeological Research in Jerusalem and at the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman. He had contributed many significant articles to biblical and archeological publications and was editor of the journal Biblical Research. His commentaries on Joshua and Judges for the Anchor Bible series are hailed as making sense of, and bringing a positive contemporary message from, those battle-filled books—too often quoted as examples to follow literally in pursuing "our" ends in a nuclear age.

Both Bolings were staunch supporters of the Middle East Task Force of the Chicago Presbytery. Joan gave up her career as an educator to become a life-long supporter of Bob's work at home and abroad, living with him in Amman and Jerusalem for extended periods and accompanying him on numerous travels throughout the Mideast. In her own and other churches she taught adult education classes and organized seminars on Islam and the Arab world, demystifying "terrorism," and current events. In January 1994, she went to the Sudan as a guest of its government in an international ecumenical delegation of Christian observers during that country's civil war.

The Bolings maintained subscriptions to Middle East newspapers, as well as to professional and technical periodicals. Their final project was listing and describing archeological sites and interpreting ancient and modern human behavior in the light of archeological findings. McCormick Seminary is designing a memorial fund to support a purpose appropriate to their lives and faithful to their commitments.

Bishops Call For Prisoner Rights

In response to letters received from prisoners, including women and youths, under Israeli occupation, the Assembly of Catholic Bishops in the Holy Land has reaffirmed its conviction that "our task is to raise our voice in defense of the rights of the Palestinian prisoner, whose cause seems to have become merchandise for sale, or even forgotten, unsaleable goods in the peace process or else a hostage and means of political pressure...So, we address our appeal to the Palestinian and Israeli authorities, and to the two states who are patrons of the peace process, the United States and Russia, to the friendly European states represented by consuls here in the Holy City and to the world community at large, to make the liberation of the prisoners top priority..."

In another statement, unrelated except in spirit, the Holy Land Catholic Bishops addressed the persisting problem of reciprocal Palestinian-Israeli violence, saying "the church cannot be silent in the face of the suffering of humankind....The Assembly of Catholic Bishops in the Holy Land bids all parties to resume the search for peace in a spirit of inclusion and concern for the rights and needs of all."

The Rev. L. Humphrey Walz, D.D., retired associate executive of the Presbyterian Synod of the Northeast, is active in denominational and ecumenical peacemaking activities.