Letter from Palestine, 12. The World YWCA / YMCA Week of Prayer and World Fellowship
20th November 2004
Dear friends!
Those of you who are members of YWCA or YMCA certainly know what our Week of prayer is. Home in Buskerud region in Norway I am used to observing the week with Ten Sing Festival or night sports cup as it was a few years, and sometimes a party. My thoughts have also this weekend been at Ringerike, my home place, where my old local youth group, RTS, is the organizer of the festival. Here in Jerusalem YWCA of Palestine and East Jerusalem YMCA has organized a common prayer meeting today. The meeting went surprisingly well!
I have been in the planning committee, and I have to admit that I have gained new knowledge of the challenges of working in committees with different cultures and views represented. The committee consisted mostly of Palestinians, with exotic members from South Africa and Norway. It was interesting to see how much Solomuzi from South Africa and I agreed, I did not know that our cultures were so alike. He is a Lutheran pastor, and was so the one with best theological training. He has also experienced apartheid and knows something about being an oppressed people. He has worked in East Jerusalem YMCA’s advocacy desk for some months and knows the situation of the Palestinians.
The “conflict” appeared already when we had the first planning meeting. The Palestinians denied reading from the Old Testament because they said it was not relevant for them. I was a bit shocked and wondered what sort of Gnostic sect I had come to. I excused them with the fact that they were lay people, but I wished they could see the possibilities in the liberating texts of the Old Testament, also for Palestinians. I am happy I have seen others using the Old Testament in a constructive way, but it might be only for those with higher theological education. May be one of my challenges the next weeks is to encourage any Christian Palestinian to “take back the Bible” and utilize the resource it can be.
In spite of disagreements, messy meetings, misunderstanding, superfluous discussions, people who did not come and now and then intense arguments in the planning, it turned out to be a good meeting. Five minutes before the time, I wondered if we would manage to be enough to occupy one third of the chairs. But when we in the Arabic way started a quarter “too late” (according to my understanding of time), few of the 60 chairs were free. We had a group of South African ecumenical accompaniers (from EAPPI) to sing a song, and some young Palestinians to perform songs and piano music. We also had readings, prayer, a homily and lighting candles, with different languages represented. It was a good atmosphere, and the committee members gave each other thanks for good cooperation…
I have also used the Week of Prayer to experience new churches and sites for prayer. Because it was Eid and holiday in the beginning of the week, I was in Jerusalem and had time to experience more of the city. I found out that I missed quite some “compulsory” places, and started with visiting the Lutheran Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. It is a big and nice church, with a high tower with a good view, but I was the only one visiting.
Yesterday I walked Via Dolorosa with the Fransiscans. They walk from 1st to 14th station every Friday afternoon, but as I have not been in Jerusalem so many Fridays now, I have not had the chance to attend before this week. There were also quite a few tourists and pilgrims who attended in spite of the weather. The winter has suddenly come, with rain and cold wind. In a way it was more right to go this way of suffering in rain than in sun, so I was actually satisfied with the weather. I also went to the Garden Tomb, and found out that I might have become a bit high church when I feel as comfortable in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with all the Orthodox Icons and lamps as in the “natural garden” where many evangelical groups prefer to have their services.
Today when I was walking northwest of the Old City, I found a church where there was music coming from the ground floor. I went in and was told that the Korean congregation was going to have their service. I was very welcome to attend; they had fancy headsets with interpretation to English. It was a typical evangelical congregation, where everybody was in Israel, not in Palestine (I accepted that as it was west of the green line), and the speech was long and quite centred on the salvation of the individual. So then I have also experienced that field of the Christianity of Jerusalem.
At last I want to mention a Palestinian from Austria (descendant of refugees from 1948) who works in Jerusalem and lives at YWCA. I have often seen him, but not said much more than hallo. Today he came when I had my dinner, and I got a new version of future possibilities compared to the talk I had last week. He was very grateful for having the chance to be here, meeting his own people, speaking the same dialect as he did. He also looks forward to see the house in Jaffa from where his family once fled. But when I asked when we will see peace, he had to disappoint me. He did not believe in any peace. He did not believe in a Palestinian state, and he did not believe in a one state solution. How could it be possible? he just asked, and I had to nod and say that I understood, may be especially because of the wall and what it symbolises. He then told me about a website he works with, which I have heard about, but not visited before. After a short visit, I can recommend it for those of you who want something rational to read, there are many articles and much information (I have forgotten to give you good websites the last weeks): http://www.miftah.org
Week of Prayer greetings from Hanne.
Dear friends!
Those of you who are members of YWCA or YMCA certainly know what our Week of prayer is. Home in Buskerud region in Norway I am used to observing the week with Ten Sing Festival or night sports cup as it was a few years, and sometimes a party. My thoughts have also this weekend been at Ringerike, my home place, where my old local youth group, RTS, is the organizer of the festival. Here in Jerusalem YWCA of Palestine and East Jerusalem YMCA has organized a common prayer meeting today. The meeting went surprisingly well!
I have been in the planning committee, and I have to admit that I have gained new knowledge of the challenges of working in committees with different cultures and views represented. The committee consisted mostly of Palestinians, with exotic members from South Africa and Norway. It was interesting to see how much Solomuzi from South Africa and I agreed, I did not know that our cultures were so alike. He is a Lutheran pastor, and was so the one with best theological training. He has also experienced apartheid and knows something about being an oppressed people. He has worked in East Jerusalem YMCA’s advocacy desk for some months and knows the situation of the Palestinians.
The “conflict” appeared already when we had the first planning meeting. The Palestinians denied reading from the Old Testament because they said it was not relevant for them. I was a bit shocked and wondered what sort of Gnostic sect I had come to. I excused them with the fact that they were lay people, but I wished they could see the possibilities in the liberating texts of the Old Testament, also for Palestinians. I am happy I have seen others using the Old Testament in a constructive way, but it might be only for those with higher theological education. May be one of my challenges the next weeks is to encourage any Christian Palestinian to “take back the Bible” and utilize the resource it can be.
In spite of disagreements, messy meetings, misunderstanding, superfluous discussions, people who did not come and now and then intense arguments in the planning, it turned out to be a good meeting. Five minutes before the time, I wondered if we would manage to be enough to occupy one third of the chairs. But when we in the Arabic way started a quarter “too late” (according to my understanding of time), few of the 60 chairs were free. We had a group of South African ecumenical accompaniers (from EAPPI) to sing a song, and some young Palestinians to perform songs and piano music. We also had readings, prayer, a homily and lighting candles, with different languages represented. It was a good atmosphere, and the committee members gave each other thanks for good cooperation…
I have also used the Week of Prayer to experience new churches and sites for prayer. Because it was Eid and holiday in the beginning of the week, I was in Jerusalem and had time to experience more of the city. I found out that I missed quite some “compulsory” places, and started with visiting the Lutheran Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. It is a big and nice church, with a high tower with a good view, but I was the only one visiting.
Yesterday I walked Via Dolorosa with the Fransiscans. They walk from 1st to 14th station every Friday afternoon, but as I have not been in Jerusalem so many Fridays now, I have not had the chance to attend before this week. There were also quite a few tourists and pilgrims who attended in spite of the weather. The winter has suddenly come, with rain and cold wind. In a way it was more right to go this way of suffering in rain than in sun, so I was actually satisfied with the weather. I also went to the Garden Tomb, and found out that I might have become a bit high church when I feel as comfortable in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with all the Orthodox Icons and lamps as in the “natural garden” where many evangelical groups prefer to have their services.
Today when I was walking northwest of the Old City, I found a church where there was music coming from the ground floor. I went in and was told that the Korean congregation was going to have their service. I was very welcome to attend; they had fancy headsets with interpretation to English. It was a typical evangelical congregation, where everybody was in Israel, not in Palestine (I accepted that as it was west of the green line), and the speech was long and quite centred on the salvation of the individual. So then I have also experienced that field of the Christianity of Jerusalem.
At last I want to mention a Palestinian from Austria (descendant of refugees from 1948) who works in Jerusalem and lives at YWCA. I have often seen him, but not said much more than hallo. Today he came when I had my dinner, and I got a new version of future possibilities compared to the talk I had last week. He was very grateful for having the chance to be here, meeting his own people, speaking the same dialect as he did. He also looks forward to see the house in Jaffa from where his family once fled. But when I asked when we will see peace, he had to disappoint me. He did not believe in any peace. He did not believe in a Palestinian state, and he did not believe in a one state solution. How could it be possible? he just asked, and I had to nod and say that I understood, may be especially because of the wall and what it symbolises. He then told me about a website he works with, which I have heard about, but not visited before. After a short visit, I can recommend it for those of you who want something rational to read, there are many articles and much information (I have forgotten to give you good websites the last weeks): http://www.miftah.org
Week of Prayer greetings from Hanne.
posted by Hanne at 2:44 PM
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