wfn.org | Holy Land Christians Receive World Council Message

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Contact:
Fr. Raed Awad Abussahlin
The Latin (Catholic) Patriarchate of Jerusalem
(972-2) 628-2323
Email: latinpat@actcom.co.il
Website: http://members.nbci.com/nonviolence/Raed/Olive/Branches.html

or contact:
Kristine Greenaway
Director of WCC Communications
Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: (41-22) 791.6168
Fax: (41-22) 798.1346
Email: kg@wcc-coe.org

JERUSALEM, December 12, 2000--The leaders of Christian communities in the 
Holy Land today received a message from the World Council of Churches in 
Geneva.  Signed by the Council's General Secretary, Konrad Raiser, and 
written with "a heavy heart," the message contains assurances of prayerful 
support and notes the tragic loss of Palestinian and Israeli life.   The full 
text follows:

World Council of Churches
General Secretariat-Geneva

To Their Beatitudes the Patriarchs and Heads of Christian Communities in 
Jerusalem

Geneva, 12 December 2000

Your Beatitudes, Graces and Eminences,

The Office of the World Council of Churches, meeting on the eve of the Advent 
Season, have once again turned their thoughts to you and all the people of 
Palestine.  They have asked that I write you to assure you of their and the 
World Council of Churches' constant prayers. 

I do so with a heavy heart, deeply conscious of your pain and suffering in 
these days when you mourn the deaths of so many of your children and friends; 
when Palestinians suffer the destruction of many of their homes and pass once 
again through the valley of the shadow of violence and death. Nor can we 
ignore the victims on the Israeli side of the continuing conflict.

In my Christmas message I have pointed out that the World Council of Churches 
will soon launch the Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches seeking 
reconciliation and peace.

I also recalled the countries-old unwritten rule that at Christmas a 
cease-fire be observed in all situations of military conflict.  Here I had 
particularly in mind our sisters and brothers caught up in the new spiral of 
violence in Israel and Palestine.

Desirable as it would be, a cease-fire is clearly not enough.  Our shared 
goal must be true peace, a peace built on the foundations of justice.  
Together with you, therefore, we long for justice for Palestinian people.  
Just peace and an end to the vicious cycle of violence is more that an urgent 
political necessity.  It confronts us with the call to repentance and a 
change of heart, the readiness to recognize the God-given dignity and the 
rights of the other.  It was surely this transformation that the Prophet had 
in mind when he foretold the coming of the Prince of Peace.

In these days Christians around the world prepare to celebrate the birth of 
the Christ child, confessing anew our faith in God who humbled himself and 
took on human flesh in order that we might be reconciled to God and with one 
another.  Many will draw hope once again from the song of the Virgin Mary, 
praising God who "has regarded the lowly estate of his handmaiden" and saying

"His mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the 
imagination of their hearts. 
He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty 
away."

For two millennia Christians have turned at this time of year to the Holy 
Place of the manger, Bethlehem, to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  Many have 
longed once to make the pilgrimage to the manger, there to kneel down before 
the birthplace of the Christ child.  This year especially, millions 
anticipated making this journey, and you have gone to great lengths to 
prepare virtually impossible such pilgrimages and those of Christians in 
Palestine itself.

Nevertheless, the bonds of faith and love cannot be broken by violence and 
war.  You are not alone in this tragic time.  We and other Christians around 
the world will be making a pilgrimage of the heart to the manger, surrounding 
and sustaining you now and always in prayer.

May the hope that abounds in this time of preparations for the Holy Feast of 
Christmas give birth to a new day of peace and joy and prosperity for you and 
all who live in the land which has been forever blessed by the coming of 
Christ.

Yours ever in Emmanuel,
Konrad Raiser,
General Secretary

-End-