Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September 1998, pages 115-116

Christianity and the Middle East

Prominent Christian Arabs to be Featured in U.S. And Canadian Events in November

By Rev. L. Humphrey Walz

Chicago-based Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding (EMEU) has scheduled its 1998 National Convention on “Religious Freedom and the Future of Christianity in the Middle East” for Nov. 5-7 at the National Presbyterian Church, Washington, DC. It will be followed Nov. 8-10 by a similar event focusing on “Truth and Reconciliation: Voices for Peace in the Holy Land,” sponsored by the Ann Arbor-based Friends of Sabeel-North America in the Citadel Hotel and Conference Center, Ottawa, Canada, with the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa as co-sponsor.

Among the prominent speakers offered, two will appear at both events. They are: Dr. Gabriel Habib, executive general secretary from 1977 to 1994 of the Middle East Council of Churches—a recognized authority on Christianity in the Middle East who now is international consultant to the National Council of Churches (USA)—and Dr. Naim Ateek, founder of Sabeel Ecumenical Center in Jerusalem, when he was canon of the Anglican church’s St. George’s Cathedral there.

Ateek’s interview by editor James M. Wall on “The Palestinian Story” in the June 17-24 Christian Century included the cutout quotation: “Islam is not the problem. We have lived with Islam for 1,400 years. The problem is Israel.”

One of two panels in Washington will examine the questions “Who Are the Middle East Christians?” and “What Challenges Do They Face?” It will include both Habib and Ateek, along with Prof. Yvonne Haddad of Georgetown University. A second panel on “What Are the Responsibilities of Western Christians?” will be addressed by Prof. Gary Burge of Wheaton College, Rev. Lynne Faris, missions pastor of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, and Dr. Martin Bailey, president of the board of Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, CT. A plenary session on “The Arab-Christian and Islam,” will be led by Bishop Kenneth Cragg (now at Oxford University). Among his more than two dozen books are The Arab Christian and Palestine: The Prize and Price of Zion. The plenary session will be followed by discussion groups, all focusing on an “Update on the Middle East: Country Analyses,” but divided geographically into panels focusing on Iraq and Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, Palestine and Israel, Egypt and the Sudan, and the Gulf.

Another Washington panel on “Current Dynamics and Challenges Facing Middle East Christians” will include a Coptic Christian and an Iraqi Christian, with Habib and Ateek as resource persons. A second panel dealing with “Models of Responsibility” will be opened by President Joan Brown Campbell of the National Council of Churches, who is also on President Clinton’s Commission on Religious Freedom. Scheduled to serve with her on the panel are Director Nina Shea of Freedom House, who will discuss “Advocacy,” leader Steve Haas of “Prayer for the Persecuted Church” who will discuss “Prayer and Fellowship,” and Dr. Paul Marshall, author of Their Blood Cries Out, who will speak on “Challenging the Authorities.”

“Islam is not the problem. We have lived with Islam for 1,400 years. The problem is Israel.”

Bringing the conference’s whole range of thoughts and insights down to earth will be the task of a Plenary Session for exchange of insights on practical follow-ups. As with most DC conferences, local hosts will take participants on brief capital tours (planned according to interests indicated upon registration), and hosts and participants are invited together to a gala reception at the Jordanian Embassy.

Ottawa conference speakers will be Rev. Dr. Ateek and Dr. Marc Ellis, Jewish theologian formerly with the Maryknoll School of Theology in suburban New York, and now with Southern Baptist Baylor University in Waco, TX. Ellis is the author of Beyond Innocence and Redemption: Confronting the Holocaust and Israeli Power and Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation. He also is one of three authors of Beyond Occupation: American, Jewish, Christian and Palestinian Voices for Peace. The other co-authors are Catholic theologian Rosemary Radford Reuther and retired professor of international affairs John Sigler, former director of, and Middle East specialist at, the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.

Sigler’s annual survey, Conflicts Around the World (Laval), regularly includes a chapter on the Middle East. He is vice chair (Canada) of the North American Coordinating Committee of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) working with the U.N. on the Question of Palestine. The Nov. 8-10 conference is locally hosted by Friends of Sabeel, c/o Anglican Diocese, 71 Bronson Ave., Ottawa, ON KIR 6G6, Canada.

The conference will feature on Nov. 8 Ateek, Ellis and Ruether on “Truth and Reconciliation: Voices for Peace.” The next day Habib will speak to “Christian Responsibility and the Perpetuation of Injustice,” a panel will deal with “Theological Perspectives on Land, Peoplehood and Eschatology,” and an evening dialogue will be held with Ateek on “Challenges Facing Palestinian Christians.”

On Nov. 10 the tone of the conference will shift from suffering and understanding to hope and response, with sections on “Influencing the Policy Environment: Challenges and Opportunities” and “Working for Justice: What the Christian Community Can Do,” followed by Betsy Barlow, mainstay of Friends of Sabeel-North America, with a practical wrap-up on spreading the conference’s insights and conclusions.

Christians May Soon Have Full Access to Traditional Site of Jesus’ Baptism

World Council of Churches correspondent Ross Dunn reports from Jerusalem that church leaders are applauding Israeli promises to allow the site venerated as the place where Jesus was baptized to reopen. A picturesque Greek Orthodox monastery, constructed in the 19th century, stands near that spot—on the west bank of the River Jordan on the outskirts of Jericho in territory occupied by Israel during the 1967 war. Since then the area has been off-limits to most Christian visitors because it lies within an Israeli military zone, surrounded by fenced-off areas. The Israeli government allows the area to be opened only twice a year when pilgrims gather there in memory of the baptism of Jesus—in January for the Greek Orthodox and on the third Thursday in October for Roman Catholics. On those dates visitors are allowed to take river water to fill bottles, jars and buckets for baptisms on the bank of the river. Baptism by total immersion in the Jordan River, preferred by many Christians, is forbidden at the site, though it may be permitted soon.

“That prospect is good,” Rev. Ian Paten, of St. Andrew’s Scots Presbyterian Church in Jerusalem, told Dunn. “It appears to be another step toward satisfying the many people who come to the Holy Land for baptism.” He said the site of Jesus’ baptism was extremely important. “St. Mark’s Gospel begins with this event and does not touch his birth at all. For our church, baptism is symbolic of new life in Christ.” He added that the site also provided an important link with John the Baptist, who, he believes, was a member of the Essenes, a Jewish sect based at nearby Qumran.

Israel’s minister of tourism, Moshe Katzav, said recently that the site should be open before the year 2000, when millions of Christian pilgrims are expected to arrive for the celebrations marking the anniversary of Jesus’ birth.

Representatives of the main Christian World Communions are expected to participate in the celebrations on Dec. 4, 1999. Some of the churches in Jerusalem are also organizing events to mark the new millennium. The Roman Catholic Church will observe its celebration on Dec. 25, 1999, while the Lutheran service to enter the new millennium will take place on Jan. 1, 2000. Orthodox patriarchs from around the world, together with the state presidents from countries with majority Orthodox churches, are expected to visit Jerusalem Jan. 4-8, 2000, when most Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas, Bishop Younan said.

Altogether, between 5 and 10 million pilgrims are expected to visit Jerusalem in 2000, Younan noted, adding, “My concern is that these celebrations should be Christian and not hijacked by anyone else. We hope that the pilgrims will not only see the dead stones but also the living stones, the active Christians in that part of the world.” Later he said he hoped that the celebrations in Jerusalem in 2000 would have “a strong ecumenical dimension because Christians in the Middle East, including Jerusalem and Palestine, are a minority.” Christians from around the world should not only celebrate with the churches in Jerusalem as pilgrims, but should also seek to find out “the real needs of its Christian churches at this moment” and the needs of “Palestinian Christians, generally, in housing, employment and community-based education.” He also expressed concern about possible ominous developments in the region before the new millennium. “If there is any closure by Israel of the West Bank, this will threaten all celebrations of 2000,” he declared.